From Columbus to Kathmandu: Reality TV auditions bring Nepali singers, dancers to town
Nepali-language love songs and film tunes wafted through halls of the Crowne Plaza Columbus North-Worthington as scores of musicians waited for their turn to audition for a musical reality show.
Strumming a guitar in the foyer was Manish Humagain, a 27-year-old insurance agent from New Hampshire who softly sang the ballad “Saajha Pare Pachhi”(After Night Falls).
“Without music, life would be incomplete. … Whenever I need motivation or I feel stressed, I grab my guitar and sing,” said Humagain, who was dressed in all black and combat boots.
Humagain was one of about 50 amateur musicians from Nepali and Bhutanese Nepali communities across the U.S. and Canada competing for spots on Saturday in "Mero Voice Universe." ("Mero" means "my" in Nepali.)
Sponsored by the Reynoldsburg-based Intra Foundation, the competition — which on Saturday converted the hotel's conference hall into a TV studio — will hold nine more auditions in Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, and South and Southeast Asia before shooting episodes in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, later this year.
Intra Foundation is also organizing "Mero Dance Universe," a sister show, which held auditions at the Crowne Plaza on Sunday.
The foundation's chairperson, Dilli Adhikari, a Bhutanese Nepali former refugee who lives on the border of Franklin and Licking counties, said the competition aims to unite far-flung diasporas.
“We started this to promote, preserve and protect the cultural identity of the Nepali people,” he told The Dispatch. “We want our younger generation to know their origins, their culture, their tradition, so they don’t lose their identity.”
More than 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese former refugees, who were evicted by the Bhutanese government in the early 1990s, now live in the U.S., including around 30,000 in central Ohio, according to the nonprofit Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio. In addition, millions of non-Bhutanese Nepali people live and work abroad; many were pushed out by a civil war from 1996 to 2006 and a continuing weak economy.
Among the 51 singers auditioning on Saturday, about a third came from Ohio, while others came from as far away as Fort Worth, Texas; Seattle; and Quebec City in Canada.
Both Nepali and Bhutanese Nepali performers are competing in "Mero Voice Universe" and "Mero Dance Universe," which will be broadcast on Nepali TV and YouTube beginning in late March. The shows are expansions of Intra Foundation's previous productions, "Mero Voice Cup" and "Mero Dance Cup," which only accepted participants residing in the U.S.
Some contestants said they were inspired by Kansas-based Nepali singer Dibesh Pokharel (a.k.a. Arthur Gunn), who reached the "American Idol" final in 2020 on ABC, and Parijita Bastola, a Nepali American 18-year-old from Maryland who vied for the top spot in NBC's "The Voice" last year.
"Mero Voice Universe" will pay for about 100 contestants from all over the globe to travel to Nepal and award the winner around $75,000.
Adhikari, who owns a variety of healthcare and transportation businesses, said the competition is entirely not-for-profit, paid for by the Intra Foundation and Nepali American private sponsors.
Prior to his audition, contestant Saman Ghale, 34 — originally from Barpak, a mountain village near the epicenter of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake, and now a restaurant owner in Louisville, Kentucky — said he would sing the Nepali rock song “Yo Dil Mero” (This Heart of Mine) for the judges.
“It’d be a great opportunity to go (to Nepal). My parents are in Nepal,” explained Ghale, who said his favorite artists include Usher, Beyoncé and Sam Smith.
But by the evening, the judges had made their decisions, and Ghale did not make the cut.
Among the 15 selected, six contestants were from Ohio: Tara Tiwari from Columbus; Sagar Subedi from Pataskala; Tek Dhungel from Blacklick; Tek Dudhraj from Cincinnati; Moni Diyali from Cleveland; and Kissan Bhujel from Akron.
Manju Lama, 37, a selectee from Lexington, Kentucky, said her husband would take care of their three children when she goes to compete in Kathmandu in March.
“I’m not thinking about it in terms of, ‘I’m going to win,’” she said. “But I want to learn a lot. I’m really excited.”
Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mero Voice Universe singing competition draws Nepalis, Bhutanese
