A total of 139 entries receive awards in The Hindu Margazhi Competition 2025

The results of The Hindu Margazhi Competition 2025 are out and the list of winners in both Hindustani and Carnatic styles is now available on its website.

A total of 139 prizes, including 43 first prizes, 43 second prizes, and 27 third prizes, have been awarded by the panel of judges. There are also special mention certificates for children who did well and earned appreciation from the vidwans and vidushis who marked their performances.

A total of 1,063 video entries were received from Carnatic and Hindustani music enthusiasts for The Hindu Margazhi Music Contest that ended mid-January 2026.

The entries were sorted and sent to the judges in March 2026, who watched the presentations to check if the raga, krithi, and thala were perfect and took tough decisions to finalise the marks.

Violin vidushis and composers LN Sisters – M. Lalitha and M. Nandini – who judged entries in the instrumental category, said: “Over the years, we have been seeing more and more dedicated students participating in this competition. We are able to see that they are also very knowledgeable. This is a very unique platform for students of music for this category to showcase their talent and hard work and get recognition from The Hindu. We wish the participants all the very best to keep the tradition alive and take it forward.”

Vocalist Varalakshmi Anandkumar, senior disciple of late vidwan D.K. Jayaraman, said: “It has been a privilege to judge the Margazhi competitions of The Hindu for the past several years and I have never ceased to be amazed by the wealth of talent exhibited by the contestants. In fact, judging these competitions is both an aural delight and an agonising dilemma, as each singer demonstrates their talent in different dimensions. To choose the best among these formidable line-ups often calls for multiple listening sessions. It is amazing to listen to a girl or boy, barely out of the teens, sing a Dhanyasi or Thodi with the kind of understanding that one could gain only with years of singing and listening. In the same way, it is amazing that brilliant singers emerge from areas that are seldom heard of, in Kerala, Andhra, Karnataka, and even in the U.S. Hats off to The Hindu for promoting solid musical values through the Margazhi Music Competitions.”

Hindustani guru and vocalist Lalita Sharma, who trained under Pandit Jasraj, said: “I am very happy to see more number of singers and instrumentalists participating in this competition every year. I see that over one-third of the participants are good and have a sound base in music. It is very promising to see such youngsters, who are singing with so much awareness.”

Two new judges

The panel of judges this time had two new faces — mridangam vidwan Sridharan Sankaran, who started learning mridangam from Thiruvarur S. Janakiraman in the Palani Subramanya Pillai lineage and received advanced training from Mannargudi Easwaran, and Carnatic vocalist Sajeev Chandramana, who started learning music at the age of four and underwent advanced training under Varkala C.S. Jayaraman.

Both musicians said that they had enjoyed watching the entries and giving marks. They were also fascinated by how young children had patiently learnt to perform and sent in their entries.

For the full list of winners, click on newsth.live/winnerslist.