Indonesian Idol

Indonesian Idol is an annual Indonesian singing competition which began its first season in 2004. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the British reality program Pop Idol.



Aired on RCTI, one of Indonesia's largest commercial television networks, Indonesian Idol became one of the most highly publicized music competitions in Indonesia. After Indonesian Idol 's appearance on Indonesian television, many new similarly themed reality shows were aired.

The 2008 season of Indonesian Idol saw a decline. Soon after, on 18 November 2008, RCTI announced that the reality show had been cancelled.

Indonesian Idol won the 2005 and 2006 Panasonic Awards for the Best Music Variety Show. It also defeated its rival, Akademi Fantasi Indosiar or Indonesians usually say AFI, but in 2004, AFI won the awards in Panasonic Awards 2004 as the Best Reality Show. Singapore Tourism Board also rewarded Indonesian Idol Season 1 by inviting the Top 11 contestants of Indonesian Idol Season 1 to the American Idol World Tour there. Joy, the winner of season 1, was the opening singer of the concert.

Season 1

The first season was conducted in 2004 where the auditions were held at five cities: Medan, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta. There were 32.000 people who auditioned for Season 1. The show became a big phenomenon after the grandfinale was watched by about 4 millions people in September 2004. There were several people who sang off-keys on the audition who competed on 'Coba Lagi Awards' (Try Again Awards). The winner of this award became a guest star on The Top 11 Spectacular Show's Result Show.

The number of the finalists on the first Spectacular Show was originally planned to be 10. However, the judges then made a surprising move by picking Lucky Octavian to also get the wild-card ticket (the first wild card ticket was taken by Karen Pooroe) making the number of contestants became 11. Guy Sebastian who was in Indonesia for his album promo tour, came as a guest star at the Top 7 Spectacular Show.

Indonesian Idol released its first compilation album, Indonesian Idol: Indonesian All Time Hits. The album made a huge success and had a Gold status. In the album, the Top 11 sang their first hit, Ekspresi.

Two finalists who battled at the Grand Finale were Joy Destiny Tobing and Delon Thamrin. There were 7,000 people who watched the show live at Istora Senayan, Jakarta. The soon to be Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also watched the grandfinal. Eventually, the winner of the first season was Joy Destiny Tobing from Jakarta.

She signed a contract deal with BMG Indonesia, the partner of Indonesian Idol's 19 Management. Not so long after her victory, Joy released her first album, Terima Kasih (Thank You) including her new single, most notable as her coronation song, Karena Cinta.

Season 2

The second season started on 25 March 2005. Auditions were held from 15 February-17 March at five cities: Makassar, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta. The audition in Medan was canceled due to the tsunami on 2004 that destroyed most part of Aceh and North Sumatra. Then, as a replacement, the adution was also held in Makassar. There were 38,000 people who auditioned for the second season.

There were some changes on the second season, named there was no Wildcard round, and the number of the finalists on the spectacular show became 12. There were 9 male contestants who made it to the top 12 and only 3 female contestants. Because the age limit was decreased from 18 to 16, there were some teenagers who made it to the Top 12, named Monita and Vira.

Indonesian Idol Season 2 Compilation Album was released 3 weeks after the Spectacular Show began. The title of the album was Seri Cinta or Love Songs. The album single hits was Cintaku, sang by the Season 2's Top 12.

Two finalists that who in the Finale were Mike and Judika. The Grand Final was held at the Pleanary Hall of Jakarta Convention Center. The winner for season 2 is Mike. In the Result Show, some stars became guest starss, one of them was Christian Bautista a famous male singer from the Philippines. Ruth Sahanaya, Indonesia's Pop Diva made a surprise appearance for Mike and Judika when they sang her song, Tak Kuduga. Season 1 finalists came to the Result Show and sang together with season 2's finalists. Mike won a car from RCTI and FremantleMedia and signed a contract with SonyBMG for his album.

The votes margin between Judika and Mike on the finale was only 0.6%. Before the Final Result Show, Judika led the vote. But, finally Mike passed him and won. Not long after the finale, he released his self-titled album with his new single, Semua Untuk Cinta (All For Love). Mike's album made a huge success at the market. Many great Indonesian Composers made some songs for Mike's first album, including, Cinta Tak Bertuan composed by Indonesia's Most Favorite Male Singer, Glenn Fredly. Runner up Judika has also released his solo album. His album was released on August 2006. The top 12 contestants had a tour to Surabaya. The tour was originally planned to also go to Bandung, Yogyakarta], and Makassar. However, Fremantle canceled it without any published reason. Wisnu is working for RCTI as an anchor.

Season 3

The third season of Indonesian Idol was launched on April 21, 2006. The auditions were held at some Indonesia's major cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Medan. This season, Indonesian Idols also conducted small auditions at some other cities such as Manado and Ambon. The contestants who passed the initial round in both Manado and Ambon were eventually brought into an elimination round in Surabaya. After an additional elimination round, the final group of contestants were finally brought to Jakarta to determine the final twelve contestants who made it onto the Indonesian Idols Spectacular Show.

As with previous Indonesian Idol seasons, the spectacular show was held in Balai Sarbini (Sarbini Building) located in South of Jakarta. The Third Season's finalists were considered better than the previous seasons by the judges. However, there were some surprising eliminations going on at the Spectacular Show. Depe, who was a huge favorite to be at the Grand Final, was unfortunately landed on the bottom three along with Gea and Nobo after the first Spectacular Show. She was eventually the first Idol to be eliminated by fans votes. Indra Lesmana said that Depe was way too early to be eliminated. After this elimination, Gea and Nobo were always safe until they were eventually voted out. The other unexpected elimination was Sisi's, who was a huge favorite amongst judges to be the Season 3 winner. She got eliminated on the fifth Spectacular Show. The Final Three consisted of Gea, Dirly, and Ihsan. There were unconfirmed rumors arose saying that the Top 3 contestants made it to the top because of their looks.

The third season also released a compilation album called, Tribute to Tonny Koeswoyo. Tonny, one of the founding members of Koes Plus, a legendary Indonesian Rock Band, died in 1987. Before his death, he and his brothers produced more than a few catch tunes that people still remember until today. The Top 12 Finalists sang Nusantara (Nusantara is the other name for Indonesia) as well as Koes Plus' other famous hit songs such as Diana and Kembali ke Jakarta (Return to Jakarta).

Gea the Top 3 finalist was a favorite to be the winner of the season because of her energetic and "cutesy" performance. However, her fans votes were not enough to safe her from elimination from the Top 3. This left Dirly and Ihsan to battle at the Grand Finale for the Indonesian Idol Season 3 title. As with the previous Indonesian Idols seasons, the Grand Finale was held at the Istora Senayan (Senayan Athletic Complex) in Central Jakarta. The live audience who attended the Grand Finale was approximately 7,000 persons. The winner's single for the 3rd Season is Kemenangan Hati. It was written by Indonesia's top composer, Yovie Widyanto, who also served as guest judge at the Indonesian Idols season two auditions. When the dust was settled, Ihsan was announced by Ata, the host, as the winner of Indonesian Idols Season 3. Ihsan then performed an encore performance to close the season.

Season 4

On Wednesday, January 10, 2007, Fremantle Media Asia officially launched the fourth edition of award winning Indonesian Idols. The show was initially announced at the 2006 Panasonic Awards when the Indonesian Idols judges were on hand to received the award for the Best Music and Variety Show. The 4th season commercial also has been airing in RCTI prior to the official launch date. In the official Indonesian Idols website, it was stated that starting from Season 4, future Idols participants can register online and print the audition form rather than using the current registration process which might take up to a whole day to complete. The organizers have added more pre-audition cities compared to last season which received additional host towns such as Banjarmasin, Makassar, Manado, Palembang, Manokwari, Denpasar & Semarang. So far, more than 120,000 people have taken advantage of the new registration process and registered online.Ata and Daniel are back as fourth season's colorful hosts. On the workshop round plus the first two spectacular ahow, Daniel hosted the show alone due to Ata's pregnancy. Ata started joining Daniel back hosting the show on the third spectacular show. Nirina Zubir and Indra Bekti was also announced as the Idol Banget (Extreme Idols) hosts.

However, changes were made to the judging team this season. While Titi DJ and Indra Lesmana are back as the judges, due to scheduling difficulties of their career, Indy Barends and Dimas Djayadiningrat have resigned from judging fourth season Indonesian Idols. Their colorful judging and commentary will be missed. They both are going to be replaced by Anang and Jamie Aditya. Anang, who is the husband of Indonesia's most famous Pop Diva, Krisdayanti, is also known as an established musician as well as a music producer. He was very well known for writing, singing and co-producing Multi-Platinum albums alongside his wife in the duo "Anang dan Krisdayanti". Jamie Aditya, was a Video Jockey during MTV Asia early years. Jamie, a talented musician in his own right, is rumored to launch an LP in 2007 which he hopes to be as successful as Indonesian singer Anggun

The fourth season premiered on 30 March 2007.

The fourth season's theme this year is a compilation album called, "Masterpiece". This album was released on the top 6 night (Friday, 22 June 2007). It s published that all top 12 contestants sing the song "Bendera" (originally sung by Cokelat) and they already made the video clip. The short clip of it was shown on the top 7 Result Show. On the top 6 Result Show, all top 6 contestants sang the song "Bendera" from their album and the background on the main screen was the video clip of the song.

On the top 6 Result Show, it was announced the bottom two rather than the usual bottom three. Dimas finally got voted off after 5 times consecutively was placed in the bottom three or bottom two. Dimas is the only contestant of all spectacular show contestants from all 4 seasons who had the most record to be in the bottom three of two (5 times) consecutively before getting voted off.

On the top 5 Result Show, 4 alumna of Indonesian Idol (Delon (runner-up of season 1), Lucky (6th place on season 1), Mike (winner of season 2), and Judika (runner-up of season 2)) performed as guests. They were all named 'Idol Divo' which is likely adopted from Il Divo who were found by Simon Cowell one judges of American Idol and Pop Idol. Fandy was voted off at this point leaving the formation of 1 male and 3 females on the top 4. This is exactly the same formation as in season 1.

Withover 10,000 viewers at Istora Senayan during the Grand Final, it doubled the projection of the producer. Claimed as the largest, most glorious and the best Grand Final of all Idol shows, it beat American Idol in terms of stage size, design, lighting, and sound system. For the first time in history, Rini, one of the Grand Finalist (later become the winner), had the chance to sing with Indonesia's music divas, Titi DJ and Krisdayanti.

Rini along with the other top 12 also performed at the closing ceremony of the Asian Cup at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

Season 5

The commercial of season 5 was firstly aired during the Asian Idol's commercial break. Online registration was open on the Indonesian Idol's official website. Audition started on February 3, starting in Medan. Daniel returns as the show's host, along with two new hosts, Dewi Sandra and Marissa Nasution. Ata is no longer the host because she moved to Australia with her husband. There were 15 cities which were visited for auditions. Eight cities which were opened for auditions are Medan, Manado, Ambon, Bali,Surabaya, Bandung, Palembang, Jakarta. Seven other cities, Yogyakarta, Malang,Madiun, Salatiga, Cilacap, Tegal, and Cirebon, were visited by an Audition Bus that would tour around. A Dream Box was placed in The Wave Mall in Bali for auditions. The judges for the fifth season are Indra Lesmana, Titi DJ, and Anang Hermansyah. The fifth season of Indonesian Idol started to be aired on April 4, 2008.

The fifth season (2008) is just finished airing on RCTI. This season the age limit was changed from 16-29 to 17-29.

The fifth season of Idol in Indonesia saw contestants able to perform with an instrument at any stage of the competition whereas other adaptations of Idol that have introduced live instrumentation only allow the concept at certain times during the show.