Bilal's Biography

Bilal came to prominence in 2005 as a 12-year-old boy. He heralds from Mosul in Northern Iraq and was among the favourites to win the first series of the Iraqi version of Pop Idol, Iraq Star.

Hel was amongst more than 2,000 people who auditioned for Iraq Star, which is reportedly watched nightly by about 50% of Iraqi TV viewers.

Bilal played an oud and dedicated his performance to Iraq. His emotional performance of Ya Iraq! made the judges cry. The music was his own, the words were from an Iraqi poem about the suffering of Iraqi children.

Bilal sang in standard Arabic, which according to the BBC is a more difficult tongue to master than the colloquial language of everyday life.

Although Bilal came close he did not win the final of Iraq Star as featured on Alsumaria TV.

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