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Afghan Idol draws crowds
22/03/2008 13:04 - (SA)
Kabul - In a well-guarded hotel on top of a high hill, a lively audience of Afghans and American VIPs watched the season finale of Afghanistan's version of American Idol.
Singers performed on a star-shaped stage while cutting-edge graphics flashed in the background.
Meanwhile, only a couple hundred metres down that hill, thousands of Afghans demonstrated on Friday against the publication of Prophet Mohammad drawings in Denmark, yelling "Down with Denmark" and "Death to America."
The protesters burned flags of the Netherlands and Denmark and an effigy of a Dutch filmmaker and lawmaker.
Richard Holbrooke, a former US ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton, was among the VIPs watching the filming of Afghan Star. But because of the protests outside, he couldn't leave the hotel when he had planned to. He took note of the irony.
"I love it, fabulous. Better than American Idol," Holbrooke said of the show. "It shows the two Afghanistans. The riots down there and the show up here."
Inside the hotel's ballroom, Rafi Naabzada, a 19-year-old ethnic Tajik, was voted the winner of the third season of Afghan Star, the country's most popular TV show. The two finalists - the other was Hameed Sakhizada, a 21-year-old ethnic Hazara - together received more than 300 000 text message votes.
Female singer voted out
A female singer from the most conservative Afghan tribe, the Pashtuns, was voted out last week, finishing in third place. She had drawn the ire of conservative clerics in Afghanistan, who said women should not be singing on TV.
Saad Mohseni, the founder of Tolo TV, which produces Afghan Star, said the show is helping bring about social change in Afghanistan.
"Not just in music, but in the way people voted, the way they lined up in an orderly manner (outside the show)... the way the losers are gracious. No one is threatening violence. That's a huge change," Mohseni said.
He estimates that 11 million Afghans watch Afghan Star. The country's population is around 30 million.
- AP
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South Africa
