Shocks keep the excitement high on the Arabic version of The Voice

The first live episode of the third season of The Voice Ahla Sawt, which is filmed in Beirut, ended with a very surprising decision.

Above, Abdelmajeed Ibrahim, and right, Christine Said perform on The Voice Ahla Sawt. Courtesy MBC

The first live episode of the third season of The Voice Ahla Sawt, which is filmed in Beirut, ended with a surprise decision.

Saturday night's show began with Lebanese singer Christine Said, one of eight remaining contestants on MBC's Arabic version of the TV talent show, getting the go-ahead from her mentor, Iraqi star Kadim Al Sahir, to perform British soul diva Adele's new chart topper Hello with an Arabic twist.

The audience went wild for the young singer, whom Al Sahir has affectionately dubbed “our pretty bird”, and her performance earned her enough votes to reach the next round.

“You can really sing. You made it your own. You didn’t sing it like Adele, you sang it better,” said Al Sahir. Said’s co-mentor, Egyptian starlet Sherine Abdel-Wahab, seconded his opinion.

In a somewhat surprising twist, Abdel-Wahab made the shock decision to let Abdelmajeed Ibrahim progress to the next round, despite a poor ­performance.

The Saudi singer, who chose the Talal Madah song Madaam Ma'ai Al Qamar, started off well but went off tune and failed to ­recover.

“I might be considered a bit cruel,” said Abdel-Wahab, “but this wasn’t good singing at all. You didn’t do well.”

However, when asked to choose between the lacklustre Ibrahim and Egyptian contestant Riham Mustafa – who gave a flawless performance of Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman – Abdel-Wahab chose Ibrahim.

The decision was so unexpected that Ibrahim had to be told twice that he wasn’t going home – he couldn’t believe it.

“We all make mistakes – this could have happened to any of us,” Abdel-Wahab said later, explaining her decision.

“I know his voice, I know his abilities, and if I had judged him on his performance tonight, I could have ended his career and the world would not have given him another chance. I respect his talent too much to do that.”

Eight contestants will now battle it out in next week’s semi-­final round, which will also be live. Besides Ibrahim, Abdel-­Wahab’s team includes Ghassen Ibrahim from Tunisia.

Al Saher mentors Said and Najat Rajoui from Morocco. They join Lebanese crooner Assi El Hallani’s two contestants: Tunisia’s Nayress Ben Gaga and Egypt’s Rehab Saleh.

Tunisian coach Saber Rebai’s remaining contestants are Aboud Barmada from Syria and Abdessamad Jebrane from ­Morocco.

• Tune in on Saturday night to MBC1 & MBC Masr for the semi-­final round of The Voice Ahla Sawt at 10pm. For more information, visit www.mbc.net