12 L’il Champs’ musical journey begins on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa!

They will floor you with their singing talent, the sheer spark of their personality and spunk, starting this coming weekend! The twelve most beautiful voices of young India - Each with its own individual timbre and interesting nuances that strike a different chord in the hearts of the audience. Just look at a cross section of the contestants of the current season of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs and you will be amazed by the great diversity amongst their role models, schools of music and aspirations. You have 11 year old Antara Sarkar from Kolkata who learns Rabindra Sangeet and idolizes Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosale, 13 year old Gagan Gaonkar from Udipi who sings Ghazals and Sufi and is inspired by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Amritsar boy Ridham Kalyan who learns Hindustani Classical and wants to learn from Sukhwinder Singh, Arvind Nair from Kochi who learns Carnatic music and looks at Shankar Mahadevan as his inspiration. These are just a few examples that represent the diversity of talent on the latest season of India’s biggest singing reality show. So, each child will be groomed and honed by the finest experts of the music fraternity in a very different manner so as to let them bloom to his or her fullest potential. In setting forth these 12 stellar examples on national television, the larger vision of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs is to lend a ‘Nayi Ummeed’ to countless other similarly talented children to work hard on themselves and cultivate their latent talents.

In a boys versus girls format that lends itself to a spirited atmosphere of camaraderie and fun, these L’il Champs now embark on a musical journey where they will dazzle you with their command over sur and taal week-on-week, leaving you spell-bound with renditions of songs that you would least expect children of their age to have even heard of. Lovingly called 9 Saal ki naani, the somewhat precocious Aishwarya Saha of Kolkata is a big fan of the golden oldies and retro fare while she frowns at most of the contemporary film music. Singing a challenging Asha Bhosale number for her very first performance, she is said to have impressed mahaguru Alka Yagnik. “This is a song most elders wouldn’t be able to do justice to and you’ve nailed it!” said Alka. Apart from rocking the stage with a soulful rendition of Tere Mast Mast Do Nain, Gagan Gopalkrishna Gaonkar aka ‘3G’ sang a composition of his own. Impressed with his talent, captains Shaan and Monali encouraged him to hone his composing skills as he has a long way to go.13 year old Punjab da puttar Ridham Kalyan from Amritsar brought the house down with an electrifying performance, making the judges, contestants and audience dance to his tunes. A sardar couple even came on stage, shook a leg and raved about his voice reminded him of Punjab. So, get ready for the mega-musical bonanza and see the young talents turn their dreams into reality on ‘Nissan Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L’il Champs powered by Libero Baby Care’ starting 27th December, every Saturday and Sunday at 9 pm, only on Zee TV.