Celcom Deepa Raaga Global Deepavali Songwriting Contest
CELCOM BRINGS MALAYSIA’S FIRST EVER
GLOBAL DEEPAVALI THEME SONG!
- Malaysians can vote via SMS for their MOST FAVOURITE DEEPAVALI SONG -
Malaysians can now vote for their favourite Deepavali song from the top three finalists of the Celcom Deepa Raaga Global Deepavali Songwriting Contest Grand Finals Show, which took place at the PJ Civic Centre Auditorium last night. The contest for MALAYSIA’S MOST FAVOURITE DEEPAVALI SONG is to determine which Deepavali tune will be used by Celcom as its theme song for the celebration of Deepavali this year.
The grand prize winner for Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad Deepa Raaga Global Deepavali Songwriting Contest Grand Finals is a song entitled “Oleeveesum Oli Thirunal”, composed by Suresh Rogen and Mansher Singh and lyrics by Suresh Rogen, from Malaysia. The second place is “Ipasi Malayil”, composed by T.S. Murugesh, lyrics by Nagapooshani Karuppiah from Sri Lanka while the third place is “Pataasu”, composed by Dharmanathan, lyrics by P.Seetharaman from Sri Lanka.
The winners of Celcom Deepa Raaga Global Deepavali Songwriting Contest Grand Finals walked away with a grand cash prize of RM25, 000 cash. The first and second runner-ups took home RM15, 000 and RM12, 500 respectively. The other 12 finalists won RM5, 000 each, while all 30 of the semi-finalists went home with a token of RM500 each.
Graced with the presence of Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Yang Berhormat Dato’ Joseph Salang last night, the 15 finalists competing in the Grand Finals Show were shortlisted from 30 teams. The final competitors were selected during a 3-day semi-finals event, which was held in Kuala Lumpur from 10 to12 August 2009.
Speaking at the Celcom Deepa Raaga Global Deepavali Songwriting Contest Grand Finals Show, Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad said, “I am so happy and proud that this contest has gone beyond the original idea. Malaysians can now hum and sing along to a Deepavali song! People will remember tonight, 10 September 2009 as one of the most memorable night in history, when we created the first ever global Deepavali song.”
In welcoming the support from Celcom, Event Organiser Mr M.Marren said, “Our objective in holding this unique competition is to create a pool of enjoyable Deepavali songs in Tamil with catchy tunes that set the mood for the festivals. I am pleased that Celcom has embraced Deepa Raaga, and we welcome them as our Title Sponsors.”
Malaysian can vote for their favourite Deepavali song from the top three finalists through SMS voting by following a few simple steps, upon visiting the web portal www.deeparaaga.com, to preview the Top 3 songs. Firstly, customers would need to type DPR<SPACE>ENG to choose English as the preferred language or type DPR<SPACE>BM to choose Malay, and send the SMS to 33266 in order to receive the steps to start voting. They can then proceed to rank the top 3 finalists by typing DPRVOTE<SPACE><A/B/C><1/2/3> and sending it to 33266. A stands for the first finalist, B stands for second finalist, while C stands for the third finalist. 1 is the highest ranking which should be given to their favourite song, 2 for the second best & 3 is for the least favoured song.
For the final step, Malaysians will have to send a slogan on why they have voted for finalist A, B or C and send the slogan to 33266. The launching of SMS voting for the top three finalists will start on 12 September 2009. The winning song of the Celcom Deepa Raaga contest will be made available to the public in time for the Festival of Lights celebration this year.
Apart from CDs, the tunes will also be available for mobile phone downloads such as True Tones, Call Me Tones and etc offered through Celcom WAP portal called Channel C. Malaysian can access by typing *119# from their Celcom line.
During the First Round stage and Semi-Finals stage, the contest has been judged by an eminent panel comprising of renowned musicians and composers such as Samuel J Dass, Prakash Kandasamy and Babu Loganaathan. The panel of judges for the finals however was expanded to 5 people, which includes 2 additional judges from overseas, Preetha Prasad and Mohamed Raffee.
Celcom-Deepa Raaga is organized and managed by Eastern Junction (M) Sdn Bhd. The Event Manager is Earth, Wind & Fire Advertising Sdn Bhd. For further info on Celcom Deepa Raaga Global Deepavali Songwriting Contest and to vote for your favourite contestants, please visit http://www.deeparaaga.com
October 4th, 2009 at 11:15 am
why not put on air to listen to all finelist songs and vote for them. why only three when there was other 11 of them whom did well too.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:28 am
the top six songs are in this website ‘www.deeparaaga.com’, there is already an album released containing all 15 songs..