Akademi Fantasia (AF) is actually a singing competition created by Astro and sponsored by Maxis Malaysia. The “Akademi Fantasia” is another showbiz from Astro Malaysia which has applied the concept of reality show to the competition itself. Due to this fact, the show which was first aired in June 2003 received high ratings and as claimed by Astro, the Akademi Fantasia was one of the Astro’s highest rated show. Millions have watched the Akademi Fantasia reality television show and due to high ratings, the reality show has been made annually since its first premier till now.
Since the show is a reality show, Akademi Fantasia has included few packages for the show. There are two main packages and they are “Konsert Akademi Fantasia” and “Diari Akademi Fantasia”.
Konsert Akademi Fantasia
The main package is the concert which will be held each weekend on Saturday. Each contestant (or fondly called “pelajar Akademi Fantasia”) will be given a task which is to sing a popular song. The song will be given to them a week before the concert and they have to practice singing the song in their own singing style. During the concert, which is held on Saturday nights, each one of pelajar Akademi Fantasia or the students has to deliver the song as best as they can. After each performance, comments will be given by three or more judges/juries. They will comment on various factors such as the singing skills, the singing quality, the showmanship, and so on.
In each of the concert, one student or one contestant will be eliminated. The eliminations are based on which “pelajar” received the lowest SMS votes from the audiences. Audiences are allowed to vote as many as they want to by sending the votes via SMS to Astro Akademi Fantasia. The votes can be sent beginning from the first day the season started till the last day of the season. After all the contestants of Akademi Fantasia has performed, the host will announce that the voting lines will be closed for the night and all votes sent after the cue will be carried forward to the next week. All votes prior to the announcement will be taken into account and the official announcement to eliminate one of the contestants will be made on that night by the Akademi Fantasia’s host.
Diari Akademi Fantasia
Diari Akademi Fantasia or “the diary” is actually a “backstage” show for Akademi Fantasia. The Akademi Fantasia contestants are gathered in a secret location and they are not allowed to leave the premise during the season. Accommodations are provided to them and every morning they will be picked up by Akademi Fantasia’s crews and brought to the Akademi Fantasia’s practice studio.
The studio is where the contestants will have to follow the routine where they have to attend some classes. There are a few courses such as vocal training and dance training. Each course has a dedicated facilitator assigned to the course and they are responsible to teach the Akademi Fantasia’s contestants all the criteria that a superstar should have. The contestants are also trained on various skills in order to improve their talents and their showmanship.
The Akademi Fantasia is a controversial reality show since many have disputed the idea of choosing the champion from solely from SMS votes from Akademi Fantasia’s audiences. Since its first season AF1, a lot of local Malaysian singers criticized the Akademi Fantasia show as an effort to ruin the country’s music industry. However, there are also a lot of
