Kerala Kalolsavam 2026 / Guitar heroes shine, but where are the girls?

While the world has seen the power of guitar maestros like Jennifer Batten, Joan Jett, Nancy Wilson, and versatile artists like Joni Mitchell, the guitar performance scene at Mar Thimotheus High School, Kuriachira, was a tad disappointing. Among the 15 students (including an appeal by a girl) who turned up with their guitars slung across their shoulders, 13 were boys and only two were girls. So where were all the girls?

During these competitions, it feels like a boy’s world out there, says Nikhita S Krishnan, a Plus Two student studying at Vimala Hridaya Girls HSS, Kollam. Clinching a hat-trick victory of A grade, she says: “Even during the past few years we had only two girls. Guitar is mostly associated with boys and band culture, with most girls preferring instruments like violin and piano. I wish this changed,” she says.

Easwar M Madhu, who secured A grade for the second time in the festival, says that while participation of girls is seen in sub-district and district levels, they end up not making the cut in State level. “This is an instrument that requires intense passion and full attention to master. I think this needs a certain kind of obsessive practice to master it,” says the 17-year-old who enthralled the crowd with Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’, Owl City’s Fireflies and Yung Kai’s ‘Blue’.

Nived P, a student of Vaduthala Jama-ath Higher Secondary School who surprised the crowd by strumming virtuously and smoothly and even playing the accompanying percussion beats by tapping on his guitar, says that he never really ‘noticed’ the absence in the competition till now. “ I am not sure why that happens,” he says.