Iraqi wins Middle Eastern 'Pop Idol' with 7 million text votes

Link: IraqSlogger: Shada Victorious

After a competition that lasted several months, Shada Hassoun, the 25-year-old Iraqi has been crowned the winner of the reality TV show ‘Star Academy 4,”

The reality series, broadcast on the Lebanese satellite channel LBC to much of the Arab world, brought 19 young singers from around the Arab world to Lebanon to live at the ‘Star Academy,” beginning in December. The singers faced off each week in a talent competition to garner support from viewers, who voted with SMS messages over who would advance to the next round.

Shada won Friday’s final competition with over 40 percent of the vote. Seven million SMS messages were sent from Iraq in the course of Friday’s vote.

In the BBC report I also saw about this, the voice over said that normally, 150,000 texts are sent each day in Iraq — so 7 million in one evening is preeeeeety good going.

The television and mobile companies must have loved it from a revenue perspective, as this Reuters article points out:

One enthusiastic fan told Sharqiya television: “I’m a doctor and my salary is $400. I spent $300 just to vote for her. How can I live now until the end of the month?”