Eleven previously selected contestants were showcased to the nation in the first live episode, while the first viewer vote of the series was announced in a surprise twist - three other potential finalists would be showcased to the nation - and the public could vote for whom they wanted to enter the Academy, making up the final line-up of twelve contestants.
On the Tuesday of each week, the teachers would gather the contestants, and inform them of their progress. The contestant who had impressed the judges the most over the previous week would be named the "Grade A student," and would be guaranteed a solo performance at the following live show. The three contestants who the judges felt were performing the worst would be put on probation, and would have to sing for survival live on Friday night on BBC One, in order to fight for their place in the Academy. When applicable, the contestants who were neither on probation, or the Grade A students would team up for the live show, performing as groups, or on occasion in duets. Although they were safe from elimination, their performances in their groups weighed heavily on the teachers decision on whom to put up for probation in the following week.
Following all of the performances on the Friday live show, the public would vote for the student up for probation who they wanted to save - the person with the most votes would be safe. However, the fate of the two other contestants on probation was decided by their fellow contestants, who had to vote for who they wanted to save. In the event of a tie in the student vote the public votes would decide who is eliminated. All four contestants were put on probation in the penultimate week, with the public saving two.
Guest teachers were brought in to "teach", this happened periodically throughout the series, the guest teachers included Lionel Richie (who also co-wrote a song on the Fame Academy album), Shania Twain, Mariah Carey and Ronan Keating.
The Friday night live shows were filmed in front of an audience at the BBC's Shepperton Studios, and were lavishly presented. They featured duets and group performances by all the students which were choreographed by dance teacher Kevin Adams, as well as the songs by the three probation students. The guest teachers also sang on the liveshow. In the case of Lionel Richie he performed twice, returning to duet with Lemar on their co-written song "Back To You".
As well as the live shows, highlight shows aired at 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights on BBC One. A late night uncut show was later added to the schedules. Extra coverage was shown on BBC Choice, with round-the-clock live streaming also available on BBCi and Freeview.
Students
Eleven of these contestants were pre-selected and then the public voted in the twelfth, Sinéad Quinn. This made the final line-up, until Naomi fell ill and was forced to withdraw from the competition, she was replaced by eventual winner David Sneddon who had received the second highest number of votes to enter the academy after Sinéad.
The contestants' time in the Academy included singing lessons with Carrie Grant, exhausting dance and exercise classes with Kevin Adams, and song-writing lessons with Pam Sheyne who co-wrote Christina Aguilera's hit single Genie in a Bottle , and Grammy nominated Steve DuBerry who wrote Tina Turner's hit "I Don't Wanna Fight" (plus hits for Joe Cocker, Simon Webbe, Liberty X) Music coach Jo Noel (Jo Carter) assisted with Musical knowledge and accompaniment on the piano. Headteacher Richard Park was also never far away, and managed to keep order for most of the series.
As well as the dramas of singing for survival, there were dramas among the contestants too. David and Ainslie were claimed to be rivals for most of the series. Katie almost got thrown out of the Academy as a punishment for damaging equipment during a water fight she instigated. Camilla and Lemar got closer and closer, until on the night when all of the contestants returned to the house, they kissed in one of the bedrooms. Sinéad and Malachi were also very close, but a relationship failed to materialise once they left the Academy.
Each week, the teachers were given the task of putting three of the students on 'probation,' where they would be forced to sing for their survival the following Friday, with one of the 3 being saved by the public. The final 2 performers fate was then left to the other students, who would decide who stayed and who left the Academy for good.
Final (6 December)
The final was broadcast live as two separate shows. The final three contestants were David, Sinéad and Lemar. In the first half, after votes totalling over 4 million, Lemar was the first to be voted off by the public. Neither of the two remaining finalists, David and Sinéad, had been in the original group of eleven students chosen by the judges at the start of the series.
In the second half David sang "I Don't Want To Talk About It" and Sinéad then sang "The First Cut Is The Deepest". Then David and Sinéad sang "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues". After a total of over 6.9 million votes were cast, David won with 3.5 million votes. He then sang what was to become his debut #1 single, Stop Living the Lie, to end the show.
David Sneddon signed a £1 million record contract with Mercury Records as part of his prize. His debut single "Stop Living the Lie", entered the UK charts at #1 and remained at the top for two weeks. He is one of only a few artists from reality TV shows to have a number one hit record with a self-written song. He had a further two top twenty hit singles and a top ten album, Seven Years Ten Weeks, (which was recorded with Elton John's band) and signed a development publishing deal with Universal Music in October 2003. Sneddon signed to major music publisher Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2009 as a songwriter. Lemar signed a deal with Sony Records, and has since won several BRIT Awards as best urban act. Malachi, Ainslie, Lemar, and Sinéad also went on to release hit records.
Ratings of the show were average, but not fantastic. Most of this was blamed on the format being too similar to Pop Idol, while fans of the Reality TV element were disappointed by the awkward timings of the highlight shows . Despite this, a second series was commissioned for the following year.
Fame Academy is a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise Star Academy known under various titles in various countries.
Lemar Obika, known as Lemar, is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. Initially rising to fame after finishing third on the first series of British talent show Fame Academy, he was later signed to Sony BMG, where he has gone on to release five studio albums, three of which are certified platinum or double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Star Academy Arab World or Star Academy Arabia, is a pan-Arab televised talent show, which has aired since 2003. The show features a group of young male and female candidates who are selected from a pan-Arab pool of more than three-thousand and are sequestered for four months in "The Academy," a four-story building in Lebanon, where they live, train, and compete against one another every week. The show became an instant success and an everyday much-watched event across the Arab world.
David Sneddon is a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician and music producer of contemporary pop music. He began his career performing on stage and television, singing lead roles in stage musicals in Glasgow. In 2002, he won the first series of BBC One music competition Fame Academy. He released his first single "Stop Living the Lie" in 2003 which was a UK number one hit single selling over 250,000 copies, making it Britain's twelfth-highest selling single of 2003. Sneddon's debut album Seven Years – Ten Weeks was released in April 2003 and reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. He achieved three more UK Singles Chart singles – "Don't Let Go", "Best of Order", and "Baby Get Higher". His song "Baby Get Higher" was a hit on the dance floor for Almighty Records and a chart hit for VanVelzen in 2006, and also for Emin Agalarov.
Malachi Cush, also recording as Malachi,, is an Irish singer-songwriter from Donaghmore, a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Coming from a large musical family, he started singing and playing Irish traditional music at an early age. He appeared on the first series of Fame Academy and has had chart success in the UK and Thailand. His musical influences also included The Pogues, U2 and Van Morrison. Malachi is now married.
Ainslie Thomas Henderson is a Scottish singer-songwriter and animator. He became known to the public via his appearance on the BBC's television programme, Fame Academy, and his subsequent UK top 5 single, "Keep Me a Secret". In 2006, he independently released his debut album, Growing Flowers by Candlelight. He later became a film writer and animator, earning a BAFTA for co-writing and animating the film The Making of Longbird.
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Sinéad Quinn is a Northern Irish singer, best known as a contestant in the first series of the UK BBC TV series Fame Academy in 2002. She later went on to sign a recording contract, released an album, and had a #2 UK single with "I Can't Break Down" in February 2003.
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Pinoy Dream Academy is the Philippine version of Endemol's Operación Triunfo. The format is similar to Big Brother, where a set number of finalists would live inside the Academy for four months and will be trained by guest teachers to be multimedia performers. Activities in the Academy are being monitored 24/7 by the headmaster. It uses the tagline Ang drama sa likod ng pangarap. The program is aired through ABS-CBN.
The second series of Dancing on Ice aired from 20 January to 17 March 2007 on ITV. It was presented by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and judged by the "Ice Panel", consisting of Nicky Slater, Natalia Bestemianova, Jason Gardiner, Karen Barber and Robin Cousins. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean coached and trained the contestants. In this series, eleven celebrities competed, compared to ten in the first series. The series was won by former rugby star Kyran Bracken, with Melanie Lambert as the professional winner.
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy is a spin-off of the original Fame Academy show where celebrities students sing as students of the Academy. The programme was launched in 2003 to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief, with the final of the show occurring on Red Nose Day.
"I Can't Break Down" is a song written by Sinéad Quinn, Pete Glenister, and Deni Lew for Quinn's debut album, Ready to Run (2003). Produced by Glenister and Lew, it was released as her debut single from the album in February 2003 and reached a peak position of number two in the UK Singles Chart and finished in 65th place for the best-selling UK singles of 2003.
The first season of Pinoy Dream Academy formally began on August 27, 2006 and ended on December 16 of the same year. Nikki Gil was the main host of this season, while joining her in the Saturday Gala Nights were Bianca Gonzalez, Roxanne Barcelo, and Toni Gonzaga. Sam Milby was also part of the Saturday shows, but had stopped appearing mid-season. Barcelo also hosted the UpLate edition of the show.
Pinoy Dream Academy is a Philippine television program similar to Big Brother. The second season began on June 14, 2008. Nikki Gil and Toni Gonzaga reprised their roles as hosts of the show, but Gonzaga now handled the main hosting plum while Gil appeared both on the Probation Nights and Little Dreamers Gala/Expulsion Night. Billy Crawford joined this season as the host of the late afternoon edition Pinoy Dream Academy Überture.
"Keep Me a Secret" is the debut single by Scottish singer-songwriter Ainslie Henderson, who rose to fame on the first series of Fame Academy. The single was released on 24 February 2003 and charted at number 5 in the UK.
Fame Academy is a British television programme that ran for two series, in 2002 and 2004. The show was produced for the BBC in a reality television format. The winners of the show, David Sneddon and Alex Parks, were awarded music recording contracts to allow them to release music and live like top recording artists for a year. Sneddon had a run of three top-20 hits, including his debut single "Stop Living the Lie", which peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart in January 2003. David Sneddon signed to major music publisher Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2009 as a songwriter. Parks' debut single "Maybe That's What It Takes" charted at number three in November 2003.
The first Comic Relief Does Fame Academy took place on 7 March 2003 and lasted until Red Nose Day on 14 March, where the final show was presented and the winner was announced. It was hosted by Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley. Nine British celebrities moved into the Fame Academy. Will Mellor was the eventual winner of the sho
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, a spin-off of the original Fame Academy show where celebrities students sing as students of the Academy to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief, returned for a second live airing on 26 February 2005. It was once again hosted by Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley. During the Comic Relief show on 11 March, Edith Bowman was announced as the winner.
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