by RUDAW


ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An amateur singer from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region has beaten a field of 15,000 contestants to rise to the semifinals of the Arab world’s most popular talent contest, impressing judges who included Lebanese superstar Nancy Ajram, a relative said.

“I would love to sing with you in Kurdish,” Ajram told Parwas Hussein, after the contestant won judges’ hearts with a Kurdish song last Friday, when she broke into the semifinals of Arab Idol, an Arabic television show based on Britain’s pop idol. Ajram asked Hussein to teach her to sing in Kurdish.

“Fifteen thousand contestants have participated in the show. Hussein has been able to reach the semifinals, to compete now with 44 contestants for the title of Arab Idol,” her brother-in-law, Safin Salih, told Rudaw.

From the semifinal the fate of the contestants is decided by public vote. During their performance an SMS number for each contestant is displayed on television, allowing viewers to vote for their favorite artist.

Salih said that Hussein was competing under the number “6”, and called on Kurds to vote for her.

“Hussein is not just an ordinary person anymore. She is the identity of Kurdistan in the show,” he said, “We are proud of Hussein for she was able to boost Kurdistan’s name among the other Arab contestants.”

When she first auditioned on Arab Idol, Hussein mesmerized international viewers and the judges with a song by the late Egyptian diva Umm Kalthoum.

“Hussein is participating in the show in the name of Kurdistan and she deserves your votes as she is in a fierce stage of her competition,” Salih said. “Before she took off for Beirut, where the show is aired live, we told her to appear on stage in Kurdish dress and raise the Kurdish flag if she wins the Arab Idol title,” he added.

“Her singing in Kurdish links Kurdistan’s art with the Arab world,” said Raghib Alama, the renowned Lebanese singer and one of the show’s judges.

Vian Maie, A Kurdish Swedish movie producer, told Rudaw by telephone that, “Every time I see Hussein on the show, I am overjoyed.”

By BARZAN MUHAMMAD