Groups get more votes than solo: Manjeera

The first participant to be eliminated from X Factor, in her face-off against a group, feels groups can get more votes.
In its second week, the Indian version of the X-Factor has reached its first elimination. Manjeera Ganguly from Shreya Ghoshal’s team was eliminated this Saturday and the participant was expectedly upset, considering the ouster came in a little too early, despite her impressive performance.“I am feeling low as the elimination came a little unexpected”, says Manjeera.
Manjeera was in face-off with the Nirmitee group, a band of four students from Mumbai University. Was the competition too tough? “The Nirmitee group gave a wonderful performance, no doubt. But even I had put in a lot of efforts in my singing. In fact all the 12 finalists on X Factor are amazing singers”, defends Manjeera.
While she doesn’t blame anyone in particular, Manjeera does believe that groups have a better advantage over solo singers on the show. “X Factor is a unique concept and perhaps the only show that has solo participants competing against groups. But then that can also be unfair because groups can get more votes, since each group member can have individual contacts which can add to their vote bank”, explains Manjeera adding in the same breath “But since we all were pretty much aware about this format beforehand, we shouldn’t be complaining”.
Trained in Indian Classical singing, Manjeera Ganguly is presently learning Western Classical. Does the early elimination discourage her aspirations of being a successful playback singer in the industry? “Not really. X Factor is a platform that gave me good exposure. But being eliminated on the show can never end my dreams of playback singing”. In fact Manjeera has already done playback for title track of TV serials like Kitni Mohabbat Hai, Choti Si Zindagi, Maatee Ki Banno, Chand Chupa Badal Mein and Pavitra Rishta to name a few. She has also sung for Bengali, Gujarati and Bhojpuri films and has also done jingles for advertisements. She also lent her voice to an album called Love Bytes – Bus Tumhaare Liye that released recently.
Did she ever wish to be in the team of any other judge on the show? “Though Sonu Nigam is my favourite singer, I had nothing in mind as such on whose team I should be in. All the three judges on the show are equally good”. Incidentally it was Sonu Nigam’s vote that decided her elimination. Shreya had expectedly voted for Manjeera while Sanjay Leela Bhansali voted for his team – the Nimreeti group. Sonu Nigam’s vote in the latter’s favour led to her elimination from the show.
However Manjeera has no grudges against anyone. “Shreya Ghoshal is a fantastic person. I learnt from her that despite being at the top, you can still be down to earth and easily approachable. In terms of singing, I got to learn technical aspects of playback singing like how to express and emote better”.
Finally does she have any hopes of reentering X Factor with some kind of a wild card entry? “I don’t really know if their format has a wild card entry as such. And even if they have, I am not sure if they would call me again”, she signs off.