Indonesian Idol

Judges and hosts

The show had originally four judges, namely Indra Lesmana, Titi DJ, Meuthia Kasim and Dimas Djayadiningrat aka Dimas Djay. In season three, Radio announcer and presenter Indy Barends replaced Meuthia Kasim because of Meuthia's health. Indy stayed only for one season and left the show before season four. In season four, MTV video jockey and comedian Jamie Aditya replaced Indy Barends and musician and solo singer Anang Hermansyah replaced Dimas Djay who left the panel after three seasons. In season five, Jamie left the panel and only three judges, Indra, Titi and Anang were the judges. In 2010, Indra Lesmana and Titi DJ left the panel and replaced by musician and conductor Erwin Gutawa and Indonesian Superstar Agnes Monica. And in 2012, the last season of Indonesian Idol, Anang Hermansyah and Agnes Monica return as judges, while musician and hits-maker Ahmad Dhani replaced Erwin Gutawa in the panel.

Guest judges may occasionally be introduced. In season one, guest judge was Krisdayanti. In season two, Yovie Widianto replaced Dimas Djay and Ahmad Dhani replaced Meuthia Kasim in any cities audition. In season four, in several times Titi DJ replaced by Tika Panggabean in Spectacular show. In season six, alternately Rossa, Melly Goeslaw, Ahmad Dhani, Charly Van Houten, Pasha and Armand Maulana were the guest judges in spectacular show. Guest judges were used in the audition rounds for seasons five, six and seven, such as Rio Febrian, Melly Goeslaw, Nugie, and Yovie Widianto in season five, Rossa in season six Melly Goeslaw, Ahmad Dhani, Hedy Yunus, Andien and Nina Tamam in season seven. The two season first was presented by Amelia Natasha aka Ata and Irgi Ahmad Fahrezy. Irgi quit after the second season and replaced by Daniel Mananta. In season five, Ata left the show and replaced by pop singer Dewi Sandra. Since season six, only Daniel Mananta was the host of this show.

Presenters

Key:      Current      Previous

Judges

Key:      Current      Previous

Winners

Later, Joy broke her contract with Fremantle Media and Indonesian Idol. As a result, her place as the 1st Indonesian Idol winner was granted to runner-up Delon Thamrin.

Selection process

In a series of steps, the show selects the eventual winner out of many tens of thousands of contestants.

Contestant eligibility

The eligible age-range for contestants is currently 16–27 years old. The initial age limit was 18–25 in the first season. The upper limit was raised to 29 in season 5, and then reduced to 27 in season 5. The lower limit was reduced to 16 in season 2. The contestants must be legal Indonesia residents, and must not hold any current recording or talent representation contract by the semi-final stage.

Initial auditions

Contestants go through at least three sets of cuts. The first is a brief audition with a few other contestants in front of selectors which may include one of the show's producers. The number of auditionees can exceed 10,000 people each city, but only a few hundreds in each city may make it past this round of preliminary auditions. Successful auditionees then sing in front of producers where more may be cut. Only then can they proceed to audition in front of the judges, which is the only audition stage shown on the show.

Elimination

Once in Elimination, the contestants perform individually or in groups in a series of rounds. For most years there were eliminations in three rounds by the judges. In the first round the contestants emerged in groups but performed individually. For the next round, the contestants split themselves up into small groups and perform a song together. In the final round, the contestants perform solo with a song of their choice a cappella or accompanied by a band depending on the season. At the end of the Elimination round, 24–32 contestants were selected to move on to the workshop round.

Audience voting

From the Workshop round, the fate of the contestants is decided by public vote. During the contestant's performance as well as the recap at the end, a toll-free telephone number for each contestant is displayed on the screen. Viewers may call or send a text message to their preferred contestant's telephone number, and each call or text message is registered as a vote for that contestant. Viewers are allowed to vote as many times as they can within the two-hour voting window, however, the show reserves the right to discard votes by power dialer.

Workshop

In the first two seasons, as well as season six, the semi-finalists were split into different groups to perform individually in their respective night. In season one, there were three groups of ten, with the top three contestants from each group making the finals. In season three until five, the girls and boys perform on separate nights and five of each were chosen. These six seasons also featured a wildcard round where contestants who failed to qualify were given another chance. In season one, two wildcard contestant were chosen by the judges (originally one), giving a total of eleven finalists. In seasons two, there were 12 contestants no wildcard. In season three, 2 contestants were chosen by wildcard.

Auditions

There were 2 rounds of auditions which usually took place in large convention halls where thousands of people waited in line. The first round judges were the Sony BMG people. Those who pass the first round of preliminary auditions continued to audition in front of the Indonesian Idol main judges. Contestants were required to sing a cappella with poor singers often facing intense and humbling criticism from the judges. Typically the judges express disgust or dismay or suppressed laughter. Those who impress the majority of the judges, move on to the elimination round which take place in Jakarta. Usually only 150 to 170 contestants get through to the elimination round in Jakarta.

Contestants had to be Indonesian citizens . For the first season, contestants were required to be between the ages 18 to 24 years old. In order to increase variety, in the second and third season the age requirement was lowered from 18 to 16 and the upper age limit was raised from 24 to 28. As a result, there were many teenagers that made it to the final 12 such as Monita and Vira from the second season and also Tesa, Brinet, Christy, Ihsan, Gea and Dirly from the third season. For the fifth season, the eligible age-range for contestants were 17 to 29.

Elimination Round

There were 3 elimination rounds. In the first elimination round, 170 contestants from around Indonesia were separated in 17 groups of 10 contestants. In the 2nd elimination round, male and female contestants were paired and sang duets. In the last elimination round the remaining contestants sang their choice of song alone in front of the judges. The judges then inform them whether they have made it onto the stage show or not.

Season 1

In the first season, 30 contestants were separated in groups of 10 and every week three contestants from each group were chosen to the Top 10 or The Spectacular Show. Audiences vote their favorites by SMS and Premium Calls. After 9 contestants were chosen, there was a wild card round. Only one contestant from the Wild Card round could join the 9 contestants at the Spectacular Show. Karen Theresia Pooroe won the most audience votes, advancing to the Top 10. Although the spectacular show was supposed to have a set of 10 contestants, the judges announced at the last minute that they would be advancing a second wild card/eleventh contestant, Lucky Octavian, as well.

Season 2

In the second season, there was no Wild Card round. 24 contestants were separated into groups of 8. Every week, 4 contestants were picked to move on to the Top 12.

Season 3

For the third season, the workshop stage consisted of three rounds each for male and female contestants. There were 28 contestants that made it to the workshop stage on the third season. In the first week, eight contestants (four males and four females) were sent home. Six contestants (three males and three females) were sent home in the second week, and the final workshop eliminated four more contestants (two males and two females). Before the spectacular round, pre-gala and wild card show was held. Four of the eliminated contestants were chosen by the judges and two of them, one male and one female, were given a place in the Spectacular Show based on voting result.

Season 6

The sixth season saw several changes to the format of the show. There were 14 finalists instead of 12. On the Workshop round, 24 semifinalists were divided into 2 groups. Each consists of 6 male and 6 females. Four contestants of each group got voted off in the first and second week, two in third, fourth and fifth week respectively until resulting the top 10 contestants who filled 10 of 14 spots on the Spectacular Shows. The judges selected 8 of the previously eliminated 14 semifinalists to compete in the Wild Card round. Two contestants were picked based on votes by the viewers while the other two were selected by the judges. A total of four contestants (two males and two females) advanced to the final group of 14.

Spectacular Show

The Spectacular Show, which lasted eleven weeks, each finalist performed a song live (two in the top 4 and top 3 and three in the finale) in prime time with a weekly theme at Balai Sarbini Concert Hall in Jakarta in front of live audiences. Unlike American Idol, Indonesian Idol's Result Show is conducted about 1-hour after the Spectacular Show. For the Grand Final, the Result Show was conducted 7 days after the Grand Final. In the Result Show, some finalists who get the fewest votes are put in the bottom three or bottom two. Each week, finalist with the fewest votes is sent home. This process was repeated each week until the one remaining contestant is declared the winner.

Indonesian Idol's famous sentence for the result is Indonesia Memilih! (Indonesia has chosen!) along with a 1-minute pause and at last, the result. Every season, the two remaining finalists in the Grand Final sing a new single for the Winner's Record. The song is going to be recorded at the winner's album.

Season 1

The first season was conducted in 2004 where the auditions were held at five cities: Medan, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta. 32,000 people who auditioned for Season 1. The show became a big phenomenon after the grandfinale was watched by about 4 millions people in September 2004. There were several people who sang off-keys on the audition who competed on 'Coba Lagi Awards' (Try Again Awards). The winner of this award became a guest star on The Top 11 Spectacular Show's Result Show.

The number of the finalists on the first Spectacular Show was originally planned to be 10. However, the judges then made a surprising move by picking Lucky Octavian to also get the wild-card ticket (the first wild card ticket was taken by Karen Pooroe) making the number of contestants became 11. Guy Sebastian who was in Indonesia for his album promo tour, came as a guest star at the Top 7 Spectacular Show.

Indonesian Idol released its first compilation album, Indonesian Idol: Indonesian All Time Hits. The album made a huge success and had a Double Platinum status. In the album, the Top 11 sang their first hit, Ekspresi.

Two finalists who battled at the Grand Finale were Joy Destiny Tobing and Delon Thamrin. There were 7,000 people who watched the show live at Istora Senayan, Jakarta. The soon to be Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also watched the grandfinal. Eventually, the winner of the first season was Joy Destiny Tobing from Jakarta.

She signed a contract deal with BMG Indonesia, the partner of Indonesian Idol's 19 Management. Not so long after her victory, Joy released her first album, Terima Kasih (Thank You) including her new single, most notable as her coronation song, Karena Cinta.

After the show, the top 10 finalists (minus Helena Andrian who withdrew her participation due to contract problem) had a tour around Indonesia. They visited Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, and Medan. Indonesian Idol Finalists were given the opportunity as the opening singers on American Idol tour in Singapore not long after the show.

A few weeks after the tour, Joy's contract with the show's producer, FremantleMedia, was terminated after some problems regarding terms of her contract. As a result, runner-up Delon Thamrin was more heavily promoted by Fremantle afterwards.

After leaving Indonesian Idol, Joy made her first international album called Rise. Rumors said that Joy had been planning to resign from Indonesian Idol since the audition for her fame. Delon also took hist first role as a movie star by starring at the movie Vina Bilang Cinta with Indonesia's famous actress Rachel Maryam.

Before Joy, Helena also resigned from Indonesian Idol and released her first solo album on 2005 titled Keajaiban Cinta. Nania, the second runner-up, and Karen also chose to resign shortly after Helena.

Delon's first album was released on October 2004 with the single Bahagiaku. His album also made a huge success. He was also featured in Indonesian Famous Singer, Andre Hehanusa,'s album with his single Aku Masih Cinta (I still Love You). Delon's second album was released on December 2005. Delon was also nominated as the Best New Singer in Anugrah Planet Muzik 2005. He also won a 2005 SCTV Award as The Best New Artist.

Michael Jakarimilena starred a movie about a Papua boy where he starred as one of the villagers in the movie. The movie was released in Indonesia in 2006. Winda Viska Ria takes a role at a local sitcom called OB Office Boy. Nania was featured in Indra Lesmana's album and sang Sedalam Cintamu (As Deep as Your Love) with Indra Lesmana. Adika Priatama has been working for RCTI as an anchor.

¹ The first week of The Spectacular Show was a Double Elimination Week and four contestants were announced unsafe.
² Due to having an appendicitis, Naniawas absent on the Top 7 show, leaving the show with only 6 contestants. She was allowed to remain on the show proceeding to the top 6-week, but just for one week. Otherwise she would automatically be voted off.
³ It was revealed that the number of votes cast during the grand final week were approximately 4 million. Less than 6 percent margin separated Rezky and Zack.

Season 2

The second season started on 25 March 2005. Auditions were held from 15 February – 17 March at five cities: Makassar, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta. The audition in Medan was canceled due to the tsunami on 2004 that destroyed most part of Aceh and North Sumatra. Then, as a replacement, the adution was also held in Makassar. There were 38,000 people who auditioned for the second season.

There were some changes on the second season, named there was no Wildcard round, and the number of the finalists on the spectacular show became 12. There were 9 male contestants who made it to the top 12 and only 3 female contestants. It is the only Indonesian Idol season to have a gender imbalance among the finalists.

Indonesian Idol Season 2 Compilation Album was released 3 weeks after the Spectacular Show began. The title of the album was Seri Cinta or Love Songs. The album single hits was Cintaku, sung by the Season 2's Top 12.

Two finalists that who in the Finale were Mike and Judika. The Grand Final was held at the Pleanary Hall of Jakarta Convention Center. In the Result Show, some stars became guest stars, one of them was Christian Bautista a famous male singer from the Philippines. Ruth Sahanaya, Indonesia's Pop Diva made a surprise appearance for Mike and Judika when they sang her song, Tak Kuduga. Season 1 finalists came to the Result Show and sang together with season 2's finalists.

The number of votes cast during the grand final week were only 1 million. Mike took the crown by a slim two percent margin. It was said that Judika led the vote before the Result Show, but finally Mike passed him and won.

Not long after the finale, he released his self-titled album with his new single, Semua Untuk Cinta (All For Love). Many great Indonesian Composers made some songs for Mike's first album, including, Cinta Tak Bertuan composed by Glenn Fredly. Runner up Judika has also released his solo album. His album was released on August 2006. The Top 12 contestants had a tour to Surabaya. The tour was originally planned to also go to Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Makassar. However, Fremantle canceled it without any published reason. After 7 years passed, some of finalist of season 2 were confirmed to go back to music industry. Maya (now Kamaya) has launched his 1st mini album on 2010, Wisnu who'd changed his name into Nino has released 2 singles in 2011, Monita who's placed fourth on this season has launched her 1st album in 2010 produced by the former judge Indra Lesmana. Also, Ronald Silitonga, Wisnu, Danar Indra and Top 8 of season 3 Sisi Hapsari has made a Christian group named Awaken which had mild success in Indonesian gospel music. In 2013, Danar Indra, also confirmed to launch his 1st single: "Untuk Apa" (What For) written by Bemby Noor, who has written for Afgan and Girlband Cherrybelle.

Season 3

The third season of Indonesian Idol was launched on 21 April 2006. The auditions were held at some Indonesia's major cities such as Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Medan. This season, Indonesian Idols also conducted small auditions at some other cities such as Manado and Ambon. The contestants who passed the initial round in both Manado and Ambon were eventually brought into an elimination round in Surabaya. After an additional elimination round, the final group of contestants were finally brought to Jakarta to determine the final twelve contestants who made it onto the Spectacular Show.

As with previous Indonesian Idol seasons, the spectacular show was held in Balai Sarbini (Sarbini Building) located in South Jakarta. The Third Season's finalists were considered better than the previous seasons by the judges. However, there were some surprising eliminations going on at the Spectacular Show. Depe, who was regarded as a strong contender, became the first contestant to be eliminated. Indra Lesmana said that Depe was way too early to be eliminated. Sisi, who was a huge favorite amongst judges, got eliminated on the fifth Spectacular Show. The Final Three consisted of Gea, Dirly, and Ihsan. Gea's fans votes were not enough to safe her from elimination from the Top 3. This left Dirly and Ihsan to battle at the Grand Finale for the Indonesian Idol Season 3 title. The Grand Finale was held at the Istora Senayan (Senayan Athletic Complex) in Central Jakarta. The live audience who attended the Grand Finale was approximately 7,000 persons. Kemenangan Hati, the winner's single for the 3rd Season, was written by Indonesia's top composer, Yovie Widyanto, who also served as guest judge at the Indonesian Idols season two auditions. The grand final week had a total of approximately 2.7 million votes. Ihsan won with a margin of 10 percent more votes than Dirly

The third season also released a compilation album called, Tribute to Tonny Koeswoyo. Tonny, one of the founding members of Koes Plus, a legendary Indonesian Rock Band, died in 1987. Before his death, he and his brothers produced more than a few catch tunes that people still remember until today. The Top 12 Finalists sang Nusantara (Nusantara is the other name for Indonesia) as well as Koes Plus' other famous hit songs such as Diana and Kembali ke Jakarta (Return to Jakarta).

Since the show ended, Dirly and Gea have been seen debuted their acting career in a TV drama called Idola (Idol) which was aired on RCTI every Mondays on 8 pm. Ihsan also debuted his acting career in an Islamic religious series called Maha Kasih which is also aired by RCTI.

Season 4

The fourth season premiered on 30 March 2007. Auditions began in early January. Ata and Daniel are back as fourth season's hosts. Indra Lesmana and Titi DJ returned as judges while Indy Barends and Dimas Djayadiningrat were replaced by Anang Hermansyah and Jamie Aditya. The fourth season's compilation album titled "Masterpiece" was released on the 7th week of Spectacular Show. The single hits was Bendera (originally sung by Cokelat), performed by the Top 12 finalists.

Rini Wulandari was named the winner of Indonesian Idol season 4 on 28 July 2007. She is the fourth finalist from Medan, North Sumatra who made it to the finale. This season was the first time since the first season where a female had won. The formation of 1 male and 3 females on the Top 4 is also exactly the same formation as in season 1. Rini's debut album was released in November 2007, which included her winner's single. Runner-up Wilson released his first single in March 2010. Fifth-place finisher Fandy Santoso, is now the lead singer of the band Kerispatih, replacing the band’s former vocalist Sammy who was kicked out of the band due to drug use.

¹ It was announced the bottom two rather than the usual bottom three. Dimas finally got voted off after 5 times consecutively was placed in the bottom three or bottom two.
² It was revealed that Rini got the highest number of votes. It also meant that Gaby got the second highest number of votes.
³ Rini got 51.2% of all votes which were cast in while Wilson only got 48.8%

Season 5

The commercial of season 5 was firstly aired during the Asian Idol's commercial break. Online registration was open on the Indonesian Idol's official website. Audition started on 3 February, starting in Medan. Daniel returns as the show's host, along with two new hosts, Dewi Sandra and Marissa Nasution. Ata is no longer the host because she moved to Australia with her husband. There were 15 cities which were visited for auditions. Eight cities which were opened for auditions are Medan, Manado, Ambon, Bali, Surabaya, Bandung, Palembang, Jakarta. Seven other cities, Yogyakarta, Malang, Madiun, Salatiga, Cilacap, Tegal, and Cirebon were visited by an Audition Bus that would tour around. A Dream Box was placed in The Wave Mall in Bali for auditions. The judges for the fifth season are Indra Lesmana, Titi DJ, and Anang Hermansyah. The fifth season of Indonesian Idol started to be aired on 4 April 2008.

The fifth season (2008) is just finished airing on RCTI. This season the age limit was changed from 16–29 to 17–29.

The fifth season of Idol in Indonesia saw contestants able to perform with an instrument at any stage of the competition whereas other adaptations of Idol that have introduced live instrumentation only allow the concept at certain times during the show.

Season 6

On 12 March 2009, RCTI's CEO announced that Indonesian Idol would not be running a 6th season. But in late October 2009, RCTI surprised its audience by showing a short commercial of the Indonesian Idol logo. Rumors started spreading that Indonesian Idol will be officially back in 2010 after a hiatus for one season. No press confirmation has been delivered to the media over the actual comeback itself. The judges for the sixth season are Agnes Monica, Erwin Gutawa, and Anang Hermansyah.

After many rumors, RCTI finally confirmed the return of Indonesian for Season 6, by making audition commercials that featured Daniel Mananta (who will be back for hosting), which confirmed that Indonesian Idol will be back in 2010. The auditions for Season 6 is going to be held from December 2009. Auditions were held in 17 cities. There was a form to fill in on the Indonesian Idol website to try for auditions for 2010. Auditioners had to be between the ages of 16 to 27 by 16 November 2009. The sixth season of Indonesian Idol premiered on 5 March 2010, on RCTI

The sixth season saw several changes to the format of the show. There were 14 finalists instead of 12. Another change in the format, which was revealed on the fourth week of the Spectacular Show, is the one-time veto power for the judges to save a contestant who was eliminated by the viewers' votes.

¹ On 2nd Spectacular Show, 2 contestants must voted off

² Starting from Top 10, the judgess is might to use Veto Rights which the judges could rescue the voted off contestants. Veto Rights can only be used one time only

³ 5th Spectacular Show postponed a day because the opening of 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, 2010

⁴ On 10th Spectacular Show, 2 contestants must voted off

⁵ Judges use their Veto Rights to save Ray from elimination

Season 7

RCTI has confirmed the return of ‘Indonesian Idol’ for a seventh season, which would start airing from 17 February 2012, every Fridays and 8:00 pm

The show, which was dropped last year for the launch of ‘MasterChef Indonesia’ will be making a comeback later this year. In 2012, RCTI appointed Fabian Dharmawan to be the Executive Producer and a project leader for Indonesian Idol 2012, while Fremantle Media appointed Glenn Sims to lead the new creative direction and tone for the series. Both Dharmawan and Sims worked closely to free the show of heavy-handed gimmicks that had bogged down previous seasons and to dramatically lift production values. As a result, Season 7 went on the become the most successful season in the history of Indonesian Idol.

Daniel Mananta who have previously hosted the show will once again be back as the faces of the show.

Compare to previous 6 seasons, Indonesian Idol 2012 was the highest rating and share in average.

Daniel Mananta who have previously hosted the show will once again be back as the faces of the show.

The judges for this season would be Anang Hermansyah, Agnes Monica, and Ahmad Dhani.

Season 8

The eighth season of Indonesian Idol returns in 2014. This season will double as the 10th anniversary of Indonesian Idol. The judges for this season would be Anang Hermansyah, Ahmad Dhani, Titi DJ and Tantri Syalindri. After a great success in producing X Factor Indonesia, Fabian Dharmawan appointed for the second time as the Executive Producer to lead this series. A little but noticeable different in picture quality in this series. Most of the outdoor scenes were shot in HD and most of the establishments were shot using mechanical heli cameras. Still using the same but slightly improved formula in producing, Fabian invests heavily in the judges chemistry and the raw talents of the contestants.

Indonesian Idol Extra

A supplementary program that features news and updates about the Indonesian Idol contestants, highlights from the show, as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes coverage of Indonesian Idol. The show first aired in 2004.

Controversies

Awards and Nominations

At the 2011 Panasonic Gobel Awards, Indonesian Idol lost rival shows Indonesia Mencari Bakat to take the award Talent Show.