IMG_0505.jpg

Picture credits- Preksha Bhatia

Samrishi Tiwari


On 14th June 2018, the Mini Auditorium of Christ (Deemed to be University), Bannerghatta Road Campus, had swathed itself into an arena where music gave wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. The Western Solo Singing was one such event where people had the privilege to emote whatever they felt in their hearts.

The event heads for the event were Kshitija Yerolkar, 2nd year Psychology student and Varun Chaddha, 2nd year FIB student. The judge for the event was a Bangalore based music producer, bass player, DJ and photographer, Mr. Rishii Rohra. He has previously been a part of bands from Christ (Deemed to be University), namely, ‘Crazy and Saturn Night Sky’. He currently plays for bands named: ‘The Bottle Flower Seeds’, ‘Solder and Between Green and Me’.

In order to keep the audience entertained the set up was of an Open Mic and 6 people had performed. There were 57 participants in total. The rules were to be strictly followed. Some rules being only one accompanist is allowed and participants exceeding their time limits will be penalized. The participants were judged only on their singing and not accompanist.

The event head, Kshitija, when asked about her strategies about the event said, “Slot picking was very difficult and some volunteers backed out at the last moment. I am really thankful to Arnav and Deep, the stage heads for their constant support”. When asked about the event, the participants had diverse responses. Anmol, a participant, said that the event was nerve racking and that she wasn’t that confident. Another participant, Phoebe Bright said, “it is my first performance for Darpan and I am really very excited to be a part of it but I am also slightly nervous because of all the talent present in the room”.

Chhaya Sharma, a member of the audience said, “The clarity amongst all the participants was commendable. I really loved how all kind of genres from the 80’s to EDM was taken. Bohemian Rhapsody was my favorite performance”. Oeshi Ghosh, another member of the audience said, “The acoustics could have been better if it was arranged in the main auditorium.” The judge gave pointers by saying, “The performances were really good. It is okay if you mess something up. You can always restart. A piece of advice that he mentioned was that “You should never use your phone while singing and you should choose song wisely based on your range”.
Twenty five people were shortlisted in total for the final round. The winners of the competition were as follows: Shefali Gupta (1BBA C) in the first position; Phebe Aleya Itty (1 ECO H) in the second position; and Rajat Rao (5PSYH) in the third position.