Star Academy

I don’t know why I become almost addicted to this tv show. I used to hate it, I tried to avoid watching and even starring to this show for a second. But, imagine this.. how could I not watch it when all of my family members (including my mom AND dad!) watch this show with some kind of excitement! hahaha. Should I be in my room alone when all of them are in the living room??? No!

Star Academy is just like any other singing contest, i.e. American Idol. If I’m not mistaken, this program was first broadcasted in France and became so popular! Then… one of the best Lebanese tv stations, LBC “copied” the original concept of Star Academy France and applied it in the Arab countries (Middle East and North Africa). Unlike its “rival”, Superstar (Arabic version of Pop Idol), this show was surprisingly succeed. When I was in Jeddah, people were constantly talking about Star Academy… til you get sick of it *sigh*.

Compared to Idol show, Star Academy is more livable and exciting. The Prime (a weekly live show) is filled with not only singing (Arabic, English, or French songs), but also dancing, acting, and reportage of the candidates (sometimes we call them students). Sometimes I see this show as a complete version of Idol + Big Brother . Coz LBC provides a 24 hours channel (called Nagham) in which we can see what the students are doing in the “dorm”. But don’t ever compared this show with a nasty Australian Big Brother!! You still can see the candidates wearing tank tops, mini skirts, and stuff (well, in fact it’s not unusual to see that! although we’re in arabic country!!! ), hugging & kissing (I don’t think the Saudi candidates are used to doing that hahaha.. they must be shocked or probably “excited”), but so far.. I never see any flirting, affairs.. etc inside the house. Btw, the students are not allowed to go outside the house (except for the Prime and prizes ), meet their family members, and are only permitted to call their families/friends for 2 minutes per day.

But one thing I don’t like about the show is how the audience votes the candidates. They’re not voting for someone who has the best voice or has the most talents.. but they’re voting for their countries!! For examples, each week there’ll be 3 nominees, and the audience will vote for the one they love. If.. the nominees, let say A from Lebanon, B from Morocco, and C from Bahrain. Candidate A will DEFINITELY get the lowest vote. Why is that?? Because Lebanon is a small country, no body will vote for A except people from Lebanon and other neighbouring countries (probably Palestine, Jordan, Syria). Candidate B usually has the highest supporters, since the audience who supports B are not only from Morocco, but also Algeria, Tunis, and French-speaking people. Candidate C is usually the second highest.. he/she will get a support from all Gulf countries, e.g. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, etc. Not fair, right?

LBC is now broadcasting Star Academy 3. I’m not able to watch the Primes ever since I left Jeddah and was very surprised discovering this site with the list of videos of all Primes!! I can now download them for freeeeeeeee!! hahaha.. I even got the mp3 versions of the Primes from this website. My favourite candidate is Hanaa from Morocco since the show was started.. I love her voice!! She has not been nominated yet!! She was at Top 1 on last week’s Prime (meaning the best performer for the previous prime) and got a chance to visit France for her prize. Woww.. Currently there are 5 students in the house, 3 of them are nominated, and two of them will go home. The final is getting neaaaaaaaar…. Yay! Hmm.. I guess this is my only entertainment during a hectic and busy week at Uni…

- Star Academy Lebanon: The Complete Profiles
- Star Academy Lebanon: Photo Gallery
- Star Academy Lebanon @ Wikipedia
- Unofficial Star Academy 3 Blog
- Official Star Academy 3 Website