JEDDAH, 15 April 2007 — MBC 1’s new prime time show “Album” made its debut on Friday night.
“Album is much more than just a singing contest,” a spokesman for MBC told reporters at the launch which was organized on a big screen at a local restaurant in the presence of a large number of media representatives and invitees.
“Three groups of contestants from the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa burn up the stage in bands of five, striving to become the most successful new pop group. Famous celebrities join in the musical mayhem to help turn these amateurs into slick music machines. And the ultimate prize? A recording contract that will change their lives forever.”
Hosted by Razan Al Moghrabi and featuring professional composers and choreographers with more than 300 specially designed costumes and over 50 fantastically designed theatrical sets, “Album will be a flurry of 13 weeks of flamboyance, extravagance and listening pleasure,” he said.
Daily episodes will keep viewers up to date with all the gossip, a live show on Friday nights featuring a top Arab recording star, followed by a live elimination show on Saturday night – all of which will provide loads of musical magic.
Complete control of the show rests with the audience. Each week, voting results will grant immunity to one of the groups, while pitting two of the weakest contestants from the remaining two groups against two new challengers throughout the following week.
“Album is definitely the most ambitious and exciting music reality show on Arab TV this year,” says Mazen Hayek, MBC group director of marketing, PR and Commercial. “It’s an amazing show combining all the elements our viewers demand of quality MBC entertainment — competition, glamour, original music, celebrities and audience interaction.”
“So dust off those rusty vocal chords, grab a mike and prepare to sing along with the biggest event in musical TV history this year,” he said.
On the day after the “Album” is aired (Saturday), Razan will announce on live TV which group has been protected by audience votes. This group is given immunity for the week. The remaining two “unsafe” or “non-immune” groups will each have to nominate the “one weakest link” in their respective groups to leave the team. The group manager will make the final decision. Then two new ‘”challengers” will be introduced to compete against the nominated weakest links of the two “unsaved or non-immune” teams. The challenges then compete live against the weakest link member of each group respectively.
At the end of each performance, audience voting starts from Saturday evening to the next Friday episode. The audience will vote for their favorite two individual nominees. The results are then announced in the following Friday prime episode.
The daily half hour show will cover group meetings to set out plans for the following week — making of the new original song, who will sing, what songs and what they will wear, plus rehearsal sessions.
In the final three episodes, there will be no further changes of group members.
After the final three rounds, one group will win the “Album” competition, and “The group of the year” title and awarded a recording contract to produce their own album as a group.