Bangla Music Awards to unearth new talents

Especially Bengal, which over the years have produced legends like RD Burman, Kishore Kumar, Bappi Lahri and many more, who have given some great music over the years. And not just locally renowned talent, but singers and musicians of national and international fame have sprung forth from its soil.

Therefore Reliance Broadcast Network's radio arm 92.7 BIG FM and Idea Cellular have taken a unique initiative to recognize and celebrate outstanding talent in Bangla music. The IDEA BIG BANGLA MUSIC AWARDS 2010 is one such initiative to bring the voices out of Bengal as well.

Conceptualized and marketed by BIG Live (the experiential marketing arm of Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd), it will see all its media verticals coming into play to ensure this music award permeates into consumers' lives through multiple touch points.

With categories such as lyricist of the Year, singer of the year both male and female, rock/pop song of the year and song of the year, the award ceremony aims to unearth fresh talent.

For this they will have a transparent modus operandi, with a jury encompassing stalwarts such as singer Usha Uthup, percussionist Tanmoy Bose and composer Abhijit Bandyopadhyay who will select the nominees in nine categories based on music released in 2009.

The final winners will be decided basis public voting via SMS, IVR, online and physical ballots. Besides this, the jury will also select the winner in the categories of debutant of the year, Rabindrasangeet album of the year and for the background score of the year. Idea will also be associated with two very special Awards song of the year and lifetime achievement award.

The grand finale, scheduled for August 13th, will witness a gala awards night, which would see the personalities from the Bangla music & entertainment industry under one roof.

Speaking on the occasion Arjun Singgh Baran, Business Head, Big Live, says the idea is to connect with the people. "The entire idea is to connect the country with music. For the past two we have done Ugaadi Awards in Hyderabad. It has been one of our successful properties with stars like Chranjeevi and many more from the industry supporting us whole heartedly," he says.

"With Bangla music awards we have pretty much tried to delve deeper into the Bangla music industry. Everybody has a fascination for Bollywood but our endeavour is to bring Bangala and many more other regional language music into the limelight. We are also shortly coming up with Big Marathi Music Award which we will be launching shortly and it will be aired on ETV Marathi," he revealed.

Baran says the 45-day campaign will see good music and musician of Kolkata will get their due credit. "To bring in stature to this award we have eminent jury members who are spending quality time to listen to music of all genres. We will be recognizing music and musicians of Kolkata get their due. We will highlight good music happening, the show is not money spinner for us but we feel it's an involvement for the right cause," he says.

According to Aloke Malik, Chief Operating Officer - East, IDEA Cellular, "Music is universal, and the people of Bengal have always preserved and celebrated this form of art. Idea has always endeavoured to promote all forms of Music, which has been at the core of our marketing and brand building strategy to establish strong consumer connect.

"Keeping these synergies in mind, we decided to present the "Idea BIG Bangla Music Awards 2010' to recognize Excellence in Bangla Music. We are happy to partner with 92.7 BIG FM for this unique initiative which will offer an opportunity to a large number of Idea subscribers to relive Bangla Music and get closer to the legends and the upcoming Music sensations," he adds.