In January this year, we told you that there’s going to be a Nepali version of The Voice. Cut to now, it’s finally here — with a bang!

The very first episode of the very first season of The Voice of Nepal premiered last night (Friday, August 25th) on Kantipur Television and DH Ramailo HD. Moments after the episode was over on television, it was released online where it has been getting so much love and attention that the one-hour video is currently the top trending video on YouTube in Nepal. Nope, not even surprised!

The Blind Audition episode opens with an introduction to the international reality television singing competition franchise, followed by a tour of the set by the former Nepal Idol host Sushil Nepal – now the host and the Executive Producer of The Voice of Nepal. “Remember it’s ‘coach’, not judge. It’s not a courtroom where there are judges, it’s purely a talent show where our ‘talents’ will showcase their talents and our coaches will get them in their teams to groom them,” says Nepal. Ouch!!

After the introduction of the coaches – Deep Shrestha, Pramod Kharel, Abhaya Subba and Sanup Poudel – and their live performance together on the stage; the first contestant to show up was Apsara Ghimire, an aspiring singer who already has put out some original music. We won’t spoil if she gets chosen by any of the coaches or not. We would, however, talk about the third contestant because we have to.

This Guy.

The name’s Gartaula, Sushil Gartaula. Take a good look at him ‘cos you’ll be seeing quite a lot of him in future.

The 25-year-old contestant from Kathmandu is so good that ‘Daiba Hey’ singer Sanup Poudel thinks “if there’s anyone who can take this classic singing style forward in Nepal, it’s him.” Yeah, that good! He totally raised the bar way too high.

And the best moment from the entire episode came during Gartaula’s performance when his father kept looking at him – his eyes filled with pride. Such a beautiful moment it was. No matter if you know this family or not, this moment would surely make you root for them and be proud of all of them.

THIS!!

There were other good contestants as well who had the four coaches competing with each other. What for? See for yourself.

The set is good, the coaches are awesome and the contestants – well, they make this show a gem. We just wish the showrunners cut the melodrama part away, because that’s so 2005. We just want to see pure talent, not the sad back stories of the contestants. Yeah, it’s a reality show and making the audience emotional will probably bring good TRP, but still.

The contestants you will see in the blind auditions have been selected from digital auditions taken using the show’s smartphone app. Each of the four coaches will choose 10-12 contestants who will then move forward to the Battle round. Headed by Laxman Poudyal, the former Nepal Idol director, the first season of the show will have 29 episodes.

A new episode of the show airs every Saturday and Sunday at 9 PM on Kantipur TV and Ramailo HD.