(Top to bottom) Quizmaster Mazen Al-Fasi making dreams come true; Mazen from Lebanon woos all within earshot during the quiz final; Idol's “biggest fan” gets all the media attention; Jeddah's Manaf and Al-Reef from Kuwait have their eyes on the prize. - SG photos “Thank you MBC for making my dream come true!” With these words and a winning smile, rerun during television advertising slots over the last few weeks, did Abeer Jassem from Bahrain reveal to MBC viewers that she had won a ticket to Los Angeles from where the final of the talent show “American Idol” will be broadcast soon to its many millions of fans across the globe. Running Abeer to a close second in the sought-after prize was Saudi Arabia's own Manaf Kayyal, after they and four others from Arab world had reached the final of a competition the television network launched on its website back in January, seeking - as Abeer described herself – “American Idol's biggest fan.” The competition entailed a series of weekly questions on the history of the show and the capers of its celebrity panelists and competitors, and as tens of thousands logged on to try their luck, the starry-eyed were eventually whittled down to Abeer and Manaf, and Aseel Abed, Kareem Khatab, Mazen Tarabey and Al-Reef Al-Hattab, from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Lebanon and Kuwait respectively. All six gathered at MBC's head offices in Dubai late March to slug it out in a final round for a slice of the dream. The dream in question, however, was not the chance to show off their talents, although Kareem and Mazen did their best to make an impact when offered the microphone. The dream was not even to rub shoulders with the stars. It was, instead, to join ordinary Americans watching ordinary Americans on the verge of seeing their own dreams come true. A single ticket to be in the audience of the final of “American Idol” promised not a central role in the fulfilling and dashing of dreams, but instead a close up glimpse of what the America pop-dream feels like. “It's a unique show, it's fantastic,” said 29-year-old Manaf, who hails from Jeddah. “America has a lot of talent. Even if they had the same show in the UK or France I wouldn't bother watch it, even if the French sang in English. It's just because America has the diversity and the music culture.” While MBC4 bills itself as offering the “latest and best in top-rated Western entertainment”, it is overwhelmingly English-language and overwhelmingly American, and that worldwide demand is reflected in the popularity of “American Idol” in the Arab world and Saudi Arabia. “Pop is a type of song and melody that will never die. It's easy to imitate and capture in Arabic, and a lot of Arab singers are singing pop today,” Manaf said. Purists might frown at the intrusion of mainly American musical influences into Arab music, but similar talent shows in the Middle East have failed to gain the same popularity in the Arab world as the US version, and Saudi music itself would appear to be immune so far, according to Manaf. “Saudi music only really has one type of song, there's no diversity. We don't really mix different melodies in our music, it just doesn't fit. We use powerful lyrics, poetry, and you just can't put that into pop music,” he said. In the end, Manaf's dream to be in Los Angeles to see the crowning of “American Idol” 2010 was dashed at the last as he went head to head with Abeer, but he remained magnanimous in his narrow defeat. “She deserved it, she was the best, I saw her preparing all day long,” he said. Abeer herself, clutching her oversize ticket to LA, said her victory was “a historic moment in my life”. “What's really made the program a success is that it gives every talented person the chance to realize their dreams and become a star,” she said. “American Idol,” now in its ninth year, is shown on MBC4 on Thursday and Friday evenings. __
