Who Wants to be an Iraqi Star?

By Jeff Chu

More than 2,000 people, actually. That's how many wannabes tried out in Baghdad for Iraq Star, the new Iraqi version of American Idol. "We're trying to help ease the burden and troubles of our people," said producer Wadia Nader. The show, watched nightly by about 50% of Iraqi TV viewers, isn't flashy, with spartan sets and no studio audience. But it does have Simon Cowell's Iraqi alter ego, Muhammad Hadi, whose slams have a local accent. His dis of one hopeful's off-key song about a hummingbird: "Slaughtered bird is masculine. You kept saying it is feminine." BILAL, playing an oud, had no such trials. In a performance dedicated to his country, the 12-year-old from Mosul made the judges cry and himself a favorite, singing Ya Iraq!, about the suffering of Iraqi children. The music was his own, the words taken from an Iraqi poem. What's Arabic for "record deal"?