Photos: courtesy

This year marks the launch of the first of its kind reality show in Bangladesh that aims to discover the best pop band formed by teenage boys and girls. This is the year when 20 young aspiring teen pop stars grabbed the headlines of major national dailies. This is the year when this spool of young musicians will surprise us with their talent and creativity. 

Renowned beverage brand Fanta in collaboration with GTV has launched its much awaited programme, GTV Fanta Band, which has inspired the budding generation of talented young musicians and has given us a talented bundle of top 20 young pop artists.

With the slogan Ananda o moja thakuk shobar majhe (Let there be joy and fun in everyone), the show has been airing on GTV, while Radio Foorti is working as their radio partner and The Daily Star as the youth engagement partner.

The journey of choosing 20 finalists from top 300 entries was quite an arduous job for the judges. They reluctantly said no to a number of hopefuls while engaging in the tricky process of deciding who deserves to take the valuable top twenty slots.

There were tears and there were smiles. 

In the last few weeks, the judges selected 20 participants to perform in the grand finale and started grooming them with necessary tips and tricks. Everyone - the judges, contestants and viewers of this show - are waiting eagerly to watch them perform and to select the top five gets selected and forms the country's first ever teen pop band. This platform will allow them to get featured in a music video by Fuad, allowing them to showcase their talent in music along with a vibrant onscreen performance.

As it is going to be a tough fight among these top 20, three of the country's most famous music icons, Fuad Al Muqtadir, Elita Karim and Jon Kabir, will be looking for specific, unique elements in them.

"We are looking more for team players rather than solo singing talents. Since this teen band will consist of five vocalists, it's very important to be able to perform in sync and to deliver a uniform performance," says Fuad.

"Apart from talent, we are also looking for good presentation on stage, so that when they perform on stage they can give their audience an experience," adds Jon Kabir. "The energy and excitement people of this age behold need to be reflected in their performance as well." 

"I am very excited about the top five!" exclaims Elita Karim. "The teenagers are so talented that it was very difficult for us to figure out who to pick and who not to pick. But I just want to say to all the participants that they must take this as yet another lesson or experience in life. And at the end of the day, just have fun!"

After a number of glorious episodes, it's almost time to say goodbye to a number of participants while the top 5 will be revealed. Make sure you finish your work early, get a bucket full of popcorn and enjoy the performances of these youngsters.

After all you don't want to miss out on history being made by a group of teen pop stars, do you?