Myanmar News Articles: Winner of Mobile Phone Ringtone Competition Announced in Burma

Telenor Myanmar Tune Star winner Lin Myat Aung performs at a ceremony in Rangoon on Friday. (Photo: Thaw Hein Htet / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — Norway's Telenor, one of two foreign companies granted telecommunications licenses in Burma, on Friday announced the winner of a national contest to compose a mobile phone ringtone.

More than 8,500 people entered the Telenor Myanmar Tune Star competition, submitting recordings of their ringtones between June 28 and July 25 this year.

During a ceremony at Rangoon's ParkRoyal hotel, Lin Myat Aung, 21, from Pazundaung Township was named the winner, and his tune will be used in promotions of the phone company, which expected launch services in Burma next month.

"I am so happy right now. I don't have any words how to express that," Lin Myat Aung told The Irrawaddy.

"I couldn't find the idea for the melody after I decided to enter this contest. So I stopped trying, but then I hummed a melody unexpectedly the next day while I was playing the guitar in the evening and created this tune."

The famous musicians Lin Lin, D Yar Mo and Khin Myat Mon were the judges, choosing Lin Myat Aung and two other finalists—Thaw Zin Hein from Hlaing Township in Rangoon and Nay Htoo from Hpa-an, Karen State. The public then voted in a poll conducted earlier this month by text message, Facebook and on the competition's website.

D Yar Mo told The Irrawaddy that 500 contestants were chosen first a team included experts and audience members, then the judges picked the three finalists.

"The tune must be simple, attractive, ingenious and have its own identity. The winner's tune is simple but attractive and active and full of energy," he said.

The winner was awarded 10 million kyat (just over $10,000), and the runners up got 2 million kyat each.

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