سوبر ستار
Super Star Finalists (with dates of elimination)
Season 1 (2003)
Diana Karazon	Winner
Rouwayda Attieh	August 18
Melhem Zein	August 11
Saoud Abou Sultan	August 4
Wael Mansour	July 28
Merhi Serhal	July 21
Shadi Aswad	July 14
Mohammad Lafi	July 7
Saad Jamal Al-Dine	June 30
Haytham Saeed	June 30
Nancy Zabalawi	June 23
Saber Hawari	June 23
Season 2 (2004)
Ayman El Aatar	Winner
Ammar Hassan	August 23
Hadi Aswad	August 16
Ranim Qteit	August 9
Brigitte Yaghi	August 2
Mohannad Mshallah	July 26
Houssam Madanieh	July 19
Abir Nameh	July 12
Abd El Rahman Mohamed	July 12
Houssam Chami	June 28
Mohamed Daoud	June 21
Wa'ad El Bahry	June 14
Mustafa Shwiekh	June 14
Raneen El Sha'ar	June 7
Zahi Saffeyeh	June 7
Rania Shaban	May 31
Yasmine El Husaini	May 31
Season 3 (2005-2006)
Ibrahim El Hakami	Winner
Shahd Barmada	February 6
Ayman Lseeq	January 30
Ahmed El Faleh	January 23
Asma Othmani	January 23
Nancy Nasrallah	January 9
Haitham El Shoumali	January 2
Ibrahim Abd El Adheem	December 26
Asma Ben Ahmed	December 19
Hatem Adar	December 19
Samar Andeel	December 5
Yusra Hamzawi	November 28
Season 4 (2007)
Marwan Ali	Winner
Saad El Mjarred	June 4
Yusra Mahnoush	May 28
Ahmad Hussein	May 14
Rihab Saleh	May 7
Ibrahim Ashri	April 30
Fadi Abd El Khaliq	April 23
Nesma Kurdi	April 23
Youssef Bara	April 9
Mustafa Said	April 2
Rawda Bin Abdallah	March 26
Elian Ba'ini	March 19
Nada Omar	March 19

Super Star (سوبر ستار) is an Arabic television show based on the popular British show Pop Idol created by Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment & developed by Fremantle Media. The show unites the Arab community by democratically choosing the next singing sensation. The show is broadcast worldwide on Future TV, a Lebanese television station. Its also the first Idol franchise to feature contestants from multiple countries.

The show was a huge success. Ali Jaber, the executive manager of Future TV, was quoted as saying "This (program) is the most successful for an Arab television. There isn't a television program that moved the Arab world like that." [1]

However, Superstar was eclipsed by rival show Star Academy on LBC in the Middle East, in terms of popularity and ratings, after only its first season. It has been surpassed by Star Academy as the number one Arab show, and doesn't move the Arab world the way it did during the first season.

SuperStar El Alaam

Diana Karazon participated alongside 10 other Idols in the 2 show mini-event World Idol, Diana placed equal 9th place with German SuperStar Alexander Klaws on 45 points. Diana performed the first radio single from her CD Super Star El Arab - Ensani Ma Binsak. [2]

Diana received the following scores respectively:
UK awarded 4 points
Belgium awarded 1 point
Australia awarded 4 points
USA awarded 8 points
Arab world awarded 12 points (default award)
Poland awarded 1 point
The Netherlands awarded 1 point
Canada awarded 5 points
Germany awarded 6 points
Norway awarded 2 points
South Africa awarded 1 point

Super Star 2

Three new audition cities were announced - Tunisia, Bahrain & Paris, France while Algiers was dropped. Tonia Moreeb decided to quit after receiving bad comments about her judging skills in the previous season. She was replaced with music critic/agent Fadia Tanab. An amazing 83 contestants had advanced to the semi finals of Super Star 2, 81 ended up performing before 2 contestants each week would advance to become part of the Top 14 contestants. This series also offered a Wildcard show where it was revealed by the CEO of Future TV - Ali Jaber, that the Top 14 would become a Top 17 & that the Top 5 vote getters in the Wildcards would advance.

Ayman El Aatar from Janzour, Libya won the title of Super Star on August 23 2004, beating runner up Palestinian Ammar Hassan with a weighting of 54% to 46%. [3]

It was revealed later that Ayman had missed the audition in Cairo, Egypt by one day & had one last chance to audition in Damascus, Syria.

Special guests

• Wadih El Safi
• Diana Karazon
• Rouwayda Attieh
• Melhem Zein
• Saoud Abou Aultan
• Asalah Nasri
• Nawal Al Zoghbi
• Sherine
• Diana Haddad
• Washeq El Kaman
• Nancy Ajram
• Muin Sharif
• Assi el Helani
• Mari Al Ehram

Super Star 3

The telecast of Super Star 3 was delayed after the assassination of Future TV Founder & Lebanese Prime Minister - Rafik Hariri, as the TV station went into mourning. [4]

Super Star 3 is currently the longest Idol production ever with auditions beginning in Cairo on November 10 2004, with the program culminating on February 6, 2006.

Rania Kurdi did not want to renew her hosting position for Season 3, as a result Heba Sisi was hired for Season 3, but due to the lengthy hiatus over the Hariri scandal, her contract prematurely ended before the semi finals had begun, leaving Ayman to host solo for the rest of the season.

Auditions took place in the following cities:

• Beirut, Lebanon
• Damascus, Syria
• Tunis, Tunisia
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Cairo, Egypt
• Amman, Jordan
• Sydney, Australia

94 contestants advanced to the theatre round in Beirut. 6 from America, 4 from Australia, 21 from Lebanon, 8 from Egypt, 5 from Jordan, 9 from Syria, 32 from Tunisia & 5 from UAE.

The new semi final format from Denmark & America was similarly adopted this season whereby the Top 21 (10 male & 11 female) were placed in male & female groups with 5 contestants advancing to the Top 12.

The semi finalists of Super Star 3 are:
Samar Andeel (Egypt), Aida El Rahbani (Lebanon), Nancy Nasrallah (Lebanon), Rashel El Rasi (Lebanon), Hasna Zlagh (Morocco), Shahd Barmada (Syria), Asma Ben Ahmed (Tunisia), Asma Othmani (Tunisia), Fouzia El Betri (Tunisia), Olfa El Barhoumi (Tunisia), Yusra Hamzawi (Tunisia), Mohamed El Abd (Egypt), Mohamed Jamal (Egypt), Ahmed El Faleh (Iraq), Youssef Kazar (Iraq), Ibrahim Abd El Adheem (Libya), Hatem Adar (Morocco), Haitham El Shoumali (Palestine), Ibrahim El Hakami (Saudi Arabia), Anis Ltaief (Tunisia), Ayman Lseeq (Tunisia)

As of December 12 2005, the competition of Super Star has been delayed due to the assassination of Lebanese senator Gebran Tueni, the results show scheduled to air on Monday December 12 2005 will be included with the results due on Monday December 19 2005.

On January 15 2006, the competition was once again postponed due to the passing of another key political figure, Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. The performance show was recorded on Tuesday & aired on Thursday January 19. The votes from this round will be combined with the performance show on January 22 with the elimination of 2 contestants.

On the evening of Monday February 6 2006, Ibrahim El Hakami from Saudi Arabia became the 3rd Super Star over Shahd Barmada with a 53% to 47% weighting. Along with the title of Super Star, Ibrahim also won a Ford Focus. [5]

Finals elimination Chart

Special guests

Once again this season, special musical guests have been invited to the show to offer their support & critiques.

• Ayman El Aatar
• Ammar Hassan
• Hadi Aswad
• Ranim Qteit
• Tony Hana
• Abdullah El Rowaished
• Walid Tawfiq
• Marwan Khoury
• Nabil Shaeil
• Lotfi Boushnaq
• Julia Boutros
• Nancy Ajram

Super Star 4

Season 4 of Super Star was officially confirmed of the season 3 Grand Final.

On April 10 2006, the following audition cities were revealed on the official Future TV website:

• Beirut, Lebanon
• Cairo, Egypt
• Amman, Jordan
• Tunis, Tunisia
• Kuwait City, Kuwait
• Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Montréal, Canada
• Los Angeles, USA
• Detroit, USA

(Sao Paulo, Brazil was to be included but scrapped at the last minute [6])

Auditions took place during September 2006 and the new season premiered on Future TV in late January 2007, one week after the premier of the sixth season of American Idol. The performance show airs on Sunday night with the results show on Monday night.

Special Guests:

• Mayada El Hinawi
• Ibrahim El Hakami
• Wadih El Safi
• Brigitte Yaghi
• Hani Shaker
• Melhem Zein
• Sabah Fakhry
• Carole Samaha
• Ehab Tawfik
• Assi Helani

Finals elimination Chart

Idol series

National franchises: United Kingdom (original) • Armenia • Australia • Belgium • Brazil • Bulgaria • Canada • Croatia • Czech Republic • Denmark • Estonia • Finland • France • Germany • Greece • Iceland • India • Indonesia • Kazakhstan • Malaysia • Netherlands • New Zealand • Norway • Pakistan • Philippines • Poland • Portugal • Russia • Singapore • Slovakia • South Africa • Sweden • Turkey • United States • Vietnam International franchises: Arab world • Asia • Latin America • Serbia-Montenegro & Macedonia • West Africa • World Idol

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