With Canadian Idol having just crowned this year’s winner and AI’s Season 7 is a mere 4 months away, I decided t0 span the globe and see just how many versions of Idol there are out there. After a little bit of digging I discovered that there actually more than I originally thought. Some have gone dormant, some were canceled after one or two outings and some are just finishing up or starting up – so I guess at any given time there is an Idol competition going on somewhere in the world.
Here’s a look at my findings…
Idols Franchises that were Canceled
Malaysian Idol |
Singapore Idol |
Idol Serbia-Montenegro & Macedonia |
Idol Franchises that are Dormant
(no competitions for a least 2 years)
New Zealand Idol |
Hrvatski Idol (Croatian) |
Česko hledá SuperStar (Czech) |
Idols (Denmark) |
Idolos Portugal |
Super Idol (Greece) |
Idol stjörnuleit (Iceland) |
Idols (Netherlands) |
Idol (Poland) |
Narodniy Artist (Russia) |
Slovensko hľadá SuperStar (Slovakia) |
Idols (South Africa) |
Idol (Sweden) |
Turkstar (Turkey) |
Idol Franchises that had a 2007 season, are in progress or will be starting up in the near future
Australian Idol |
2007 in progress |
Nouvelle Star (France) |
2007 winner – Julien Dore |
Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Germany |
2007 – Mark Medlock 2008 – In progress / Auditions |
Hay Superstar (Armenian) |
2007 winner – Lusine Aghabekyan |
Canadian Idol |
2007 winner – Brian Melo |
Latin American Idol |
2007 in progress |
Idool 2007 (Belgium ) |
2007 winner – Dean Delannoit |
Idolos Brazil |
2007 winner – Thaeme Marioto |
Music Idol (Bulgaria) |
2007 winner – Nevena Tsoneva |
Idols (Finland) |
2007 winner – Ari Koivunen |
Indian Idol |
2007 winner – TBA 9/23 |
Indonesian Idol |
2007 winner – Rini Wulandari |
SuperStar KZ (Kazakhstan) |
2007 winner – Oleg Karezin |
Idol (Norway) |
2007 – season begins in September |
Philippine Idol |
2008 |
Vietnam Idol |
2007 in progress |
SuperStar (Arab World) |
2007 winner – Marwan Ali |
Idols West Africa |
2007 winner – Timi Dakolo |
American Idol |
2007 winner – Jordan Sparks 2008 season – in progress/Audition |
It looks as though Idol has gone out to every corner of the sphere but why haven’t we heard more from the winners, at least in the English speaking countries? Is winning the main goal or is the exposure enough? Or does being on an Idol hurt someone’s chances for a REAL music career?
Watch for some of the more interesting winners and contestants from around the world to appear here on the blog this Fall and let’s compare them to their American counterparts. This could be fun!
Carry on!
actually you’re a little bit mistaken with some of the shows.
the czech republics most recent season ended just a few months ago (with a 4th installement to follow) and all sweden, south africa and slovakia airing their newest seasons right now.
meanwhile greece and turkey just had one season and that was very, very long ago and neither of them is likely to have a follow-up casting, same with denmark (whom’s last winner did not even got to record a promised album despite the single doing quite well).
Thank you, shameless!
While I tried to do as much research as possible on the non-American Idols I was sure that I would not catch everything. When I get some free time I’ll follow up on your information. I appreciate your update — it’s interesting to see that the IDOL franchise is alive and well all around the globe.
I wish I had their money… 😉
J