Arab Idol (season 3)
The third season of "Arab Idol" premiered on 5 September 2014. Auditions were held in Beirut, Bahrain, Kuwait, Algeria, Cairo, Alexandria, Dubai, Morocco, Palestine, the Iraqi-Kurdish city of Irbil and on the European continent, notably in Paris and Berlin. Emirates Airlines was a major sponsor of season 3. The winner of the season was Hazem Shareef from Syria. Auditions. MBC1 announced on the venues where auditions for "Arab Idol" would be held, and many cities were added very notably Ramallah in areas of the Palestinian Authority. Arab diaspora applicants were better serviced with addition to  could apply like Paris, France and Berlin, Germany. Venues for auditions were: Judges. Three of the four judges from season 2 returned with Ragheb Alama being replaced, after two consecutive seasons, by another well-known Lebanese singer, Wael Kfoury, who was recently a judge on the pan-Arabian version of "The X Factor". The judging panel comprised: Contestants. Eighty candidates were chosen from all venues to be auditioned in Beirut. They were divided into 14 groups, each presenting a group presentation of various genres like Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, Khaleeji etc. In episodes 5 and 6, a total of 26  finalists were chosen from the initial group presentations to go to the live rounds. Season 3 was also notable because of the presence of non-Arabic-speaking contestants at the auditions. Some examples included Nao Koyasu, a Japanese lady who auditioned in Dubai; and sisters Karishma and Prateeka Hemanathan, both from south India, who auditioned in Bahrain, among others. Of these, only Koyasu made it through to the next round, the group challenge, though she did not make it any further. Male contestants chosen were: Female contestants chosen were: This way, in the final 26, eleven Arab countries were represented , with Egypt getting 10 nominated candidates of the total 26 contestants. Final ranking. On finale night, December 13, 2014, Hazem Shareef from Syria was crowned the winner of the third season of "Arab Idol" in a tough competition against Haitham Khalaily from Palestine and Majed Madani from Saudi Arabia.