By Walter Dantis, Bahrain

Kingdom of Bahrain: The much-anticipated preliminary round for Gulf Voice of Mangalore (GVOM) -3 contestants was held in the Karnataka Social Club premises here on June 15.

Eighteen aspiring and talented singers from the island lightened up the afternoon with some scintillating performances. Six singers each from male and female category were selected by the panel of judges.

Following are the winners who qualified for the semifinals round in order of the points received.

Female category: Laveena Dantis, Teena Roshan D’Souza,Shanti Noronha, Susan Monica Miranda, Melba Martis and Sushma D’Souza.

Male category: Sydney Correa, Ronald Fernandes, Anil Loy Barboza, Winston Preetham Aranha, Christopher Lobo and Francis Lobo

The singing contest started with selecting the singing sequence through lots. Richard Moras of Konkani Kutam welcomed the gathering of more than 150. In his speech, Moras said it was a great opportunity for the aspiring and budding singers to be able to showcase their talents at such a huge platform.

The singing contest was judged by a panel of well-known judges from Bahrain. The panel comprised Swebert Mascarenhas, a well-known musician from the popular “Aryan" band who has also played for the top Goan band “ Renegade”, Sonia Prabhu who is a popular singer and guitarist and  runs her own ‘Harmony School of Music’ and Richard Pais who is a well-known singer, organizer and past president of Karnataka Social club.

The winners of the preliminary round were felicitated with roses and given the application forms for semifinals.

Walter Dantis compered the programme. Henry Almeida offered a vote of thanks.