India’s largest online band competition announces its winners

Mumbai: Band-it India’s largest band competition hosted by Furtados School of Music was conducted virtually this year. The competition gave young, talented musicians from across the country a platform to showcase their talent and get expert advice from the likes of renowned Bollywood Singer, Shibani Kashyap. With an overwhelming demand for performing solo, the organisers opened the gates to 2 new categories – Solo Singing and Solo instrumental.

Despite the lockdown period the festival successfully received a great response across the country. Entries from various schools and interested students were submitted under the respective categories. The finalists were judged on the basis of public voting.

Vansh Ankush Khanna from South City International School, Kolkata was announced as the winner for the solo instrumental category, Reina Kapur from Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai was announced as the winner for the solo singing category and ‘The Ones’ was announced as the winner from the bands category for the 4th edition of Band-It Music Festival. Music Bytes were the first runner up with their jazzy grooves and Band Aid were the 2nd runner up.

“The Ones”, band category winners expressed their joy by saying, “Being a part of the competition was fun and being the first virtual band winner was a heart touching experience to have in this lockdown. Every band member has put in a lot of efforts with multiple video call practices to achieve this title. We miss and hope to celebrate our victory together soon.”

Bollywood Singer Shibani Kashyap applauded the effort and talent of these young musicians and said, “It is been a pleasure to be a part of this fantastic Band-it festival and listening to some wonderful performances. Personally I am surprised with the young talents and the way they have managed to bring in the best even with the lockdown situation. The performers constant videos call practices from their respective homes have led them to create an amazing performance for the competition. Hats off to Furtados School of Music for putting up a platform like this to bring out the very qualities of innovation, productivity and dynamic within the younger talents”

“Band-It festival is hosted with the hope that young musicians across the country feel represented. Regardless of the current scenario we wanted this competition to be open to every student musician; hence we provided a national platform for music artist and bands from schools across India to pursue towards one Title: India’s Best school band/musician.” added Dharini Upadhyaya, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Furtados School of music.

About Band-It: Furtados School of Music (FSM) has curated “Band-It Festival”, a national platform for all the young talented and aspiring musicians. The festival is a music competition that encourages ensemble and solo performances. “Band-It Festival” is an event that invites all schools across cities to participate in this music festival and battle for the winner’s title.