Sirasa Superstar

Sirasa Superstar
Presented by	Kamal Addararachchi (Season 1-3) Shihan Mihiranga (Season 4) Nirosha Perera (Season 4) Devashrie De Silva (Season 5) Dasun Madushan (Season 6) Manuranga Wijesekara, Tehani Imara (Season 7)
Judges	Season 1 - Nirosha Virajini, Jagath Wickramasinghe, Rookantha Gunathilake Season 2 - Chandrika Siriwardene, Raju Bandara, Jagath Wickramasinghe Season 3 - Jagath Wickramasinghe, Samitha Mudunkotuwa, Amal Perera Season 4 - Heshan Gamage, Corrin Almeda, Madhumadhawa Aravinda Season 5 - Shihan Mihiranga, Nirosha Virajini, Heshan Gamage Season 6 - Heshan Gamage, Amila Nadeeshani, Dumal Warnakulasooriya Season 7 - Ernest de Zoysa, Thanuja Jayawardena, Romesh Sugathapala, Umariya Sinhawansha
Country of origin	Sri Lanka
No. of seasons	7
Release
Original network	Sirasa TV
Original release	2005 – present
External links
Official website	www.sirasasuperstar.lk

Sirasa Superstar is a musical reality show conducted in Sri Lanka by the TV channel Sirasa TV. The first four seasons were inspired by the program called American Idol an American singing competition series, the fifth and sixth seasons are similar to The Voice. The seventh season is currently underway in every Sunday from 9 to 10pm.

Overview

The goal is to find the most talented upcoming singer in the country. Even the Sri Lankans had a chance to witness a whole heap of undoubtedly talented youth and adults on the same platform. Thousands were auditioned, but only a handful were lucky. After conducting a series of auditions across the country, 100 contestants are selected for the next round. Next, each contestant is given a chance to perform two songs, and from several groups, final 48 are chosen by the judging panel. Afterwards, the opportunity to engage in the decision-making is handed over to the viewers. From there on until the finals, viewers are given a limited time period to vote for their favorites in the respective rounds (that is, Final 24, Final 12 and Final 2, through the SMS system).

The 12 finalists perform one song each week (two songs in later rounds) based on which the viewers vote. The contestant with the least number of votes is eliminated every week. The final show is held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, among 240,000 audience. According to the number of votes received by each contestant on that day, the one with the higher number is crowned the Sirasa Superstar and the other becomes the Runner-up. For Season II, the winner, will be awarded a Rs. 3.4 million worth car and Rs. one million in cash, in addition to the prestigious trophy.

From season 4 to onwards, the grand finale is held at the Stein Studios of Ratmalana, which is a private property of Sirasa TV. The cash prize also changed in the fifth season, where the winner won 10 million Sri Lankan rupees. The performing stages also changed from season five, with the inclusion of Battle Round and Live Audition Round.

Season 1

Winner : Ajith Bandara

Final 12 of Season I (2006)

1. Ajith Bandara (Winner)
2. shehan mihiranga (runner up)
3. Amila Perera
4. Darshana Pramod
5. malith perera
6. Manjula Pushpakumara
7. Nishantha Nanayakkara
8. Waruna Madushanka
9. Theekshana Anuradha
10. Asela Eranda
11. Madhawa Dassanayake
12. Mohan Dharshana

Season 2

Winner: Pradeep Rangana took the crown by displaying his versatility. While being a bright and popular student at his campus (as he is a medical student) he presented his inborn talents to the world through this competition. His versatility helped him to achieve the "Crown". His most famous songs are Sihina Ahase, Sanda Moduwella & Mey Sauwmye Rathrie. The First Runner Up was Surendra Perera who was also a very talented competitor.

A lot of people thought that it was wrong to send Gayani Madhusha home from Number 12 cause she has a stunningly gorgeous voice which most of the Superstars in this Season didn't have. Her most popular singles were: Sitha Handai, Duhulu Malak, Awa Pemwatha & Atha Dilisena.

Final 12 of Season II (2007)

1. Pradeep Rangana (Winner)
2. Surendra Perera
3. Amila Nadeeshani
4. Gamini Susiriwardhena
5. Nadini Premadasa
6. Sanka Dineth
7. Buddhika Ushan
8. Manjula Nivanthi
9. Maheshika Lakmali
10. Nalinda Ranasinghe
11. Wathsala Madhumali
12. Gayani Madhusha

The Competitors who got the least number of SMS votes every week

Season 3

Final 12 of Season III (After the Wildcard Round)

Shanika Madhumali adjudged the winner of the Sirasa Super Star Season 3 was held on 8 May 2010 at the CR and FC Grounds. 12 finalists were eventually chosen, among the 107,000 who applied, hoping for a shot at stardom. Week after week, the finalists were put through grueling challenges testing their showmanship and vocal prowess and put on stage to win over the dynamic judging panel consisting of Jagath Wickramasinghe, Chandrika Siriwardene, Raju Bandara, Samitha Mudunkotuwa and Amal Perera. Lastly Shanika Madhumali and Arjuna Rookantha selected and Shanika adjudged the winner of the 'Sirasa Super Star'.^[1]

1. Shanika Madhumali (Winner)^[2]
2. Arjuna Rookantha
3. Dumal Warnakulasuriya
4. Champika Priyashantha
5. Kasun Chamikara
6. Dilki Weliwatta
7. Eranda Pathum
8. Lakmini Udawatta
9. Thulani Sithara
10. Rukman Asitha
11. Chethana Sankalani
12. Meena Prasadini

The Competitors who got the least number of SMS votes every week

Season 4

The fourth Season of Sirasa Superstar Generation Four.

Thisara Chanaka won the 4th season of superstar known as Generation 4. He had a soft high pitched voice that was admired by the judges Madhumadhawa Aravinda, Corin Almeda, and Nimantha Heshan. His famous song during the contest was a Hindi song "Thu hi meri shab hai" gets enormous popularity in Sri Lanka.

In the grand finale, Sri Lankan popular cricketer, Tillakaratne Dilshan, was appointed as a judge also. This gave a much publicity all over the country.^[3]

Final 12 of Generation Four

1. Thisara Chanaka (Winner)^[4]
2. Uditha Sanjaya
3. Gayan dushmantha (mahabage)
4. Shahil Himansa
5. Michel Christine
6. Shani Angela
7. Supun Perera
8. Thilani Kanchana
9. Chaminda Abeywardana
10. Randika Rochana
11. Buddima Madushani
12. Kasun Madushanka

Season 5 - The Next Voice

Dasun Madushan - season 5 winner

The fifth season of Sirasa Super Star is similar to The Voice. The season began in November 2012 with the blind auditions. The blind auditions ended with 22, 18, 20 contestants joining the groups of Virajini, Gamage and Mihiranga respectively. After the blind auditions, the Group Round began and then the battle rounds came up, preceding to Super Battle Rounds where the Final 12 were chosen. During the Super Battle Rounds, Dilnesha Weerakoon was against Sugath Hewage and was not chosen for the Final 12, but was added to the finals when a contestant was dropped. During the Live Shows a Wildcard contestant who competed in the Super Battle Rounds and was not chosen for the Live Shows will be brought back to the competition and the contestant was Akila Imesh who competed in Gamage's team. The Grand Finale took place on the 8th of June 2013 announcing the winner as Dasun Madushan from Shihan Mihiranga's team. Dasun Madushan won the biggest ever cash prize given in Sri Lankan Reality History of 10 million Sri Lankan rupees for the first time, and became the youngest ever artist to win so.

The Final 12 of Season 5

1. Dasun Madushan (Winner)
2. Rasintha Gayan
3. Dulaj Ashen
4. Dilnesha Weerakooon
5. Pavithra Kasun
6. Nirosh Chanaka
7. Champika Dilash
8. Virajini Vishwalanka
9. Sugath Hewage
10. Sameera Ekanayake
11. Nazia Naeem
12. Arosha Narmadha

Akila Imesh won the Wild Card round.

Key:

     – Winner

     – Runner-up

     – Third place

Season 6 - The Sixth Voice

The sixth season of Sirasa Super Star is similar to The Voice. The season began in 2013 with the blind auditions. The blind auditions ended with 22, 18, 20 contestants joining the groups of Dumal, Heshan and Amila respectively. After the blind auditions, the Group Round began and then the battle rounds came up, preceding to Super Battle Rounds where the Final 12 were chosen. The Grand Finale took place on the 4th of July 2014 announcing the winner as Gayan Arosha from Dumal Warnakulasooriya's team. Gayan won the a cash prize of 10 million Sri Lankan rupees.

The final 12 of season 6 are stated below, only the winner and runner-ups are in order.

The Final 12 of Season 6

1. Gayan Arosha (Winner)
2. Chamara Prasad
3. Kanishka Salinda
4. Sathya Darshani
5. Shiromi Rathnayake
6. Achala Madusanka
7. Nuwan Bulathsinhala
8. Pubudu Harshani
9. Muditha Jayakodi
10. Harsha Chathuranga
11. Sameera Chathuranga
12. Prabakthi Jithendra

Season 7

The seventh season of Sirasa Super Star underwent in Sirasa Stein Studios from October 2015 to July 2016. The season began in October 2015 and the season selected only 9 finalists in this time, not 12 finalists. On 17 January 2016, the preliminary round finished with a tragedy, where only single winner needed to enter final 8, but judges selected two winners on that day suggesting that both are very clever and both should go for the 8 finalists round. But, with these two contestants, there were 9 finalists, so it is beyond the format. Therefore, those two contestants "Piyath Rajapakse" and "Shehan Udesh" had a people's choice round and^[5] Piyth won the people's choice to enter Super 8.

The elimination of Super 8 started on 8 May 2016, where in each round two contestants will eliminate. Sammani Dinusha won first wild card round on 22 May 2016 and entered Final 7. Nelka Thilini won second wild card round on 29 May 2016 and entered final 8. For the first time in Sirasa Superstar contest, four finalists were selected by peoples' vote to decide the winner instead of usual two finalists in previous occasions.^[6][7] The grand final was held at Sirasa Stein Studios on 9 July 2016. Piyath Rajapakse won the 7th title of Sirasa Superstar with a brand new luxury car and a million Sri Lankan rupees.

The Finalists of Season 7

1. Piyath Rajapakse
2. Nilan Hettiarachchi
3. Bashi Madhubashini
4. Nelka Thilini

References