First of all great live orchestra đ, i think they were the clear winners in todays episode & Adnan was as usual sweet & short in his comments, but somehow i feel he enjoyed his presence on II more than here. He showed more involvement there compared to SRGMP. Probably Adnan bore in his mind that ID had made fun of Adnan's singing in an earlier episode asking Joy to sing in a lemon-stuffed-mouth style to sound like Adnan's deep voice.
Now coming to performances;
1st round: Great song selection, fabulous & soulful performances from all three
Aneek: Good expression of pain, right feel and perfect singing
Amanat:Great song selection, perfect for Amanat & he did fair justice to the song.
Raja: Again one of my favourite songs and he brought out the romance in this song very effectively.
My ranking for the first round 1.Amanat, 2. Aneek, 3. Raja
2nd round:This was a real test since all the three were attempting new songs and some how reflects their futures if they decide to pursue playback singing.
Raja:Perfect song for him and he gave a mellifluous performance quite different from his mostly usual high energy ventures, he indeed has improved a lot with soft songs & low notes. HR even though gave a long boring lecture on Raja's singing, was right on target when he said that Raja's unique voice with perfect singing could do wonders for his career, which should be taken by Raja in the true spirit, and contrary to popular belief this was not Raja bashing by HR but a sincere advice from a marketing genius to a budding bundle of talent that Raja is.
Aneek: I would not call it a rank bad performance, but clearly not an enjoyable performance. I hate rap(wonder why they call it music) and Aneek should try & avoid such songs in the future which are not his strengtht. He was good in the Hare ram parts but the transition from English to Hindi was not upto the mark.
Amanat:I would appreciate him for his brave attempt in going for an untested song, but some thing was clearly missing in his rendition, it was a very strained performance rightly pointed out by his guru, but Amanat will have a lot of time to practice for such songs in the future & with proper guidance from a good MD he will certainly be a singer to look out for in the future.(He had mentioned in a chat with his fans that he recently has recovered from a bout of tonsilitis, which affected his throat & breathing, hope he gets back into form at the earliest)
Ranking for the second round: 1. Raja, 2. Aneek, 3.Amanat
Third round was the usual popular songs routine which we have been witnessing all these days, those songs which many of us might have heard a million times.
Raja: Tailor made song for him(recommended to him by joie-de-vivre through this forum). He started well, boosted by the presence of his gurus VS on the stage, but lost steam midway through the song and finally losing it. One thing i feel Raja should improve is his landing notes which are not rounded enough robbing the sheen of his performances. He is the king of high energy songs, but he clearly faltered with Rang-de-Basanti especially towards the end when his initial energy started petering out, showing evident loss of breathlessness and abrupt ending of lines.(Even last weeks Chaiyya Chaiyya had the same faults). So please buck up Raja, you are certainly the find of SRGMP.
Amanat:Back to his usual perfection self, he lifted himself with this rocking performance & showed his versatility & class. Hope he continues in the same stead.
Aneek: What a splendid comeback, he set the stage on fire with the performance of the evening. High energetic singing which made everybody to dance to his tunes, that is what we are looking in a high class singer, the ability to capture the mood of the audience and make them sway in admiration. But one thing which annoyed me was he again choose a song with a mix of hindi & english lines, fortunately he carried them well this time.
Third round:1.Aneek, 2. Amanat, 3. Raja
Overall a fairly entertaining episode, but feeling a bit let down comparing it to last week's heavenly experiences.