DUBAI // After clearing their throats with loud gurgles, three young Arab men tried to see who could sing the longest while hitting the highest notes, a sound that bordered on screaming.
Deafening those around them, the men were just a sample of the singers who auditioned yesterday for the coming Arab Idol reality TV show.
By noon, the waiting room at the Nasimi Beach restaurant at Atlantis the Palm was packed with 300 contestants, including 20 Emirati men and several Emirati women.
Some hopefuls brought musical instruments including the guitar and the oud, while others came dressed as princesses and in the national dress of their home countries.
In a space with too many warm bodies for air conditioning to properly compete, candidates fanned themselves and reapplied make-up while waiting to be registered.
But that didn't dampen their mood. They sang songs from legendary artists such as Abdel Halim Hafez, Umm Kulthum and Fairouz.
Dubai was the third casting place the show's crew of 70 had visited this month, after Egypt and Morocco. The casting will continue in Kuwait, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Tunisia and Lebanon.
"It is a pretty good turnout," said Ihab Hammoud, the general manager of InMedia Plus, the show's executive production company.
The media was barred from interviewing any contestants. "This is in line with the rules of the international show," said Mr Hammoud. "We don't want to cause any bias."
Based on the international Idolshows format that began in 2001 in Britain as Pop Idol, Arab Idol is to launch in mid-December on MBC 1.
Thirty-seven episodes, 21 of them live, will follow 10 female and 10 male contestants, all competing for a contract with a recording company and a prize that has yet to be finalised. "The show will be different from other Idol shows in the sense that singing in the Arab world is more melancholic and classical, so there aren't many singing genres like in other places," Mr Hammoud said.
The jury comprises three giants of the Arab music world: the singers Ragheb Alama from Lebanon and Ahlam from the UAE, and the Egyptian composer and producer Hassan El Shafei.
The presenter of the show will be the young Kuwaiti television personality Abdullah El Tuleihi, who hosted Minute to Win It, a popular game show on MBC 1.
"I am so excited, I get to meet so many different people with different styles of singing," said El Tuleihi, 29. "We are discovering some really great talent, some really strong voices.The jury is picky and only the best will pass through. So it will be quite a competition when it goes live."