The Eighteenth Level is the last & final  collection of rounds before the Grand Finale. In the elimination that took place just after the previous round, three competitors laid down their arms and  withdrew from the field leaving behind the Final Three for the showdown.

This is the toughest level of the entire contest  that really stretches the Finalists to their farthest limits.

Remix Round

Malayalam Classics

Duet With A Super Star

The  3 Finalists of Super Star-2- Nikhil ,Sidhesh & Sujith Lal- sing along  with  the Super Star -1 Finalists Roopa & Tina  in a round that clearly demonstrates where the current crop stands  vis-a vis their talent.

Duet With A Playback Singer

The Final Three provide the male input in duets sung by playback stars Gayathri and Sayanora. By setting the competitors against established and experienced singers, the round provides an easy to judge barometer  as to whether the contestants  can reach their range and perfection and how they fare by comparison to seasoned pros. 

Classical Groove

Is an attempt at fusion of Indian  and  Western musical strains, in which the competitors sing classical Carnatic keerthanas to the keyboard accompaniment of  Stephen. 

Playback Singing

Is an innovative round that is being performed for the first time in a reality show.

It gives an insight into the way a new song is composed  and created. The lyrics penned by Shibu Charavarthy  are set to music by the 3 Music Directors who form the Jury Panel.  Each competitor was assigned to a different composer and had to ‘learn’ the song on the spot and render it on stage immediately. The round  was a demonstration of a contestant’s real stuff, that illustrates how quickly they  can absorb a song, how perfectly they can reproduce it with all the depth & feel the composer expects  and how much they  can improvise upon it .

Medley Round

Remix Round

Selected bits from an assortment of old  favorites and new hits  are joined together and woven into a new composition by Stephen. The round is meant to tests the competitor’s  skills in various genres. 

Trump Card Round 

Each  contestant will have certain songs  that they are ‘holding back’ to surprise their opponents as the competition gets tighter – these are their aces up their sleeve. The round offers them an opportunity to uncover their secret weapons and score highly so that they can get a safe passage to the Finals. 

Duet With A Super Star

Judges Choice Round

Solo Mix Round

It is a totally new round introduced  for the first time  on the Super Star  stage and is meant to draw instantaneous comparisons between 2 contestants. Both sing the same song in ‘alternation’ one competitor singing the first line, the other singing the second line and so on until the end of the song.
Through recurrent rotation between the 2 participants, the judges are able to juxtapose their efforts and immediately analyse their strengths and weaknesses.

Group Round

Involves  songs sung by all the 6 finalists together, to judge how well they can perform in tandem .

Medley Round

2 or 3 songs either based on the same basic raga or built around the same theme are strung together and sung in such a way that each  number flows smoothly into the next.
How well each song fuses or mingles into the next  forms the basis of the assessment.

Malayalam Challenging Songs Round

A.R.Rehman Hits Round

In which the contestants pick out their favourites from the maestro’s vast range and sing the matchless compositions as well as they can.

Illayaraja Hits Round

The participants sift through the Tamil genius’s endless list of hits, single out one they love most and  replicate it .

Drama Song Round

Takes the competition into terrain  unfamiliar for most youngsters- the area of theatrical  songs.
There was an era in the history of Malayalam Theatre not so long ago, when the drama was thriving, virtually flourishing and the songs from these plays were on every Keralites’ lips. The competitors dip into this Golden Age Of the Stage and decide upon the options that best suits them.

Two Trios Round

The six finalists who have survived the previous elimination, are randomly split into 2 groups of  three competitors, each  group thus forming a trio or triad. Each trio has to find out a  song  that has been sung by 3 different playback singers and sing it together.

Audience Choice  Round

The Fabulous Eight have come a long way together and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. In  this round, each contestant sings a number selected by their friends, who have put their heads together to come up with a song that will show them at their best.

Solo Mix Round

Is a round in which  film songs which have been sung by one single individual or solo singer  in the original version, are rendered on the Super Star stage by 2 contestants, each singing alternate lines of the number.

Challenging Songs Round

Film songs vary in their singing scale of  ‘difficulty’ ;some are comparatively  easy to handle while others built on difficult ragas may be intricate in their construction and conceal pitfalls into which the singer may fall headlong into  while performing them.

For this round, the contestants  have to consciously pick out exacting numbers that puts tough demands on them, challenging songs that will put their talent to the test.  

Audience Choice  Round

Re-mixing is the art of  modernizing or updating old favourites to current   times, in which songs from some of the most melodious songs   of the 60’s,70’s etc are speeded up a  bit so that the mellifluous but slow-paced  tracks become more ‘peppy’.

Some of the old numbers from Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil are ‘re-tuned’ by Stephen on his keyboard . The contestants  sing these trendy versions of old classics, trying to do justice to the contemporary adaptations   while retaining the  soul of the original.

Award Winning Songs Round

Every year the best songs of each language line themselves up to compete for the ‘Best Song’ awards at the State or National Level.

Contestants are required to single out numbers that have won the State or National Awards for the Best Music Director, Best Male Playback Singer or Best Female Playback Singer and select one that they will be able to render effectively .

Favourite Raga Based Song Round

Since most of the contestants are well-versed in Carnatic Music, they will  have a couple of ragas to which they are more favorably inclined than others. The competitors have to choose film songs that are based on these ragas and present it on stage. 

Duet Round

Global Music Round

Is a round that has been introduced to encourage them to shed their myopic inclinations by forcing them to look beyond Indian playback singing and to explore the whole, wide universe of global music.

The competitors have a wide spectrum of genres to choose from- Latin American, Pop etc.

Malayalam Comedy Round

A round in a lighter vein that introduces a touch of humour to the steamy competitive atmosphere in which the participants sing  droll numbers from  Malayalam films, if possible dressed in a suitably ‘comic’ attire.

Semi-classical  Round

Super Star rounds are painstakingly planned to test the competitor’s range of singing, whether they are able to handle different genres and schools of  music. Some of the previous rounds examined their ability to sing classics, fast numbers etc.

In this round ,they have to present a song that is neither wholly classical nor completely fast but somewhere mid-way between the two -songs with a light classical touch. 

Light Melodies  Round

Requires the participants to  choose airy numbers which can be crooned softly.

Malayalam Classic Songs Round

Malayalam playback singing boasts of a multitude of extraordinary geniuses both lyricists  and music directors – such as Vayalar,Devarajan, P.Bhaskaran, Raveendran etc. Many of their compositions have attained the stature of classics, evergreen songs that have withstood the test of time.

The participants can take their pick from any classic number and render it with all its subtle variations in tempo and cadence.

Judge’s Duet Round

M Jayachandran, the senior most judge on the panel is a music director of many years standing in films. Alphonse and Deepak Dev, though younger entrees  to the field are highly successful in their own right. Between them, the threesome  have composed a considerable collection of songs.

The contestant is free to select and sing a duet composed by any one of the three Judges.

Audience Choice  Round

Non-Filmy Round

The Super Star -2 rounds had been confined more or less exclusively to  film playback music. For the 1st time, a round steps out of the filmy framework and  focuses on genres of music outside the world of Cinema. The contestants can sing  any song of their liking, from independent albums, pop bands etc, as long  as it is non-filmy. 

Romantic Songs Round

“If music be the food of love, then play on” quoth Shakespeare  and the film fraternity in India are staunch believers in this philosophy. From the earliest Black & White movies, directors believed that music is the best way to express love .So love songs are an indispensable and  characteristic feature of  most Indian films – this may be the classic ‘running around the trees’ duet or solos by the hero to win over his reluctant  sweetheart.The competitors have to render solo romantic numbers from Malayalam, Tamil or Hindi movies.

Duet Round

Audience Choice Round

Folk Round

Most  songs in films fall  into classical, semi-classical, melody or fast genre.

This round demands the competitors to hum a different tune, unlike any they had attempted so far- film songs with a ‘folky’  flavour . These songs from Malayalam & Tamil films bring the richness and vibrancy of our traditional music to the Super Star stage.

Is a tribute to 3 of the greatest composers  from  the pantheon of  Malayalam film music directors – Johnson, Raveendran &  Ousepachan . The contestants have to render their favorite melody from the compositions of one of the them .

Duet Round

The competitors are divided into pairs according to their voice quality, so that the timbre of one matches with that of the other. Rendering a duet is far more difficult than singing solo since one has to make adjustments in the pitch and emotional intensity to suit the other. The round challenges their on-stage chemistry, their accommodative ability& the extent to which they are willing to ‘give & take’.

AUDIENCE CHOICE

Since the start  of the competition, there had been persistent  & increasing  demands  from the audience for the rendering  of some of their favourite songs  by the contestants. To accommodate the viewer’s preference, a new round was created to cater to their wishes- audience choice.
The viewers could  sent in their request  through letters or via e-mail stating the  song  of  their  choice, the film it is apart of & who should  sing it. The viewers whose request had been accepted, will be invited as a special guest to the sets of Super Star-2. The round sets the stage for a competitor-supporter  interaction   : the viewer gets an opportunity to see his favorite contestant perform  live & the competitor gets the chance to meet some of his fans in person.

Judges Song

The germ of the idea for this round evolved from a chance conversation  between the judges in one of the previous rounds, in which each singled out their favorite song  from amongst the  oeuvre of the other two composers and explained why they fancied it. 
In this round, the contestant has to sing a composition of any one of the three music directors who constitute the jury panel- M.Jayachandran, Deepak Dev & Alphonse Joseph .
The composer would share a few of his memories related to the creation of the song- its background, the song situation in the film etc.  The contestant is given a priceless opportunity to sing  a composition before the actual composer and to hear his assessment of his effort  right from the horse’s mouth.

Favourite Music Director

The participant determines the Music Director he  prefers the most, homes in on one of his compositions and sing it as best as he can on the stage. The field is wide open and may include any composer from any language Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi ,etc and can range from  the older  generation  of music directors such as Devarajan and  Raveendran, to the younger lot consisting of   the likes of Harris Jayaraj, Deepak Dev etc.

The round demonstrates the competitor’s knowledge in playback music; it is also a reflection of his taste in music, classic, melody, rhythm etc.

Malayalam Fast Numbers

Malayalam film songs are by and large slow paced and melodious. Participants have to search around for quick, breezy songs and render the racy numbers with the liveliness that each deserves.

FAVOURITE SINGER

Most of the participants of Super Star-2 began singing from a tender age. Over the years, they would have listened to many playback singers from many languages- and would undoubtedly have their personal favourites in the lot. They may admire a singer for the timbre of his/her voice; revere another for the range of his singing ; idolize a third for the feel & sensitivity of his rendering.

In the Favourite Singer Round, the contestant has to choose his most ‘preferred’ singer, select a song from the singer’s repertoire that he loves the most & render it as effectively as the original, on the Super Star stage .The round exposes the competitors to different styles of singing & to a wide range of singers from bygone decades as well as the current era.

FAST NUMBERS

In which the contestants come up with groovy, zippy numbers from Hindi, Tamil or Malayalam films that will have the viewers swinging & rocking to the rollicking tunes.

.EVERGREEN HITS IN MALAYALAM  & EVERGREEN HITS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Evergreen Hits are movie melodies that have  retained their freshness over decades,

mellifluous songs that have cast their magic over old & young alike. The competitors have to pick two songs for the level, one from Malayalam, the other from any Indian tongue of their choice – any number as long as it is an enduring favourite that  has withstood  the test of time.

OLD  IS  GOLD

Expects the competitors to select songs from the melodic decades of Malayalam cinema, the 60’s & 70’s  and to relieve  the ambience of the golden era of  film songs. By making them sing these golden oldies, the round makes sure the youngsters of today are aware of the enviable heritage they have in playback music.

TRENDY HITS

Will feature foot-tapping chartbusters from the latest movies in any language of their choice – Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi etc. The round offers them substantial scope to present their style, panache and dash on stage.