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Posted by Maggie (Guest) - Wednesday, August 31 2005, 20:09:03 (CEST)
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August 31, 2005 latimes.com : World News Single page

Risking It All for a Song
These star search contestants put up with far more than stage fright and critical judges. The prize, after all, is a ticket out of Iraq.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD — As Mohammed Ahmad Younis puts it, he's little more than a 26-year-old loser, a failed artist, son and boyfriend unable to accomplish anything worthwhile in his life.

In hopes of changing that, one day this month he put on a pair of sunglasses, fake-leather jeans, platform shoes, blue contact lenses and a black "Star Trek" T-shirt, and became a contestant on "Iraq Star," the local version of "American Idol."

"I am a failure and I've been a failure all my life," he said, minutes before appearing on the second round of the show. "I was born the wrong place and the wrong time. Maybe I will succeed here. Maybe it will diminish the failures I have had, and I will become a new person."

The boyish, cleanshaven barber was gambling with more than his reputation in performing his version of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" for millions of Iraqis — he was putting his safety on the line.

In America and Europe, such televised talent shows offer small-time entertainers and wannabes the chance to show off to a national audience and maybe break into stardom with no greater danger than becoming the butt of office jokes. In Iraq, a shot at the big time means risking much more.

Some of the 500 aspiring talents competing for a trip to Beirut and a record deal have been beaten, threatened and ostracized. Although Iraqis gobble up tapes, CDs and videos of sexy Lebanese and Egyptian entertainers, Islamic militants often group singers and dancers with prostitutes.

Many artists and intellectuals have been killed in his native Mosul, Younis said.

"I'm afraid," he said. "I fear for my life wherever I go. But what can I do? This is my only shot. I've made my decision. I'd rather just die and be dead than stay alive and be dead."

Nada Samaraii, a 36-year-old flutist and music teacher who was among a handful of women daring to compete in the contest, said neighbors had trashed her apartment, hit her and threatened to turn her out onto the street after her first appearance on "Iraq Star." Her landlord jacked up her rent and cut off electricity and water.

"They told me I'm not respecting Islam," she said as she nervously awaited her turn to appear on the show, "that I'm an infidel."

Still, she persists. She said Iraqis had been through so much in these last few years that they were numb to the threat of violence, and that her stage fright before appearing on "Iraq Star" far surpassed her worries about bombs and kidnappings.

"I'm used to the other kinds of fears; I've internalized them," said Samaraii, a soft-spoken woman with red-hennaed hair and a warm smile. "But the fear of going onstage is the biggest fear for me."

She writes her own sentimental love songs, rehearsing a cappella versions nervously as she got ready to take the stage:

"Take away my suspicions and teardrops

I'm crying because I'm happy

I thought you had changed on me

And because I'm so suspicious, I haven't been happy

My heart needs you and your love

My moon, you light my life."

"Iraq Star" contestants come from all over the country and sing in all Iraq's languages: Arabic, Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian. About 125 candidates have made it past a three-judge panel, consisting of a singer, a composer and a musicologist, to the third round, which is being taped this week.

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