Latin American Idol
Encyclopedia
Latin American Idol is the Latin America
n edition of the popular British franchise of Idols
, well-known for its American
version American Idol
. The show aims to discover the pop
idol of the Latin American region. The show is filmed in Buenos Aires
and is transmitted to over 23 nations in the region via the Sony Entertainment Television
network.
and airs throughout Latin America with the exception of Brazil
, which has its own version called Ídolos Brazil
, premiered in 2006. Portuguese-language contestants can participate if they are able to sing in Spanish. The show's hosts are the Venezuela
n Erika de La Vega and Argentine
Monchi Balestra. In the first season the judges panel was made up by Jon Secada
from the United States
(born in Cuba
), Gustavo Sánchez from Puerto Rico
and Elizabeth Meza from México
, the last of this being replaced since the second season by Mimi, a former member of musical group Flans, and Oscar Mediavilla from Argentina, replacing Gustavo Sánchez for the fourth season.
This show is divided into four phases: auditions, theater/secondary audition stage, workshops and performances.
, Venezuela
; Bogotá
, Colombia
; Mexico City
, México
; and finally in Buenos Aires. Auditions took place between April-May, 2006. In the show's third season, Panama City
, Panamá
was chosen as the fifth audition city, while in the fourth season San José, Costa Rica
was chosen as an audition venue.
The stage of auditions is divided into two rounds:
The theater stage was divided into two rounds:
In this stage there are 4 workshops. In three of them the public vote is necessary and one special that is fully based on the judges decision. Each group of ten of the 30 semifinalists make one of three first workshops (Of which each contestant was put randomly). The last workshop is the Wild Card show, in which is performed the people who are saved from the judges in the workshops.
In a usual workshop, each one of the semi-finalists performs in a platform singing any kind of song in Spanish of any kind. Before the semi-finalist performs, a video takes place to let viewers get to know better each one of the semi-finalists. During the performance, a small advertisement is shown up with the name and last name of the contestants and below it will show the name we should text and the telephone number to which we have to send the text message to vote for that person. Generally, the name that we have to text is the first name of the semi-finalist, in such a case that two or more of the 30 semi-finalists have the same name, we will have to text the last name of each one to vote. In so special cases people will have to text the nickname in text messages to vote for the semi-finalists, but this is so strange to happen. After finishing the performance, the judges express their opinion about the performance. When the workshop finishes, the voting lines get open. The public starts voting and the next day the results show of each workshop takes place. In this results show, the public decision is revealed. The top three semi-finalists become finalists. After the LatinAmerica's decision is revealed, the judges rescue two of the seven semi-finalists that were not chosen by the public to participate in the last workshop, the Wild Card.
Because there are three workshops, 9 semifinalists go to the finals with the public's help. Latin American Idol's normal format shows that there should be just 10 finalists (This has just been fulfilled in the first season). Two people who are rescued from each workshop make 6 semi-finalists totally to participate en the Wild Card, from which the panel of judges just choose one of them. In the second and third season, there has been an irregularity in Wild Cards, because in the third workshop of each season, the panel of judges rescued surprisingly one contestant more of each workshop to participate in Wild Card. In the Wild Card, the panel of judges chose three semi-finalists to make them become finalists.
Because of this irregularity, the second and third season have had twelve finalists instead of just ten. The semi-finalists who achieve to become finalists, will always keep the same name to make people vote for them.
According to the Latin American Idol's normal format this stage should be made in nine concerts. This has been fulfilled to the letter despite there have been more finalists than what was planned.
In the last stage, the panel of judges have no persuasion in the elimination of contestants. Everything that is worthing for elimination is the public's vote, the panel of judges just express their opinions in the performances.
The final stage is divided into nine concerts. Each concert has two episodes: one for performances and the other one for the results show. In each day of the performances of the concert, each finalist performs a song chosen by him/herself depending on the corresponding theme in each concert. Just after finishing the performances the voting starts, so Latin America
has approximately 15 hours to vote for their favorite contestant. When starts the results show the next day the voting is ended and one or more finalist is eliminated. Because there have been more finalists of what was expected in the last three seasons, the production has had to fit the first concerts. In the second and fourth season, two finalists were eliminated in the first two concerts. In the third season three finalists were eliminated in the first concert. Each concert has a theme, and each one of the finalists should perform with a song according to the theme. While the finalist performs there will appear the name of the finalist and below the instructions of how to vote for the finalist. In Argentina and Uruguay is kept the number 35355 (In the workshops, people had to vote to this same number). In the rest of Latin America
people have to text to 43657 (IDOLS) and in Puerto Rico
because of being a free state associated to the United States
is obtained an special number, 55225. At the middle of this stage when several finalists have been eliminated, in the sixth concert, with the last five finalists; the finalists will have to perform with two songs per concert until the semifinal (eighth concert), which usually has no theme. When there are the three last finalists, who are considered semi-finalists of the concerts' stage (In the third season there was an irregularity with this kind of semi-finalists because there were four of them because in the antepenultimate concert any contestant was eliminated, subsequently this irregularity was sorted out by eliminating two contestants in the semi-final). These four semi-finalists of the concerts' stage, just after the results show of the seventh concert finishes, are sent with a group of the production of Latin American Idol to their respective countries. There the production record everything the finalists do in their countries, besides sending with them to the singer mentors to prepare them for the semi-final concert. In the semi-final concert, the finalists sing two songs and as regularly one is eliminated or in such a case of the third season two are eliminated. The two ones remaining, become finalists of the concerts' stage. And one of them will be the winner of the season.
The final concert of Latin American Idol is the ninth concert and is different to the previous ones. Because there are just two finalists, each one has to sing three songs. The last concert has no theme. The show's production write two songs fully unpublished so that the finalists sing them in this concert. In the first round of this concert a finalist sing an unpublished song and the other finalist sing the other song. In the second round each finalist sing their best performance during all their way for Latin American Idol. In the third round each finalist sing the unpublished song that didn't sing in the first round. The results show of this last concert is called the great final because in this one is decided who is the new Latin American Idol. The great final is the largest episode of the season because the auditions and the two parts of the theater last one hour on air. The results show last a half hour, but the great final lasts two hours and is the last episode that is completely live in air. In the great final perform the finalists of the season, and there is a great quantity of guest celebrities. When finishing the show it is decided who the winner is based on the publics' vote and gets a contract with Sony BMG.
. There were 4 auditions: México City, México; Bogotá, Colombia; Caracas, Venezuela and of course it the host country, Argentina in its capital Buenos Aires.
The hosts were: Erika De la Vega and Ramón "Monchi" Balestra. The judges were: Jon Secada, Gustavo Sánchez and Elizabeth Meza. Before starting the judges of American Idol
; Simon Cowell
, Randy Jackson
and Paula Abdul
performed in Sony Entertainment Television a video saying that there was coming a Latin American version of the show.
The theater of this stage is unique making a comparison with the other seasons because this one was divided into 2 stages instead of three. On August 2, the making of the First Workshop was made, were the finalists were chosen: Gabriel Suárez, Lilia Mariñelarena and Mayré Martínez
. On August 9, 2007 the second workshop, in which the ones who went to the next stage were Isa Mosquera, Dennis Smith
and Andrea del Valle. On August 17, the last threesome of finalists chosen was revealed: Efraín Medina, Hernán López and Noelia Soto. Of each one of the workshops, two contestants were saved, who made it to the group of the last workshop that was known as The last opportunity. The saved contestant in this last workshop was John Paul Ospina
, who joined the other nine contestants thanks to the help the panel of judges gave him to be part of group of the finalists. John Paul Ospina
turned into the first Wild Card
of Latin American Idol and also is the only one in getting the workshop of the last chance without surprises of choosing more finalists.
In the next stage it was made what was called "galas" in which each contestant sang a song and were voted by the public, the 3 contestants with the fewest votes were called to the "Bottom 3" and one of them was eliminated, while the other ones were mentioned randomly. In the second stage they were calling a "Bottom 2", it means 2 contestants with the fewest votes, and each contestant sang two songs per concert. After the two stages of the galas it was got to the semifinal membered by Mayré Martínez from Venezuela, Noelia Soto from Argentina and Efraín Medina from México, resulting eliminated the Mexican contestant, which made finalists to the Venezuelan Mayré Martínez and the argentinian Noelia Soto, at the end of the season, each finalist sang three (3) themes, two unpublished and their favorite sang in the competition, the voting was spread out to twenty-four (24) hours, having the Venezuelan Mayré Martínez
, winner of the competition, and the only contestant who wasn't proposed to be eliminated. In declarations subsequents to the final, the judge Gustavo Sánchez announced that Mayré had gotten the 76.5% of the total votes.
returned as a sponsor its support to the show. The autitions kept same way (Bogotá, Colombia; Mexico City, México; Caracas, Venezuela and Buenos Aires, Argentina) ad the contestants, Venezuelan Erika De la Vega and argentinian Ramón "Monchi" Balestra. Rules changed so that people under 18 years old could participate, the competition came down to 16 years old. The competition also increased the ages from 28 to 30 years old.
The theater changed radically compared to the first season, instead of two rounds, it was developed in three rounds: auditions in lines, duets and solo performances. The judged gave some songs to make contestants choose what they want to sing in their duets and solo performances. The panel of judges grouped in the duets rounds each contestant. When the theater round finished, the LatinAmerica's top 30 was chosen.
The three workshops was started by the Latin American public voting. And were chosen 9 out of the 10 finalists that were planned to be chosen, in the first three workshops. In these, the two first finalists from CentroAmerica were chosen in the competition; Carlos Peña from Guatemala
and Arquímedes Reyes
from El Salvador
. Also the panel of judges chose the first finalists under age of the competition, Francisco Pérez from Colombia and Emiliano Sansone from Argentina
. For the first time in the competition, the judges just chose one female contestant of the three first workshops, Silvia de Freitas
from Venezuela
. In the third workshop many were taken surprisingly because the judges and the production improvisily decided to save more people and three finalists more were chosen in the Wildcard show instead of just one. Which made 12 finalists. In this workshop the first finalist from Caribe
, Rosángela Abreu from Puerto Rico
made it to the finals. In this workshop made it to the next stage two female and one male, leaving nine male finalists and three female finalists.
When the 12 finalists were selected, the concerts' stage started. In the first and second concert 2 contestants with the fewest votes were eliminated, since the third show just one contestant was being eliminated, all this is because this stage should be made just in nice concerts. Incredibly the argentinian contestants who had 4 representatives among the finalists were eliminated quickly: two in the first concert, one in the second and the last one in the third. In the semifinal there were Rosangela Abreu, Ricardo Caballero
and Carlos Peña. In the final show, after a great musical show and a the exceptional performance of the two finalists, it was revealed that Carlos Peña from Guatemala
was the winner, it's important to mention that Peña was the only contestant who was about to be eliminated, because he was never in any bottom.. This season was characterized by the intention of the production of the show to penetrate more in the Mexican market.
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n edition of the popular British franchise of Idols
Idol series
The British talent search television series Pop Idol has spawned spin-offs in 42 territories, in what is now referred to as the "Idols" format, as described by FremantleMedia...
, well-known for its American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
version American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
. The show aims to discover the pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
idol of the Latin American region. The show is filmed in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and is transmitted to over 23 nations in the region via the Sony Entertainment Television
Sony Entertainment Television (Latin America)
Sony Entertainment Television, commonly shortened to Canal Sony , is a general entertainment channel co-based in Perú, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil and Miami, Florida, United States. It airs in 26 countries in Latin America, and is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment...
network.
Premise
Latin American Idol is filmed in Buenos Aires, ArgentinaArgentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and airs throughout Latin America with the exception of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, which has its own version called Ídolos Brazil
Ídolos Brazil
Ídolos is a Brazilian reality television competition to find new solo singing talent. Part of the Idol franchise, it was created by Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show Pop Idol, of which two series were broadcast between 2001 and 2003....
, premiered in 2006. Portuguese-language contestants can participate if they are able to sing in Spanish. The show's hosts are the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n Erika de La Vega and Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
Monchi Balestra. In the first season the judges panel was made up by Jon Secada
Jon Secada
Jon Secada is a Cuban-American singer and songwriter. Secada was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Hialeah, Florida. He has won two Grammy Awards and sold 20 million albums since his English-language debut album in 1992. His music fuses funk, soul, pop and Latin percussion...
from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(born in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
), Gustavo Sánchez from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
and Elizabeth Meza from México
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the last of this being replaced since the second season by Mimi, a former member of musical group Flans, and Oscar Mediavilla from Argentina, replacing Gustavo Sánchez for the fourth season.
This show is divided into four phases: auditions, theater/secondary audition stage, workshops and performances.
Auditions
The first season's auditions took place in order in the cities of CaracasCaracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
; Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
; Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, México
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
; and finally in Buenos Aires. Auditions took place between April-May, 2006. In the show's third season, Panama City
Panama City
Panama is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 880,691, with a total metro population of 1,272,672, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of the same name. The city is the political and administrative center of the...
, Panamá
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
was chosen as the fifth audition city, while in the fourth season San José, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
was chosen as an audition venue.
The stage of auditions is divided into two rounds:
- The pre-audition: Actually there are two pre-auditions. Before performing in front of the cameras and in front of the real panel of judges of the show, another panel of judges evaluate the auditioners to decide if they deserve to perform in front of the real panel of judges and in front of the television cameras. The panel of judges that make these pre-auditions choose auditioners that sing well and that have some chances to convince the real panel of judges, or, who sing bad and make a funny moment for the show.
- The audition: After the pre-audition, the panel of judges of the correspondent season (from time to time there is a guest judge to be part of the panel of judges) listen to the autitioners and say their opinions. Then each judge say "Yes" or "No" to the auditioners. The auditioners needs two out of three "Yes" in order to go to the Theater stage. If the auditioner is in front of four judges, three out of four "Yes" will be needed in order to go to the Theater stage. If there are four judges and the auditioner only gets two "Yes", they ask the auditioner to leave the place so that soon after the panel of judges decide if the auditioner should go or not to go to the Theater stage. To pass to this stage, the auditioners are invited to the next stage in Buenos Aires with the phrase "Welcome to Latin American Idol". Over 100 persons are the ones who are told this phrase and are invited to the Theater.
Theater/second stage of auditions
After performing for the panel of judges, successful contestants are invited to the next round of competition in Argentina.Season 1
The first season was different to the subsequent ones because this was divided just into two rounds.The theater stage was divided into two rounds:
- Round 1: A performance in groups of three. The 100 contestants are split into groups of three's, according to gender. Sixty contestants are then selected to move on to the second round.
- Round 2: Solo performances. Each contestant is given four songs to perform, and the contestant selects one to perform. During stage of the competition, the panel of judges choose the top thirty contestants.
Seasons 2 and 3
The theater stage is divided into three rounds, that will be explained in-depth each one.- Round 1 - Auditions in lines: Approximately 100 contestants who got to the theater are split up in approximately 10 lines so that each one of the contestants performs again a cappella and with a microphone. Each contestant performs one by one. In the first season the contestants were split up in 3 groups, each group was put in a room, soon after, the panel of judges were going to each room to let the contestants know which of the three groups had made it to the round 1. In seasons 2 and 3, after all the lines performed, the panel of judges call back each line and they call to the front to some contestants so that the line will be subdivided into two lines, then they were saying if the line of the front of the one of the back had made it or which of them was cut off of the competition.
- Round 2 - Performances in groups: After the first stage, contestants are given a short break of some hours and then begins the second round. In the first season, it was the only in which this round was made in groups of three. They were split up by sex gender and there were groups of males and females. In the second season, contestants start grouping in couples (usually a male with a female) to sing in a duet. In the first and second season the panel of judges were choosing the contestants to sing in groups of two or of three. In the third season, in this stage, there were more females than males, thus, there was a kind of a party so that then can choose their partner. Females who didn't find a partner had to make a duo with another female. In this round they sing with music live. When finishing, each of the groups were being called and the panel of judges were saying if they had made it to the next stage.
- Round 3 - Performances in solo: After the first round, the panel of judges gives four songs to make contestants choose one of them, so that in the rest of the day and of the other day they prepare themselves memorizing the lyrics. This round is characterized because contestants usually forget the lyrics. They are also tired to practice because many of them should rehearse at night and don't sleep so well. All these factors affect the performance of many and they find it difficult to go to the next stage. The panel of judges say that it doesn't matter so much if contestants forget the lyrics, what they really matter is to label how they get back after being in a situation like that. When finishing this last round, the panel of judges organize the contestants into groups of five, in order to select the show's top thirty contestants.
Season 4
The theater phase is renamed the "Second stage of auditions" during the fourth season.- Round 1 - Auditions in lines: They are organized in lines of 5 people and each person with a microphone, sing a cappella, a song they choose (so that they can evaluate how well they know to choose their repertoire). The mechanism of selection is the same than in the seasons 2 and 3, they call each line of auditioners, and tell some of the contestants to step forward so that they split up into 2 groups, then they say which line is the one who made it to the next round.
- Round 2 - Performances in solo: The judges give contestants four songs, so contestants have to choose one of them and they have all the rest of the day long and the early next day to try to memorize the lyrics. This round has a major difficulty, because of the time they have to prepare everything, not only to memorize the lyrics, but also to rehearse it and making it changes or everything necessary to give that song their own style, contestants usually forget the lyrics. In this round there was a particular case that a contestant, without knowing the results of that round, choose to give up. After all the auditions, the panel of judges call one by one to the contestants and tell them who are cut off and who goes to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Seasons 1, 2 and 3
The thirty semi-finalists are split up into three groups of ten semi-finalists each one. The workshops consist of a small stage in which there is a small amount of public and each one of the semi-finalists perform in front of a live studio audience. During the workshops, each contestant performs in a platform, after talking about him or herself in previously recorded video. In the first season contestants performed accompanied by a pianist. During subsequent seasons, a live band performed with the contestant.In this stage there are 4 workshops. In three of them the public vote is necessary and one special that is fully based on the judges decision. Each group of ten of the 30 semifinalists make one of three first workshops (Of which each contestant was put randomly). The last workshop is the Wild Card show, in which is performed the people who are saved from the judges in the workshops.
In a usual workshop, each one of the semi-finalists performs in a platform singing any kind of song in Spanish of any kind. Before the semi-finalist performs, a video takes place to let viewers get to know better each one of the semi-finalists. During the performance, a small advertisement is shown up with the name and last name of the contestants and below it will show the name we should text and the telephone number to which we have to send the text message to vote for that person. Generally, the name that we have to text is the first name of the semi-finalist, in such a case that two or more of the 30 semi-finalists have the same name, we will have to text the last name of each one to vote. In so special cases people will have to text the nickname in text messages to vote for the semi-finalists, but this is so strange to happen. After finishing the performance, the judges express their opinion about the performance. When the workshop finishes, the voting lines get open. The public starts voting and the next day the results show of each workshop takes place. In this results show, the public decision is revealed. The top three semi-finalists become finalists. After the LatinAmerica's decision is revealed, the judges rescue two of the seven semi-finalists that were not chosen by the public to participate in the last workshop, the Wild Card.
Because there are three workshops, 9 semifinalists go to the finals with the public's help. Latin American Idol's normal format shows that there should be just 10 finalists (This has just been fulfilled in the first season). Two people who are rescued from each workshop make 6 semi-finalists totally to participate en the Wild Card, from which the panel of judges just choose one of them. In the second and third season, there has been an irregularity in Wild Cards, because in the third workshop of each season, the panel of judges rescued surprisingly one contestant more of each workshop to participate in Wild Card. In the Wild Card, the panel of judges chose three semi-finalists to make them become finalists.
Because of this irregularity, the second and third season have had twelve finalists instead of just ten. The semi-finalists who achieve to become finalists, will always keep the same name to make people vote for them.
Season 4
In the fourth season, the workshops decreased, instead of making 4, there were made just 2. Because in the "second stage of elimination" there are 20 contestants chosen, of which 10 are male and 10 are female. Each Workshop es for one sex. The first workshop is for male and the second one is for female. In each workshop there are chosen the top 5 based on the public's vote. Also as expected, the panel of judges rescue contestants. In each workshop the panel of judges can choose one semi-finalist who hasn't gotten enough votes to become a finalist. Therefore, at the end of this stage, we find 12 finalists as in last seasons. It is important to point out that this new method is used so that doesn't occur what happened in seasons 2 and 3. In the second season, male dominated the amount of finalists (9 to 3) and in the third season, female dominated it (7 to 5). This season as the first season will have an equity about the finalists sex.Concerts
During the first season, the number of contestants in the final stage (concerts' stage) was with 10 contestants, however, for the second season and the third season, because of the high quality of the finalists in these last ones, the panel of judges and production took the decision of increasing the number of people to the concerts to 12 finalists. In the fourth season it was assimilated that there would be 12 finalists.According to the Latin American Idol's normal format this stage should be made in nine concerts. This has been fulfilled to the letter despite there have been more finalists than what was planned.
In the last stage, the panel of judges have no persuasion in the elimination of contestants. Everything that is worthing for elimination is the public's vote, the panel of judges just express their opinions in the performances.
The final stage is divided into nine concerts. Each concert has two episodes: one for performances and the other one for the results show. In each day of the performances of the concert, each finalist performs a song chosen by him/herself depending on the corresponding theme in each concert. Just after finishing the performances the voting starts, so Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
has approximately 15 hours to vote for their favorite contestant. When starts the results show the next day the voting is ended and one or more finalist is eliminated. Because there have been more finalists of what was expected in the last three seasons, the production has had to fit the first concerts. In the second and fourth season, two finalists were eliminated in the first two concerts. In the third season three finalists were eliminated in the first concert. Each concert has a theme, and each one of the finalists should perform with a song according to the theme. While the finalist performs there will appear the name of the finalist and below the instructions of how to vote for the finalist. In Argentina and Uruguay is kept the number 35355 (In the workshops, people had to vote to this same number). In the rest of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
people have to text to 43657 (IDOLS) and in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
because of being a free state associated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
is obtained an special number, 55225. At the middle of this stage when several finalists have been eliminated, in the sixth concert, with the last five finalists; the finalists will have to perform with two songs per concert until the semifinal (eighth concert), which usually has no theme. When there are the three last finalists, who are considered semi-finalists of the concerts' stage (In the third season there was an irregularity with this kind of semi-finalists because there were four of them because in the antepenultimate concert any contestant was eliminated, subsequently this irregularity was sorted out by eliminating two contestants in the semi-final). These four semi-finalists of the concerts' stage, just after the results show of the seventh concert finishes, are sent with a group of the production of Latin American Idol to their respective countries. There the production record everything the finalists do in their countries, besides sending with them to the singer mentors to prepare them for the semi-final concert. In the semi-final concert, the finalists sing two songs and as regularly one is eliminated or in such a case of the third season two are eliminated. The two ones remaining, become finalists of the concerts' stage. And one of them will be the winner of the season.
The final concert of Latin American Idol is the ninth concert and is different to the previous ones. Because there are just two finalists, each one has to sing three songs. The last concert has no theme. The show's production write two songs fully unpublished so that the finalists sing them in this concert. In the first round of this concert a finalist sing an unpublished song and the other finalist sing the other song. In the second round each finalist sing their best performance during all their way for Latin American Idol. In the third round each finalist sing the unpublished song that didn't sing in the first round. The results show of this last concert is called the great final because in this one is decided who is the new Latin American Idol. The great final is the largest episode of the season because the auditions and the two parts of the theater last one hour on air. The results show last a half hour, but the great final lasts two hours and is the last episode that is completely live in air. In the great final perform the finalists of the season, and there is a great quantity of guest celebrities. When finishing the show it is decided who the winner is based on the publics' vote and gets a contract with Sony BMG.
First season
The first season of Latin American Idol premiered on July 12, 2004. Its official sponsor was MovistarMovistar
Movistar is a major Spanish mobile phone operator owned by Telefónica Móviles. It operates in Spain and in many Latin American countries. It is the largest carrier in Spain with 22 million customers and 41.58% of market share. Its principal competitor in Latin America is America Movil...
. There were 4 auditions: México City, México; Bogotá, Colombia; Caracas, Venezuela and of course it the host country, Argentina in its capital Buenos Aires.
The hosts were: Erika De la Vega and Ramón "Monchi" Balestra. The judges were: Jon Secada, Gustavo Sánchez and Elizabeth Meza. Before starting the judges of American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
; Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
, Randy Jackson
Randy Jackson
Randall Darius "Randy" Jackson is an American bassist, singer, record producer, music manager, A&R executive, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is best known as a judge on American Idol and executive producer for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew...
and Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul
Paula Julie Abdul is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality.In the 1980s, Abdul rose from cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era before scoring a string of pop music-R&B hits...
performed in Sony Entertainment Television a video saying that there was coming a Latin American version of the show.
The theater of this stage is unique making a comparison with the other seasons because this one was divided into 2 stages instead of three. On August 2, the making of the First Workshop was made, were the finalists were chosen: Gabriel Suárez, Lilia Mariñelarena and Mayré Martínez
Mayré Martínez
Mayré Andrea de los Ángeles Martínez Blanco , is a Latin pop singer, songwriter. She rose to popularity in Latin America after winning the first season of the reality show Latin American Idol...
. On August 9, 2007 the second workshop, in which the ones who went to the next stage were Isa Mosquera, Dennis Smith
Dennis Smith
Dennis Smith may refer to:*Dennis Smith , English dart player*Dennis Smith , American firefighter and writer*Dennis Smith , American football player...
and Andrea del Valle. On August 17, the last threesome of finalists chosen was revealed: Efraín Medina, Hernán López and Noelia Soto. Of each one of the workshops, two contestants were saved, who made it to the group of the last workshop that was known as The last opportunity. The saved contestant in this last workshop was John Paul Ospina
John Paul Ospina
John Paul Ospina Morales , is a Colombian singer, songwriter, producer, actor and TV host...
, who joined the other nine contestants thanks to the help the panel of judges gave him to be part of group of the finalists. John Paul Ospina
John Paul Ospina
John Paul Ospina Morales , is a Colombian singer, songwriter, producer, actor and TV host...
turned into the first Wild Card
Wild card (sports)
The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:...
of Latin American Idol and also is the only one in getting the workshop of the last chance without surprises of choosing more finalists.
In the next stage it was made what was called "galas" in which each contestant sang a song and were voted by the public, the 3 contestants with the fewest votes were called to the "Bottom 3" and one of them was eliminated, while the other ones were mentioned randomly. In the second stage they were calling a "Bottom 2", it means 2 contestants with the fewest votes, and each contestant sang two songs per concert. After the two stages of the galas it was got to the semifinal membered by Mayré Martínez from Venezuela, Noelia Soto from Argentina and Efraín Medina from México, resulting eliminated the Mexican contestant, which made finalists to the Venezuelan Mayré Martínez and the argentinian Noelia Soto, at the end of the season, each finalist sang three (3) themes, two unpublished and their favorite sang in the competition, the voting was spread out to twenty-four (24) hours, having the Venezuelan Mayré Martínez
Mayré Martínez
Mayré Andrea de los Ángeles Martínez Blanco , is a Latin pop singer, songwriter. She rose to popularity in Latin America after winning the first season of the reality show Latin American Idol...
, winner of the competition, and the only contestant who wasn't proposed to be eliminated. In declarations subsequents to the final, the judge Gustavo Sánchez announced that Mayré had gotten the 76.5% of the total votes.
Second season
In the second season, the Mexican judge Elizabeth Meza left the competition giving place to Irma Angélica "Mimí" Hernández, another Mexican judge. MovistarMovistar
Movistar is a major Spanish mobile phone operator owned by Telefónica Móviles. It operates in Spain and in many Latin American countries. It is the largest carrier in Spain with 22 million customers and 41.58% of market share. Its principal competitor in Latin America is America Movil...
returned as a sponsor its support to the show. The autitions kept same way (Bogotá, Colombia; Mexico City, México; Caracas, Venezuela and Buenos Aires, Argentina) ad the contestants, Venezuelan Erika De la Vega and argentinian Ramón "Monchi" Balestra. Rules changed so that people under 18 years old could participate, the competition came down to 16 years old. The competition also increased the ages from 28 to 30 years old.
The theater changed radically compared to the first season, instead of two rounds, it was developed in three rounds: auditions in lines, duets and solo performances. The judged gave some songs to make contestants choose what they want to sing in their duets and solo performances. The panel of judges grouped in the duets rounds each contestant. When the theater round finished, the LatinAmerica's top 30 was chosen.
The three workshops was started by the Latin American public voting. And were chosen 9 out of the 10 finalists that were planned to be chosen, in the first three workshops. In these, the two first finalists from CentroAmerica were chosen in the competition; Carlos Peña from Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and Arquímedes Reyes
Arquimedes Reyes
Arquimedes Reyes was born Arquimedes Adalberto Reyes Torres on January 26, 1981 in San Alejo, La Union, El Salvador. He is a Salvadoran singer who is participating as a contestant in the 2nd season of Latin American Idol...
from El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. Also the panel of judges chose the first finalists under age of the competition, Francisco Pérez from Colombia and Emiliano Sansone from Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. For the first time in the competition, the judges just chose one female contestant of the three first workshops, Silvia de Freitas
Silvia de Freitas
Silvia De Freitas is a Venezuelan singer who was participating as contestant in the second season of Latin American Idol; she was eliminated on September 6, 2007; finishing in 5th place....
from Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. In the third workshop many were taken surprisingly because the judges and the production improvisily decided to save more people and three finalists more were chosen in the Wildcard show instead of just one. Which made 12 finalists. In this workshop the first finalist from Caribe
Caribe
Caribe may refer to:* Caribe , a computer worm designed for mobile phones* Caribe , a Venezuelan telenovela* Caribe , a 1975 television series produced by Quinn Martin...
, Rosángela Abreu from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
made it to the finals. In this workshop made it to the next stage two female and one male, leaving nine male finalists and three female finalists.
When the 12 finalists were selected, the concerts' stage started. In the first and second concert 2 contestants with the fewest votes were eliminated, since the third show just one contestant was being eliminated, all this is because this stage should be made just in nice concerts. Incredibly the argentinian contestants who had 4 representatives among the finalists were eliminated quickly: two in the first concert, one in the second and the last one in the third. In the semifinal there were Rosangela Abreu, Ricardo Caballero
Ricardo Caballero Tostado
Ricardo Caballero Tostado is a Mexican singer who was the runner-up of the second season of Latin American Idol. Ricardo is known as the "Caballero de Mexico"....
and Carlos Peña. In the final show, after a great musical show and a the exceptional performance of the two finalists, it was revealed that Carlos Peña from Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
was the winner, it's important to mention that Peña was the only contestant who was about to be eliminated, because he was never in any bottom.. This season was characterized by the intention of the production of the show to penetrate more in the Mexican market.