Having aired eight episodes of auditions from seven different cities across the nation; Nepal Idol arguably already has become the most popular reality television show in Nepal. Dozens of sensational singing talents have been selected out of ten thousands of contestants from all over the country. The competition has just started and it’s going to be tougher and tougher as the selected contestants will compete each other on their quest to become the first ever NEPAL IDOL.
In these eight episodes, we saw thousands of people who came with a dream to be noticed by the judges and the audience. However, there were quite a number of contestants who were not very new to music industry, limelight and fame.
Without further ado, here’s the list of six contestants who (or at least their voices) were already quite popular.
1. Pratap Lama
Before Nepal Idol came into existence, Nepali Tara used to be the biggest singing reality television show in Nepal. And Pratap Lama was the winner of the third season of Nepali Tara, that took place in 2015. He has released quite a number of original singles; and has performed at various events across the nation. He hails from Morang.
The 29-year-old sang Gopal Yonjan’s ‘Desh Le Ragat Maange’ during his audition on Nepal Idol.
2. Pratap Das
Along with Pratap Lama, Pratap Das too was a part of Nepali Tara Season 3. Das couldn’t win the title but he had made it to the Top 5. He is a playback singer and interestingly, he has recently worked with one of the judges of Nepal Idol, Indira Joshi. The two have sung a duet titled ‘Motorcycle Ma’ for an upcoming film ‘Prem Geet 2’.
The 22-year-old from Lalitpur had sung ‘Lolayeka Ti Thula’ by Gulam Ali.
3. Suraj Thapa
Suraj Thapa is the frontman of a band called Sutra and has released a number of original singles, the most popular one being ‘Bahula’. The music video for ‘Bahula’ that features Saugat Malla and Priyanka Karki has over 600,000 views on YouTube.
Thapa who hails from Nepalgunj is 30 years old. He had sung Shiva Pariyar’s ‘Sangi Dubdai Chhu’ during the audition.
4. Anamika Malla
Anamika Malla, 28, from Chitwan is quite a popular pop and modern singer. Some of her hit songs are ‘Ek Chimti Sindur’, ‘Antim Palta Bhetna’ and ‘Timilai Chhadi Jana’ among others.
She had sung Manisha Pokharel’s ‘Hamro Prem’, that got her through the auditions on Nepal Idol.
5. Jyovan Bhuju
28-year-old Jyovan Bhuju from Kathmandu is a popular cover artist who also has some original singles to his credit. He has over 14,000 subscribers and over 2.6 million views on his YouTube channel.
The song that got him selected on Nepal Idol was Kali Prasad Baskota’s ‘Thamel Bazar’ from Loot 2.
6. Chintu
Chintu is a singer from Kathmandu who first became popular for his original soundtrack titled ‘Aaddha Raatma’ that was a part of 2013 film ‘Hostel’. He has released some other singles as well, ‘KT Nepali’ being one that he sang with rapper Sacar. He was also featured on Channel Arbitrary’s Me & My Guitar show in which he sang a couple of songs with Deeksha J Thapa — ‘Haasu Kasari/Roop Tera Mashup’ from the same has over 2.7 million views on YouTube. He also is a DJ and plays under the stage name Baaja Boy.
His performance was not shown on the episode but we did catch a glimpse of him receiving the ‘golden card’, the invitation to the next round.
These contestants along with all the other selected ones will now be competing in the rounds to come. There are quite a lot of amazing singers and it’s definitely going to be interesting to see who will eventually take home the title of Nepal Idol along with a Mahindra KUV 100 car, a cash prize of Rs. 2 million and a record deal.
