Apr 04 (Emirates247): Meenakshi Jayakumar, a seventh standard Indian schoolgirl has won Sharjah TV’s four-month-long Arabic music reality show, Munshid Sharjah (Singer of Sharjah).

Meenakshi says she’s started learning Arabic more seriously now after she emerged winner of the show.

Despite winning the title, the young girl has no plans to make a career in music. “She wants to continue music as a hobby and her interest is in another career,” her family told Emirates 24|7.

She received the trophy at a function on Thursday in Sharjah University Hall in the presence of a huge audience.

Her father Jayakumar Nair, an engineer, mother Rekha, an ayurvedic doctor, and younger sister Kalyani, were present at the function.

The reality show is judged by group of well-known Arabic singers and composers – Tunisian singer Lotfi Bouchnak, Emirati Nasheed star Osama Al Safi, Syrian composer Assim Al Bunni and renowned Islamic singer Mesut Kurtis. Singers are judged on their singing ability as well as by the public voting through SMS.

“We are surprised by the number of text messages that our daughter received as part of the Munshid Sharjah music reality show. We are thankful to all the supporters and well-wishers,” Jayakumar, who has been in the UAE for more than eight years, told this website.

The Indian family from Kerala has been in Sharjah for nearly eight years and Meenaskhi was born in Kerala and came to the UAE only when she was four years old.

She took preliminary music from her mother, who is also a singer. Meenakshi was one of the eight finalists in the fiercely contested show. She isn’t yet fluent in Arabic, say her parents. “She has been learning as part of her school curriculum and she was downloading all these songs to participate in the competition,” they said.