
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
American Idol

Pop Idol

Australian Idol

Australian Idol is a Logie Award-winning Australian singing competition, which began its first season on 27 July 2003. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the reality program Pop Idol created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller. Australian Idol is televised on Channel 10, and the Austereo Radio Network.
The program seeks to discover the most commercial young singer in the country through a series of nationwide auditions. The outcomes of the later stages of this competition are determined by public voting by phone. The format features three judges who give critiques of the contestants' performances in order to facilitate the voting: former record executive Ian Dickson; singer Marcia Hines; and radio presenter Kyle Sandilands. The show is hosted by Andrew G, James Mathison and former contestant Ricki-Lee Coulter as a backstage presenter. The show airs on Sunday and Monday nights in Australia.
In its six seasons, the winners and runners-up have been:
Year | Winner | Runner-up |
---|---|---|
2003 | Guy Sebastian | Shannon Noll |
2004 | Casey Donovan | Anthony Callea |
2005 | Kate DeAraugo | Emily Williams |
2006 | Damien Leith | Jessica Mauboy |
2007 | Natalie Gauci | Matt Corby |
2008 | Wes Carr | Luke Dickens |
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Asian Idol

Asian Idol is a reality singing competition, which featured winners of Idol competitions from six Southeast and South Asian countries consisting of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the reality program Pop Idol created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller, which was first aired in 2001 in the United Kingdom. The first season was won by Singapore Idol Hady Mirza, who was awarded an all-expense-paid trip around the world on business class, after almost two million votes were cast.
The first season was held on December 15 and 16, 2007 in Jakarta, Indonesia.RCTI (which also hosts Indonesian Idol), was the main broadcaster, with the program shown live among participating countries.
The second season will commence on 2009.
Season 1
The first season was hosted by Amelia "Ata" Natasha and Daniel Mananta, both from Indonesian Idol, and Malaysian Idol's Soo Kui Jien.
Each participating country had its own system of determining its representative.
As a kickoff to Asian Idol, all six contestants were introduced through a special presentation called Road to Asian Idol on December 8, 2007. Meanwhile, fans of each contestant will be able to choose the song they want their Idol to perform before the Asian Idol performance show. The Idols performed two songs each—one in English and another in their native language.
In addition to the coverage of Asian Idol, RCTI ran a series of features called Asian Idol Extra between late November to mid-December 2007.
Every competing country sent a judge to serve as the contestants' critics, but comments from only three judges on each performer were shown due to time constraints.
Special guests in the Results Show included American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian, Indian Idol judge Alisha Chinai, and Vietnam Idol judge Siu Black. It also featured performances by Rivermaya, Peterpan, and Agnes Monica.
The production of Asian Idol was put up with the help of the production crew from Australian Idol.
Hady Mirza's win came as a surprise, as at least three of the judges predicted that the winner would either be Marcelo, Mohede, or Victor.
There were claims that Hady may have gotten the crucial second vote outside of his home country, wherein it is claimed that votes for strong candidates were paired with weak ones like Hady and Sawant who were trailing in Asian Idol's online survey. This voting tactic was said to avoid viewers' home Idols be beaten by their closest rivals.
In Singapore, the victory stirred hopes of a revival of the country's golden age of music during the 1960s and 70's. Tuafik Batisah, first season winner of Singapore Idol, said that the win is something their country should be proud of and hopefully this would "open the eyes and ears" of listeners. However, there were viewers in Singapore who still doubt Hady's singing ability, claiming that his performance in Asian Idol was not as strong as other competitors and it was a matter of "luck over talent". Singapore Idol judge Ken Lim reiterated that "looks and voice" had won the title for Hady.
Meanwhile, Hady shrugged off speculations that he won because he was a "non-threat", but considered himself an underdog and that he did "pretty well" in terms of sincerity and connecting with the audience.
Filipino TV and movie critic Nestor U. Torre mentioned that he was not surprised about Hady's win, even lauding him for his "impressively cool yet dynamic" performances. He also appreciated Victor and Phuong Vy's performances. While Torre was also equally impressed by Marcelo and Mohede's voices, he also said that their girth worked to their disadvantage. On Sawant, Torre noted that his "balladeer" projection was "less dynamic" with his country's large voting population failing him. Despite the surprises and disappointments in the competition, Torre regarded Asian Idol a success as it produced relatively new talents in the Asian and international music scene.
Voting procedures
There are several differences in voting and tabulation between Asian Idol and other Idol shows. Unlike the latter wherein the viewers get to vote for one contestant, the voting procedure for Asian Idol requires viewers to send SMS votes for two favorite Idols, thus allowing contestants to receive votes aside from their respective countries.
As consideration on population size among the participating countries, tabulation of votes are done through an "Equal and Even Cumulative Method", wherein the total votes of each country are converted into percentages. The winner was said to be determined through 50% viewers' votes and 50% judges' scores, but this was not confirmed during the program.
Partial results
Daniel Hartono, project manager of Asian Idol, revealed during a press conference that Mohede received the highest amount of actual votes at approximately one million in total. However, because of the show's voting process where 50% of votes per country goes to the second option Idol, Mohede's votes were slashed by half and total percentages of votes from other participating countries were added. Hady, meanwhile, got the highest number of "second option votes". In total, Hady got 115% while Mohede is in second place with 111% and Victor got the lowest amount of votes. The rankings of other contestants were not revealed.
Controversies
Sandeep Acharya, the second-season winner of Indian Idol, was dismayed over Sawant's selection to compete in Asian Idol. He claimed that Sony TV India, the broadcaster of Indian Idol, was supposed to hold a competition among its three winners to determine India's representative and he felt he was bypassed.
Network representatives clarified that although they have the option to choose their representative, they were toying the idea of competing the three Indian Idol winners—including season 3 winner Prashant Tamang. However, it was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.
There were reports of disrupted voting lines the Philippines, making SMS votes delayed by as much as eight hours until the morning of December 16, 2007. According to representatives of ABC, the Philippine broadcaster of Asian Idol, the glitch was caused by "a clog in the telephone companies".
Season 2
Fotini Paraskakis, FremantleMedia Asia's production director (which holds the Idol franchises in the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Malaysia) reported that the second season will not take place in 2008, and is planning to launch on 2009 due to several reasons (Kazakhstan, Malaysian and Singapore franchises ended, relaunch of the Philippine franchise, delayed launch of India and Vietnam, cancellation of the Pakistan franchise). Thailand (which will have its franchise soon) is reported to participate in the event.
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.
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.


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.


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.


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.
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.

