Wisdom Of The Crowds?

Singapore's Tamil FM channel (Oli 96.8 FM) has chosen Kangal Irandal from Subramaniapuram as its Song of Year 2008. The annual ranking of Top 100 Tamil film songs is based on a public voting of the selected songs and it has sprung up a few surprises. The first song deserves its place. Similarly 6 songs from Vaaranam Aayiram figure in the Top 15 songs and this was also expected since this album was widely acknowledged as the best album of the year.

While I don't know how many people really participate in this voting, I have a feeling that even a small swing can push a song up or down. I was quite surprised to see 3 songs from Kuruvi making it to the Top 10. I really doubt whether Kuruvi deserves a place in the Top 10 list. The only song worthy of it is Thaen Thaen. If one were to look at the reasons behind Kuruvi's superior performance, one could be the general popularity of actor Vijay among Singapore locals and the other could be the lack of genuine public support for other well deserving songs. How else can I explain when I see a pretty average song like Mozha Mozhannu Yamma Yamma from Kuruvi at #16  while there are much better songs which make up the bottom of the list.