General Overview Of A TV Show's Success

Mahmoud Al Rimawi      Al-Hayat     2003/08/24

Globalization has always been known to unify the world, through the markets and tastes, but also, it is known for reviving identities and differences, given people's fear from loss of identity in an open, interconnected world, in which the richer, most creative and attractive prevail.    

This applies to the Arab version of globalization, which has been translated into satellite channels; these have unified the Arab world, and enjoy an influence over all Arabic-speaking people and over all people of Arab origins all over the world. Yet, several satellite channels remain national channels, in the sense that they reflect the local ruling regime, its discourse, the national life and the "domestic culture." These channels are less successful than others, which address general Arab issues and concerns that are not specific to any one country. This is the secret of their success. This is also the secret of the success of "Superstar," the show aired on Future TV. Dozens of talented young men and women from all over the Arab world participated in the show, hosted by a Jordanian young lady and an Egyptian young man, during several months and touring several Arab capitals, before settling in the Lebanese capital for its last episodes.

With the beginning of the semi finals, the spectators' mood started to change, as the Egyptian candidate left, followed by the Syrian, the Palestinian, the Emirati, the Algerian, and so certain countries or societies were no longer represented in the show. The "regional" choice prevailed in spectators' minds, which was only eased by the fact that the loss was not limited to one country, as many talented young men and women from all over the Arab countries, lost. As the finals approached, and as the talented Lebanese candidate, Melhem Zein lost, causing a shock to his co-national fans, it appeared that the spectators' choice was mainly driven by the candidate's nationality. All this was also accompanied by rumors of cheating, althrough this was never proven.

This could happen and does happen in important sports competitions (especially in soccer, the most popular game). But this "artistic" competition attracted many more spectators, as not only the youth followed it, but the entire family as well. The public everywhere, exhausted by the Palestinian and the Iraqi developments for over 35 months, found in this show a way to have fun and unwind.

When the competition became limited to Diana Karazon, from Jordan, and Ruweida Atieh from Syria, it was as if the two countries had gone into a heated competition. No remark would be spared about the artist of the other country. Emotions and instinctive whims induced the people to support the artist of their country, deploying efforts to make her win over the competitor. One says that this trend is normal for it translates understandable feelings, especially that the two competitors had both exceptional voices and were both very talented; if there were differences between them, then it would have been said that people needed to encourage the best, even if this meant forgoing their national identity for the sake of a good sport's spirit.

This means that efforts to set aside national allegiances failed. For instance, a television show based on Arabism or Arabization (compared to globalization) ended only in reviving national specificities, and addressing the personal needs among them, especially redefining the personal identity. It is true that we are all Arabs, and that we have a lot in common (emotions and ideas that automatically come to us when we run into another Arab unexpectedly in a non-Arab country). However, it is also true that this regional link includes feeling and emotions for a "smaller" identity; this is normal when we forbid ourselves from supporting one identity more than the other, and when we realize that the realistic and unconscious link between the real, smaller identity and the larger identity which we ambition, is beyond our existential, racial and intellectual tendencies.

Apart from this point, which we discussed in detail, the popular program Superstar, despite its huge success that was greater than any other entertainment show, was based on idea of discovering and crowning one star. The name of the show clearly states this strategy, but nonetheless it deserves to be analyzed. In the Arab world, we suffer from the aspect of singling out, exaggeration and preference, which removed away all talented people in all fields. This is translated onto the wider public, supposed to choose only one person, even if there are other talented persons. All this leads to a habit of relying on luck, especially when the criteria for choosing the best among two equally talented persons are weakened. People are discouraged, for one best person among many will win only. Even lottery seems a bit more objective, for there is more than one winner: the first prize and then other, smaller prizes.

The show of Future TV chose an approach whereby there can be no partner to "Superstar." The author of this article did not understand why for instance, there wasn't a vote for one woman and one man; aren't there differences between a women's and a man's voice or do we now believe in absolute equality between the two sexes, and deny any difference between them, as opposed to the reality of our lives, our relationships and our values.

The friendship and mutual recognition between the competitors was really rejoicing, but the show's administration managed to "separate" them, and foster the fever of competition, by adopting this zero-sum game.

Anyway, it was impossible to have ten or twenty people win; and this would probably have destroyed the attraction of competition. But didn't the show choose an action plan that would lead to electing more than one person within different categories, thus, allowing more than one talent to be discovered, and allowing the principle of plurality instead of singleness to prevail, thus adding more pleasure to life. For who can choose one fruit and crown it over others?

How can we realize at the end, that distinction and talents are fixed elements existing among many people, despite the ordinary look and the fact that they do not leave as strong an impression as others? Didn't Diana Karazon glitter with this very simple, innocent and common look that pushed millions of people to support her all over the world?

There are still two main remarks to point out: the first is about the deep-seated need among certain people to once again enjoy art, after the hegemony of the fever of consumption and exaggerated politicizing of everything. The people started rediscovering their repressed need for art, and here, it involved songs, the way they were half a century ago during the ceremonies and celebrations in small towns where the least occasion, familial or religious, deserved a whole celebration that lasted until dawn. It is worth noting that weddings were celebrated for more than ten days by the entire town without needing to import bands and assisting techniques, they used to rely on the bodies, full of life, on the voices, full of strength, and on some hand-made simple equipment. The "expelled" art is coming into houses once again, thanks to this successful show; no one is ashamed anymore to spend an evening listening to songs.

Secondly, Superstar revived old Arabic songs, especially the old ones, through exceptionally talented voices. People remembered Oum Koultoum. Warda, Sabah, Melhem Barakat, Abdullah Rwaiched and many others. The show was however limited to the discovery of news voices but did not bring anything new to the art world. Not one single new song. They will say it is a television show, not a festival like the famous Eurovision, which presents new songs performed by new singers, written and composed by new talents. The show however lasted for months, moving from one place to another just as a festival could do.

Art and creativity continuously create a new relationship through the magic of surprise and discovery, and this extremely important and vital element was lacking in this show, whereby the underlying message sent to the public was that the magic of art only lay in reviving the known and in redeveloping an old desire, without calling for discovering new and unknown talents. Yet, one is encouraged to support this show, for it is a step in the right direction, and it certainly needs to be complemented by another show and by other efforts from the world of creativity. It is an experience that we need to try in the art world just as in all other fields of life.