Arab Idol (season 3)
| Arab Idol season 3 آراب أيدول الموسم الثالث | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Reality television |
| Created by | Simon Fuller |
| Presented by |
Annabella Hilal Ahmad Fahmi |
| Judges |
Wael Kfoury Ahlam Hassan El Shafei Nancy Ajram |
| Country of origin |
 |
| Original language(s) | Arabic |
| Production | |
| Running time | Varies |
| Release | |
| Original network | MBC 1 |
| Original release | 5 September – 13 December 2014 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Arab Idol (season 2) |
| Followed by | Arab Idol (season 4) |
The third season of Arab Idol premiered on 5 September 2014. Auditions were held in Beirut, Bahrain, Kuwait, Algeria, Cairo, Alexandria, Dubai, Morocco, Palestine, the Iraqi-Kurdish city of Irbil and on the European continent, notably in Paris and Berlin. Emirates Airlines was a major sponsor of season 3. The winner of the season was Hazem Shareef from Syria.
Auditions
MBC1 announced on the venues where auditions for Arab Idol would be held, and many cities were added very notably Ramallah in areas of the Palestinian Authority. Arab diaspora applicants were better serviced with addition to could apply like Paris, France and Berlin, Germany.
Venues for auditions were:
- 26 February 2014:
- 2 March 2014:
- 5 March 2014:
- 7 March 2014:
- 9 March 2014:
- 13 March 2014:
- 17 March 2014:
- 17 March 2014:
- 20 March 2014:
- 22 March 2014:
- 25 March 2014:
- 30 March 2014:
Judges
Three of the four judges from season 2 returned with Ragheb Alama being replaced, after two consecutive seasons, by another well-known Lebanese singer, Wael Kfoury, who was recently a judge on the pan-Arabian version of The X Factor. The judging panel comprised:
Contestants
Eighty candidates were chosen from all venues to be auditioned in Beirut. They were divided into 14 groups, each presenting a group presentation of various genres like Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, Khaleeji etc. In episodes 5 and 6, a total of 26 finalists were chosen from the initial group presentations to go to the live rounds.
Season 3 was also notable because of the presence of non-Arabic-speaking contestants at the auditions. Some examples included Nao Koyasu, a Japanese lady who auditioned in Dubai[1][2]; and sisters Karishma and Prateeka Hemanathan, both from south India, who auditioned in Bahrain[3], among others. Of these, only Koyasu made it through to the next round, the group challenge, though she did not make it any further[4].
Male contestants chosen were:
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Female contestants chosen were:
- From
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This way, in the final 26, eleven Arab countries were represented, with Egypt getting 10 nominated candidates of the total 26 contestants.
Final ranking
On finale night, December 13, 2014, Hazem Shareef from Syria was crowned the winner of the third season of Arab Idol in a tough competition against Haitham Khalaily from Palestine and Majed Madani from Saudi Arabia.
- Hazem Shareef,
- Haitham Khalayla,
- Majed al Madani,
- Mohammad Rashad,
- Ammar al Koufi,
- Waleed al Jilani,
- Manal Moussa,
- Inas Ezzeddin,
- Mohammad Hassan,
- Ajrad Yaghourta,
- Sahar Abou Sharouf,
- Hameed al Abdouli,
- Mu'min Khalil,