Bhubaneswar, Sept 4: Singing talent Ananya Nanda from the state has been creating waves across the country with her expressive singing in Indian Idol Junior.

Ananya was able to get a big platform to showcase her talent. Not many in the state are so fortunate.

A group of youngsters in the city have come together to provide young differently-abled singers the opportunity to display their singing talent.

They are going to launch a music album with eight visually-impaired singers from the state.

"There are a so many talented people in our state who go unnoticed. The differently-abled are the ones who suffer a lot. So, we thought of garnering their inner talents and putting the spotlight on them," said Soumya Mishra, a student of English at Rama Devi Women's University and one of the partners in the initiative.

The group conducted an audition of singers at Jayadev Bhavan in the city last month where 35 young differently-abled singers took part. From them, eight have been selected to sing in the album.

"The youngsters are extremely talented. They included a number of variations in their singing and impressed the judges considerably. They do not get proper guidance but have no dearth of enthusiasm. Our aim is to give them a platform to perform," said Subhakanta, another youngster involved in the initiative.

"We visited a number of rural areas and blind schools to identity these people," said Soumya.

Eminent singers Abhijeet Mishra and Susmita Das will compose the songs and sing along with the youngsters.

City-based organisation Swabhiman, which works for the rights of the differently-abled, is co-ordinating the entire process. The album will be released by film stars at the children's festival, Anjali, conducted by the organisaiton every year.

"Once the album is released, we will try to send it across to music directors in the state so that some of them are able to get breaks in Odia films. We will also try to make sure that they get to participate in various signing competitions at the national level," said Asit Behera, a member of Swabhiman.