Emirati Humeid Abdouli's Arab Idol future now lies in the hands of the public.
After impressing the judges with energetic performances in the opening rounds, a rather drained Abdouli appeared on stage on Saturday night for his first live performance.
Despite a sturdy and expressive rendition of Aywah, by Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Abdu, it only received a lukewarm response from the judging panel – the Egyptian producer Hassan El Shafei, the Emirati diva Ahlam and the Lebanese pop-stars Nancy Ajram and Wael Kfoury.
“You sang it in your style,” Ahlam said. “There was nothing wrong with it, but I felt you could have done more.”
El Shafei echoed her sentiments.
“I say this only because I am a big fan of your voice,” he began. “I expected a lot better from you today, and I know that you know you could have done better.”
The only judging dispute regarding the performance came when Kfoury and Ajram clashed regarding Abdouli’s onstage demeanour.
“I didn’t see your normal big smile today,” Kfoury said. “You performed the song in a nice and elegant way but there was something missing for me.”
Ajram disagreed: “He looked happy on stage and that’s what I liked about it,” she said before adding that Abdouli represents the optimistic spirit of the UAE.
It was only after the panel members delivered their judgements that host Ahmed Fahmy revealed that Abdouli had been battling “an illness” throughout the weekend.
“He had to take an injection in order to perform today,” he explained. “We wish him all the best.”
Abdouli's patchy performance summed up the overall quality of the 26 contestants battling it out in Arab Idol's first live round.
On Friday and Saturday, the contestants had to overcome extreme nerves as they sang to a pan-Arab audience of more than 50 million viewers. For many, the occasion was too much.
On Friday night, Saudi Arabia's Abdel Aziz Al Sharif's shaky performance of a Rashed Al Majed song incurred Ahlam's wrath. "Unacceptable," she said. "If you come to this stage nervous, then we as judges did a disservice to the thousands of other contestants who didn't make it to this level. This is Arab Idol and this was not up to scratch."
At least Sharif managed to maintain some level of composure – Egypt’s Iman Abdul Aziz nearly burst into tears at the end of a car-crash performance.
Ajram was curt: “Today, you know you didn’t really sing. You were out of tune. Good luck.”
El Shafei encouraged her to look on the bright side. “Mistakes are a great way to learn,” he said. “It is a great starting point for development.”
Ahlam was having none of it. "Arab Idol doesn't do terrible," she said.
However, a few bright spots emerged from the weekend.
Syria’s Hazim Sharif had the crowd on their feet with an Aleppo folk song that rounded off Friday night’s episode.
“You were fantastic,” said Kfoury.
Despite her tough demeanour, Ahlam proved she was not immune to being moved by a great performance. She was so touched by Palestine’s Manal Musa’s performance that she went on stage to hug her.
And in response to the Egyptian crooner Mu’min Khalil, she was on her feet again and said: “I want to quit this show in order to sing a song with this young man and produce his album.”
Viewers will now decide who is eliminated from the competition by texting their votes during the week. Their decision will be announced next weekend.
• Arab Idol is broadcast live on MBC1 on Fridays and Saturdays at 10pm
sasaeed@thenational.ae
