V] to announce 'Popstars' finalists on Thursday

Channel [V] Popstars is all set to announce its first pop girl band.

The names of the girls who have made it to the final five will be made public on Thursday at 8 pm on the channel. The real drama, says the channel, begins now as the finalists go through a complete transition from being girls next door to raving divas. Leading stylists, makeup artists, voice trainers, music directors, lyricists, video producers, and the record companies will work their magic to effect the transition. All this will be captured on camera live.

Popstars travelled across Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai and Goa auditioning and searching for the perfect five. Jury members toured the six metros making the crucial selection based on voice followed by confidence, and personality.

Extensive tests were conducted when the semi finalists were brought to Mumbai where the girls had to prepare their compositions, make dummy tracks, go through dance training sessions, sing difficult tracks all with a hope of making it as the ultimate pop band. Thursday‘s episode will feature the jury visiting the girls at their homes to inform them if they made it or not.

Popstars, launched amid much fanfare (Star TV CEO James Murdoch flew in for the formal announcement) late last year and has been promoted aggressively across the Star network. Novel promotional efforts like three kilometer long banners, wedding bands on the streets of metros and hoardings have marked the Popstars journey. It now remains to be seen if the band lives up to its name.