[quote]An Indo-Canadian woman is among the top 32 contenders for Canadian Idol beating tens of thousands of hopefuls who auditioned in 13 cities across Canada this season.
"It's huge and humbling!" said Devika Mathur, ecstatic about reaching among the top favourites.
"This is it! A success [leading to be among top 10] will be a bonus."
"Coming this far itself is going to be an awesome experience for me to remember lifelong," she said as she was packing her bag for the next Idol boot camp in a downtown Toronto hotel.
"It's been awesome training with others, the exposure, and more importantly, all the love and affection I see in my friends and family," she said, adding that she receives "tons" of emails from back home.
Mumbai-born and raised Mathur is a clinical psychologist who turned to disc jockeying. She got married and moved to Canada just over a year ago, in April 2004.
"This country is fabulous! Am I not a shining example of what Canada holds for newcomers? It's barely a year since I moved to Canada and I'm given such an opportunity," an exuberant Mathur said.
The 27-year-old has never had formal music training except for a short stint during her exchange student days more than a decade ago in Illinois at a 10th grader. "I was selected for the national choir group but I returned to India and didn't pursue music formally."
While her musical inspiration has been her mother, her husband Arvind motivated her to participate in the Idol competition. Mathur has performed in front of her friends, family functions, and for charity in the past. She currently co-hosts a radio show for the South Asian community on CMR 101.3 FM.
"I have a passion for talking and singing ... that's what I do during the show too! Talk about current affairs, community news and a little bit about Bollywood," she said pleased with her job profile. Mathur also teaches a course in Bollywood music at York University.
Mathur's singing voice is compared to that of Natalie Cole and Shania Twain while she identifies herself with Whitney Houston and Norah Jones. She is in the third group of eight who would perform live on June 28.
Her fate in the Idol competition will be determined by viewers' votes. She hopes she maintains a cool composure, sings well and gets enough votes to be among the two from the group who would stay on in the competition.
Unlike the American Idol, where votes are cast by phone as well text messaging, the Canadian Idol restricts voting to toll-free phone calls from anywhere in North America. A person may also vote as many times as he or she wants to, when the phone lines are open.
Whether she succeeds in becoming the next Canadian Idol or not, the chatty, charming young woman would certainly win several fans and friends for life.
"What [advice] I would have for people is - if you are passionate about something, you have to go for it!"[/quote]
Here's her audition video:
http://www.devikaforidol.com/media/audition1-hi.wmv
Anupamaa
Cricket
