Star Academy (Arabia)

Star Academy Arab World or Star Academy Arabia, is an Arab world televised talent show, which aired from 19 December 2003, to 29 January 2016. The show features a group of young male and female candidates who are selected from a pan-Arab pool of more than 3,000 and sequestered for four months in "The Academy," a four-story building in Lebanon, where they live, train, and compete against one another every week. The show became an instant success and every episode a much-watched event across the Arab world.

The show was adapted from a French show of the same name and produced by Dutch company Endemol, Vanilla Productions & PAC Ltd. Star Academy Arab World is based on the Spanish format Operación Triunfo.

The show centers around the 16 candidates who compete in weekly talent competitions, singing, dancing, and acting during on-stage performances. At the end of every week, one contestant is kicked off by a public vote by the viewers.

One of the show's highlights are the guest appearances of some of the Arab world's most important singers and performers such as Najwa Karam, Angham, Haifa Wahbe, Assala Nasri, Ehab Tawfik, Elissa, Myriam Fares, Nawal Al-Zoghbi, Abdallah Al Rowaished, Wael Kfoury, Latifa, Carole Samaha, Sherine, Saad Lamjarred and many more. The show has also been successful for its reinvention and continuous changes, just as, starting from the third season, the show witnessed guests from international superstars such as Julio Iglesias, Anggun, Karl Wolf, Tina Arena and Chris De Burgh.