Anuradha’s Fantastic Fusion Performance  

The contestants, judges & crew waited  in a fever of expectancy to see what sort of performance Anuradha Sriram would present on the podium. 

Amongst the Celebrity Roll who had graced the Super Star-2  stage, Hariharan & Sadhana Sargam were renowned playback singers ;they sang some of their most popular & best loved numbers. Usha Uthup, who rules the Indian Pop scene with occasional forays into film songs sang  a bit of both. 

Anuradha is an accomplished Carnatic Vocalist with over a 1000 concerts to her credit; she was trained in Hindustani Classical singing  ; her Pop album ‘Chennai  Girl’ has caught on in a big way in the South; she does playback for Hindi& Tamil and is deeply interested in folk music- hence the dilemma of the judges & participants as to what to look forward to.  

They got more than they had bargained for.  

Anuradha proceeded to give new  horizons to the phrase ‘fusion music’.   

She started off with a perfect rendering of the Malayalam classic film song ‘Kanikannum Neram’, which her mother used to sing to her as a young child.  

She then went on to  a ghazal ; stepped up to Carnatic classical ; gave the audience a taste of her Tamil super hit ‘Karruppu than enikku pudicha kalaru’ for which she invited the contestants on stage with her; and switched to pop with Michael Jackson’s unforgettable “Heal the World”, giving the audience a peep into the prodigious stockpile of talent that she was blessed with.  

Anuradha had many valuable tips to offer the  competitors : Don’t assume that you can sing & perform at the same time with ease; if you make slips, just consider it as part off the game. 

And then gave a demonstration of  how to perfectly balance singing & performance by leading the competitors in a series  of well- executed moves around the entire stage that had the ‘official’ choreographers gasping in amazement.  

Anuradha, a gold medalist for BA & MA in music with a Master’s in Ethnomusicology  from the Wesleyan University, US  is an ideal role model for the young aspirants of Super star-2; with her unbelievable repertoire of Carnatic, Hindustani, Folk, Pop, Opera, Jazz & Playback singing-

they simply couldn’t ask for anyone better, to mould themselves on.