Hams Fekri, a 29-year-old Saudi wedding ceremony singer from Jeddah, has been topped the winner of the primary season of “Saudi Idol” throughout a transferring stay finale from The Boulevard Riyadh Metropolis leisure advanced.

The golden-throated Fekri was exultant after battling it out in entrance of a stay studio viewers and panel of judges for 13 weeks. She emerged victorious out of three finalists to win most viewers votes for the night time. Fekri’s mom — who achieved success as a pop singer throughout the Nineteen Eighties, however subsequently light into obscurity — hugged her daughter on stage. 

Along with being named the very first “Saudi Idol,” Fekri additionally received a recording contract with MBC Group’s Platinum Information label which entails the discharge of a full studio album within the coming months.

Following her win, Fekri expressed her gratitude to the viewers who voted for her, saying: “Everybody’s love and assist throughout this journey has made me a distinct individual, and I hope to stay as much as their expectations. I’m going to proceed to work more durable and more durable!”

She additionally paid tribute to Saudi Arabia, thanking the dominion, which is present process a serious cultural shift, for serving to to attain her dream.

The primary Saudi Arabian version of Fremantle’s international Idol franchise was produced by main Center East broadcaster MBC in tandem with Saudi Arabia’s Normal Leisure Authority.

Previous to the present’s finale, Selection spoke to Samar Akrouk, MBC Group’s director of manufacturing, in regards to the challenges and thrills of pioneering the Idol format in Saudi Arabia as the dominion morphs right into a regional leisure hub and restrictions beforehand imposed by conservative clerics slowly ease.

MBC produces numerous Arab expertise exhibits. Do you contemplate “Saudi Idol” notably important by way of breaking cultural obstacles? 

Such as you stated, we’ve had big success with “Arab Idol,” which is a pan-Arab model of the format. And earlier than doing “Saudi Idol,” the primary localized model we did was “Iraq Idol.”

That stated, MBC has been a frontrunner, or an enormous contributor, to this [cultural] change that you just’re seeing in Saudi Arabia, and has most likely been on the forefront of it. I imply, now we have been producing content material – I’d say progressive, tolerant, eye-opening content material – for years. And, by the best way, [before the country opened up] we could not have been producing this sort of content material in Saudi Arabia, however we had been producing it for the Saudi viewers. So the urge for food is there. Certainly, you can not deny that there are many constructive adjustments which might be occurring in Saudi Arabia, and notably on this planet of leisure. However I additionally assume that now we have at all times been a part of this pattern. We’ve at all times been serving to to advertise and propel this pattern.

Are you able to speak to me in regards to the “Saudi Idol” auditions course of?

I contemplate Saudi Arabia to be extra like a continent, not a rustic. As a result of it’s big. So we went south, east and west to all the main cities. What we do is we ship the behind-the-scenes workforce throughout all of the areas. We accumulate the tales — I name them “The Good, the Unhealthy and the Ugly.” These are the tales that we expect could make good tv content material. After which we deliver them in and we do the auditions, which is what you see with the jury. So we lined a number of cities. We had big turnouts from all these completely different cities and from – how can I say this – the completely different perception techniques which might be in Saudi Arabia. We attracted all of them. They got here and so they made it on the present. 

The “Saudi Idol” jury options Saudi singer Aseel Abu Bakr, Emirati singer and actress Ahlam, Syrian singer Asala and Iraqi singer and composer Majed Al Mohandis. Not all of them are Saudis. How had been they chosen?

Initially, the jury needs to be picked primarily based on characters. You could have robust characters and personalities on these exhibits. So it at all times begins from there. Even in our different exhibits, it doesn’t begin with nationalities. It begins with who we expect has the character and the character to hold these applications. So how did we select the jury? Properly, they aren’t all Saudis. However all 4 of them have an enormous fan base in Saudi Arabia, and still have produced Saudi music. So, even when not by passport or by nationality, they’re Saudis. They’ve an enormous fan base there, and so they have mastered the artwork of Saudi music.

The jury can also be gender-balanced (two ladies, two males) and the ladies aren’t carrying veils.

After all, you additionally need to just remember to have feminine illustration and male illustration. I need to level out that one of many jury members, Ahlam, truly began with us within the “Arab Idol” franchise. So it made sense to indicate the expansion and the continuity of this format, and the way we took her from “Arab Idol,” and put her in “Saudi Idol.” That created a really good hyperlink or an extension, let’s say, of the model.

What in regards to the veil? I do know Saudi just isn’t Iran. However I’ve been to Saudi just lately and most girls there have been veiled.

Sporting a veil is a matter of alternative in Saudi Arabia, and within the Arab world normally. I do know that possibly folks don’t perceive that. Nevertheless it’s truly a alternative, and it’s a cultural factor. So you possibly can put on it, or you cannot put on it. And once we did our casting, I’d say about 30% of the ladies got here veiled. 

Are you able to give ma an thought of the forms of music on “Saudi Idol”?

Because it’s “Saudi Idol” and the contestants are Saudi, clearly the vast majority of the music is Saudi music which has a specific model to it. It’s heavy on percussion. A variety of the songs on the present are Saudi. I’d say the cut up is about 70/30 (70% Saudi, and 30% Arabic from elsewhere). So we take widespread Saudi songs from the Saudi legends, whether or not they be Mohammed Abdu or Abadi Al-Johar, or Rabeh Saqer, and we create fashionable variations of their songs, and these younger skills are singing them. However the contestants aren’t simply singing Saudi songs, or re-engineered Saudi songs. They’re additionally singing different highly regarded songs from the area — Egyptian songs, Lebanese songs, however at all times re-engineered for his or her voice and their vocal vary 

Was there any Arab rap music on the present?

We don’t have a rapper on this season. However that doesn’t imply this isn’t one thing that we’d need to embody subsequent time round. Typically, these exhibits are extra for a mass viewers. So rapping could also be a little bit bit extra area of interest. Hip hop is big in Saudi Arabia. However whereas I’d love to incorporate them in this sort of present, they could be deprived as a result of the opposite forms of songs could have extra of a mass enchantment. However personally I believe that’s the following factor that I’m speaking to MBC about: producing a present for rappers, about hip hop. It’s an enormous underground scene. Actually it’s not even underground anymore. It’s an enormous scene that draws a lot of the Arab youth.

How have the scores been?

It’s doing very effectively. “Saudi Idol” has introduced eyeballs again to TV. It’s our primary non-football [soccer] present, I’ll put it to you that approach. As a result of it was additionally competing with the World Cup, after which the resumption of the soccer [soccer] league. So it’s doing exceptionally effectively. It’s been our primary program in its time slot proper now, throughout the MENA area. Commercially, the present has to do effectively in Saudi Arabia, clearly, and it does. In order that’s our important market. However we’ve doing it with a imaginative and prescient that it must journey. And it actually has.

How vital do you assume “Saudi Idol” is in establishing Saudi Arabia as a regional leisure entity?

Saudi Arabia is turning into a regional hub. So producing in Saudi and attracting native expertise is nice, in and of itself. However that’s not the place we need to cease. We would like to have the ability to take the Saudi tradition, the Saudi ecosystem normally, and be sure that it transcends boundaries. When you have got a jury on “Saudi Idol” that’s as eclectic as ours, which might be Saudis and non-Saudis, that’s precisely what you’re doing. You are attempting to take the Saudi track, the Saudi expertise, and the Saudi tradition, and hope that it transcends these boundaries.