Dubai Dubai Festival City Mall crowned on Saturday the winners of Kidz Starz, the largest children’s talent competition in the UAE, after a weekend of entertainment with spectacular performances at the mall’s events atrium, Festival Square.
Cliff Daniel Hope, 15, and Priyansu Dey, 12, clinched the top spots in the singing and dancing categories, while Dilashan Dissanayake, 12, was declared winner in the ‘Z factor’ category for playing the drums. Parvathy G Nair, 12, won the fans’ choice award.
Brilliant performance
As many as 18 finalists competed during the third and final phase of the event following two weekends of auditions and semi-finals during which 30 children aged 6-15 performed their acts for a place in the grand finale.
Dey set the stage on fire with a free style dance performance on the Vande Mataram number from Bollywood flick ABCD 2.
“I love dancing and my teachers trained me well. I wanted to do lyrical hip hop but my choreographer suggested we stick to free-style as it suited the song more,” said the Grade 7 student of Our Own High School student.
Hope wooed the audience with his vocal prowess as he belted out John Legend’s All of Me. The Grade 11 student of Dubai Scholars said he started professional training in vocal singing only two months ago. “I have been singing since I was three years old but never trained under a professional teacher,” he said.
Nair, a trained Carnatic singer, won the fans’ choice award for his soulful rendition of Samantha Barks’ On my own and Susan Boyle’s I dreamed a Dream. Sri Lankan teen Dissanayake won the hearts of the judges with his solo drum performance which he composed himself. “It was a fusion of different genres of music - slow metal, middle eastern music, jazz and funk. I worked on this piece for a month to get it right. I am so glad the judges and the audience liked it,” he said.
This year, Kidz Starz gave away more than Dh175,000 worth of prizes to the children who took part. Besides the four winners, all finalists and semi-finalists walked away with gift vouchers worth thousands of dirhams.
“Even those who auditioned walked away with a gift. Like always, we are blown away by the talent, the confidence and the charisma of the children who participated,” said Brad Merchant, general manager, Dubai Festival City Mall.
