Is Young Age a Concern for Budding Singers?

"Age No Bar" when it comes to spotting good talent. But is our Reality Talent Hunt Shows thinking the same?

Published: Thursday,Jul 05, 2007 12:45 PM GMT-06:00

srividya

Is Age a decisive factor in choosing New Talents??

We are in an era where we hear of ‘Child Prodigies’ and the achievements of little kids in various fields. Singing is no exception, as true talent in singing can be recognized as the kid grows… We cannot forget the ‘Prodigy’ Aditya Narayan as he matched Sur to Sur with his Proud Dad Udit Narayan at a very tender age.. So it is very right to say that ‘Talent to Sing can be tapped even when small’….

But are the Reality Shows considering this at all? In Star Voice of India, when Vipul Gupta who was just 16 years old sang, the judges felt that his voice was not mature enough and contemplated a lot, which led to a tiff between Jatin and Abhijeet.

Same will be seen yet again this week, as Abhas aged 16 tries his level best to win over the judges’ hearts.. An ardent fan of Mohd Rafi, Abhas was so scared after his performance asto how will the judges react to his age?

Another example to sight is, Sony’s Indian Idol where we saw the 16 year old Richa Aneja getting ousted last week in the Grand Galas.. Richa’s existence in Indian Idol had always been a ‘Matter of Debate’, the judges’ opinions were divided when it came to the innocent, soft and ‘Not so Mature’ voice of Richa..

The question worth pondering over is “Should the participants below 18 participate only in the Kids Talent Show? And if yes, then shouldn’t the Channel Heads raise the age bar? One wonders why Channels are adopting to double standards by welcoming a 16 year old in the show only to be dismissed at the end as “Immature Voice”.
Tell us what you think about such 'Bundle of Young Talents" who are just shown a different platform on the ground that their voice is soft and not so mature?

Author: Srividya Rajesh