A combined 273 artists have won the television series '' Idols'', a reality singing competition adapted in forty-six regions. The series, originally created by British television executive Simon Fuller as '' Pop Idol'', aims to find the most outstanding independent solo singer. Through mass auditions, a group of semi-finalists is selected by a panel of judges based on their performances. The finalists are then selected amongst a group of semi-finalists by the television audiences and the judges (through wildcard rounds), with the finalist receiving the most votes by the television audiences in their weekly performance being declared the winner. Each winner is given a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

, a monetary prize, and a title as that nation's ''Idol'', ''SuperStar'' or ''Star''. The first winner of the format was Will Young of the United Kingdom in 2002. Two winners of the series were also able to win for another regional title:

Kurt Nilsen Kurt Erik Nilsen () (born 29 September 1978) is a Norwegian pop/country singer. He won the first season of the Norwegian reality show ''Idol'', which aired on TV 2 in May 2003. He then won a one-off international version of ''Pop Idol'' called ...

of Norway also won '' World Idol'' in 2003, and Hady Mirza of Singapore also won '' Asian Idol'' in 2007. In addition,

Jason Hartman Jason Hartman is a singer-songwriter and the 2009 co-winner of season 5 of the '' Idols'' (South Africa). After a malfunction occurred with the text lines in the finals, it was decided that even though Jason was the official winner of ''Idols'' ...

and

Sasha-Lee Davids Sasha-Lee Davids born in Atlantis, Western Cape, South Africa is a singer and the 2009 co-winner of South African Idols season 5. She is also the winner of the 2008 reality TV show "Matrix" season 2. Early life Davids comes from Atlantis in the We ...

of South Africa were the only two finalists to be declared as co-winners of the format. Winning the ''Idols'' series provides a unique opportunity for the winning artist(s) to launch or further their music careers, due to the surrounding publicity and the recording contract offerings. However, only a few of them have managed to further their international careers. The most notable winner of the series was Kelly Clarkson of the United States, who has sold over 70 million records worldwide. Other notable winning artists who also have managed to chart internationally include Agnes Carlsson of Sweden, Alexander Klaws of Germany,

of Norway, Guy Sebastian of Australia,

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005. Her single "Inside Your Heaven" made her the only country artist to debut atop the ''Bill ...

of the United States, and Young of the United Kingdom.

Winners

Kelly Clarkson at Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth Texas

National versions

Multinational versions

Junior competitions

Winner competitions

Notes

# Citizens of Macedonia were eligible to participate in the first season. # Citizens of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are eligible to participate throughout the series. # Citizens of Wallonia and Québec were eligible to participate in the first season. # Citizens of Austria and Switzerland are eligible to participate throughout the series. # Citizens of Cyprus were eligible to participate in ''Super Idol''. # Citizens of Moldova were eligible to participate in ''SuperStar România''. # Citizens of Belarus and Ukraine were eligible to participate in the first and second season. # Citizens of Puerto Rico were eligible to participate in the eighth season. # Countries whose citizens were eligible to participate include all the

member states of the Arab League The Arab League has 22 member states. It was founded in Cairo in March 1945 with six members: the Kingdom of Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Republic, and Transjordan (Jordan from 1949). North Yemen (later becoming Yemen) ...

. # Countries whose citizens were eligible to participate include: Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion (a part of France), Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. # Countries whose citizens were eligible to participate include all of the Latin American countries, with the exception of Brazil. # Countries whose citizens were eligible to participate include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. # Winners of ''Indian Idol'', ''Indonesian Idol'', ''Malaysian Idol'', ''Philippine Idol'', ''Singapore Idol'', ''SuperStar KZ'', and ''Vietnam Idol'' participated in ''Asian Idol'', in which the winner was determined the greatest percentage of votes. # Winners of inaugural seasons of ''American Idol'', ''Australian Idol'', ''Canadian Idol'', ''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'', ''Idool'', ''Idols'' (Dutch version), ''Idols'' (South African version), ''Idol'' (Polish version), ''Idol'' (Norwegian version), ''Pop Idol'', and SuperStar (Arab version) participated in ''World Idol'', in which the winner was determined by the most collective points given by each of the other participating countries (similar to 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 ...

References

{{Idol series Idols (TV series) winners Non-British television series based on British television series Television shows remade overseas