Idool 2003 was the first season of the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

version of the

Idol series ''Idol'' (also known as ''SuperStar'' in some countries) is a reality television singing competition format created by British television producer Simon Fuller and developed by Fremantle. The format began in 2001 with the British television se ...

. It was won by

Peter Evrard Peter Evrard (born 19 October 1974) is the winner of the first season of ''Idool 2003'', the Belgian version of ''Pop Idol''. Evrard defied the traditional rules of the Idols series by singing rock music instead of the expected pop. Regardless, ...

, and followed by

Idool 2004 ''Idool 2004'' was the second season of the Flemish version of the ''Idol'' series. It was won by Joeri Fransen, who could not follow the footsteps of former winner Peter Evrard and only release one album before he was dropped by his record comp ...

. The series was officially launched on 28 September 2002 by Belgian

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

VTM. The hosts of the show are

Koen Koen is a Dutch language given name and surname, popular in the Netherlands and Flanders. Although the earliest direct attestation comes from Oudenaarde, East Flanders in 1272, it is known to have been derived from the Proto-Germanic name ''*kōnj ...

& Kris Wauters of the group

Clouseau Inspector Jacques Clouseau (), later granted the rank of Chief Inspector, is a fictional character in Blake Edwards' farcical ''The Pink Panther'' series. He is portrayed by Peter Sellers in the original series, and also by Alan Arkin in the ...

. The jury members were Jean Blaute, Nina De Man,

Jan Leyers Jan Anna August Leyers (born 16 May 1958 in Wilrijk, Belgium) is a singer, songwriter, and television personality. He was a member of the group Soulsister and later became a solo musician and host of various television series. Music career Jan ...

& Bart Brusseleers.

About

Auditions were held across

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

where 100 candidates were chosen to advance to the theatre rounds in Brussels where they were cut to 50 contestants (five groups of ten) to perform live in a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

round

semi final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

, two contestants from each semi final advanced to the liveshows with a

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

. On 9 May 2003 Peter Evrard from

Beerse Beerse () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Beerse proper and . In 2021, Beerse had a total population of 18,194. The total area is 37.48 km2 (14.5 sq mi). The pharmaceutical ...

won with runner up Natalia Druyts placing second. Finalist Carolin Vyncke, who was pregnant during the contest, named her daughter (who was born later that year) Nina, after jury member Nina De Man.Het Nieuwsblad – Idoolfinalisten zingen voor kleuter die ontstoppingsmiddel inslikte
/ref> This season of Idool is also notable having produced so far 3 popular Belgian

recording artist A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

s in the semi finals: *

Hadise Açıkgöz Hadise Açıkgöz (born 22 October 1985). hadisemusic.com is a Belgian-Turkish singer-songwriter, dancer, and television personality. Born and raised in Belgium, her family is of Lezgin- Kumyk origin who settled in Sivas, Turkey. In 2003, she ...

Udo Mechels Udo Mechels, born in Brussels on 10 May 1976, is a Belgian singer commonly known simply as Udo. He won the first season of the Belgian version of ''The X Factor'' in 2005. Biography In 2003, Udo participated in the first season of ''Belgian I ...

– winner of The X Factor. *Johan Waem – popularly known by his stage name,

Danzel Danzel (born Johan Waem, 9 November 1976) is a Belgian musician, best known for his 2004 single "Pump It Up!" which reached the top 10 across Europe, including in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland ...

. In 2006, the finalists of Idool 2003 are still enjoying success in their country compared to how quickly other countries' Idol competitors last in the

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

. As of July 2006, Peter, Danzel & Udo still have records in the

Ultratop 50 Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium. Ultratop is a non-profit organization, created on the initiative of the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), the Belgian member organization of ...

singles chart with Wim & Brahim releasing their new CDs in the last month also. But non-of these can hold the massive success Natalia still has. Several of the Idool 2003 contestants tried out on the Flemish-Belgian Pre-Selection for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

to represent their country and although some of them came quite close, none of them really made it. However

, who did not made the top 50 but failed to advance to the final 10, represented

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in 2009 making her the second contestant from a very successful Idol show to do so, after

Jessica Garlick Jessica Julie Anne Garlick (born 1981) is an English-born Welsh pop singer. Garlick made her first steps into show business when she was 16. At that age, she won the Welsh final of BBC One's talent show '' Star for a Night''. The same year she a ...

who represented the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

after appearing in ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

''.

Finals

Finalists

(ages stated at time of contest)

Finals Elimination Chart

Live show details

Heat 1 (31 January 2003)

Heat 2 (7 February 2003)

Heat 3 (14 February 2003)

Heat 4 (21 February 2003)

Heat 5 (28 February 2003)

Live Show 1 (14 March 2003)

Theme: My Idol

Live Show 2 (21 March 2003)

Theme: 80s Hits

Live Show 3 (28 March 2003)

Theme: Dutch Songs

Live Show 4 (4 April 2003)

Theme: Film Songs

Live Show 5 (11 April 2003)

Theme: Disco Fever

Live Show 6 (18 April 2003)

Theme: Big Band

Live Show 7 (25 April 2003)

Theme: Latino Hits

Live Show 8: Semi-final (2 May 2003)

Theme: Judge's Choice

Live final (9 May 2003)

References

External links

Peter Evrards WebsiteNatalias WebsiteWim Soutaers WebsiteBrahims WebsiteTabitha Cycons WebsiteUdos WebsiteDanzels WebsiteHadises WebsiteTwinsband (Astrid Roelants) Website
{{Idool Idool (TV series) 2003 Belgian television seasons