And the search continues

Talent Search – the most anticipated talent competition amongst interactors, was back for the 12th successive year with the target of finding and exposing new talent amongst teenagers and interactors in Sri Lanka.

Talent Search 2006, commonly known among Interactors as the 'Interact Grammies' was held on Thursday, October 26 at the B.M.I.C.H and was organised by the Interact club of Royal College.

Winner of Solo singing, group singing, eastern and western dance, instrumental, band and rap were the titles up for grabs that evening and among the schools competing were Visakha Vidyalaya, Lyceum International Wattala and Nugegoda, Gateway International Kandy, Colombo International School, Mahanama College, Wesley College and Dharmaraja College Kandy.

After a delay of about an hour the show got on the road, beginning with the formalities of the lighting of the traditional oil lamp and the welcome address by the project Chairperson. The competition got off to a flier with a group of five girls from Visakha Vidyalaya competing in the group singing category, who delivered a very special performance of Rihanna's “Unfaithful” and Uncle Kracker's version of “Drift Away.” Next up was the band Freaks on Ice, who performed the popular punk rock song by Bowling for Soup “1985” and apart from minor technical difficulties towards the end of the song, the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

The instrumental category was kicked-off as contestants from Mahanama College took the stage. Their enthralling instrumental versions of the theme of “Kal-ho-na-ho” and the Eagles' “Hotel California” won the judges hearts and earned them the winners' title for the instrumental category. The second group of contestants for the group singing category was Haritha from Kandy. The group of singers sang the Beatles' “Yesterday” which only managed to earn them the second runners-up title for their category.

Winding up the group singing category was Lyceum International with their harmonized version of the great Louis Armstrong's, “What A Wonderful World,” proving to be the only hope for this category. The solo singing competition heated up when Nevandhika Ratnayaka got on stage and enchanted the crowd with her performance of Mariah Carey's hit single, “Hero.” The audience was immediately impressed with her vocals and her daring attempt to sing a difficult Mariah Carey song. Thyaga Senanayake from Lyceum International Wattala serenaded the crowd with her guitar, singing Avril Lavigne's popular hit, “happy ending”, while the rap trio 'G-Squad' from Dharmaraja College Kandy got on stage to present their winning performance of their own original rap songs.

The Soul Shakers from Colombo International School performed their dance routine to a combination of hip-hop songs but their effort was vastly overshadowed by Visakha Vidyalaya and was only enough to give them second place in their category. St. Anthony's College Kandy won the 2nd runners-up prize.

The night was marked by a very special guest performance by lead singer of Jada, Charin who entertained the crowd with a medley of classics including “signed-sealed-delivered,” “footloose” and “proud Mary”. His performance ended with a papara-band who got on stage to begin an unforgettable performance of Sinhala baila music which gave the crowd the opportunity to join in.

Quarter Mile, the band representing Lyceum International Nugegoda took the spotlight and performed three songs including Fuel's “Haemorrhage” and Edwin McCain's hit, “I'll be”; but the band category was lit up when “Inferno”, the band representing Wesley College charged up the stage with songs by Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.

Among the more memorable performances that evening was the performance by the dance troupe from Visakha Vidyalaya who dazzled the crowd with their brilliantly choreographed moves and the 2005 'Onstage' finalist, Sankha Boperarachchi's acoustic version of Train's “Drops of Jupiter.” Sankha's guitar playing and confidence on stage paid off as he won the Solo category for Lyceum International, Wattala, while Visakha Vidyalaya swept home the winners' trophy for the western dance category. Miniruwani Samarakoon from Gateway International Kandy won the Eastern dancing category while Lyceum International Wattala took home the runners-up award adding to Lyceum's tally.

Thyaga Senanayake was awarded the Runners up title in the Solo singing category while Nevandhika Ratnayaka won 2nd runners-up. Inferno won first place in the band category, Freaks on Ice was awarded the runners-up prize for the band category, while Quarter Mile won the second runners-up prize.

In the group singing category, Visakha Vidyalaya was named runners-up as Lyceum International Wattala was awarded the winners' trophy ensuring that Lyceum International School Wattala won the coveted overall championship at 'Talent Search 2006.’

The show was an overall success as the necessary experience and exposure was given to the future talents of Sri Lanka but in comparison to the past decade of 'Talent Search' the standards of the performances were slightly lower. All in all, the crowd was entertained, the sceptics had their laughs and the participants gained a little experience of how harsh life on stage can be but interactors all over the country will be undoubtedly looking forward to next years repetition of the contest.