The eighth season of Akademi Fantasia premiered on 13 March 2010 and continued until 22 May 2010 on the Astro Ria television channel. The show underwent a number of changes from the seventh season, including the return Adlin Aman Ramlie as judge while Aznil Nawawi joined the judging panel following the departures of Khatijah Ibrahim and Edry Hashim. The professional trainers for this season were announced in a press conference for media which took place in Hilton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 8 February 2010. In the ceremony, Norman Abdul Halim was revealed to be the Principal for this season, while Sarimah Ibrahim and Jimmy Shanley were selected as the new hosts replacing AC Mizal. The eight season saw a new change to the format of the show. Instead of eliminating a student at the end of each concert, the elimination process was conducted in a new 30-minute segment called Debaran Akademi Fantasia, which was conducted by Sarimah Ibrahim. The final concert was broadcast live in high definition technology, an Akademi Fantasia first, which was accessible for Astro B.yond subscribers in Channel 124 through Astro. On 22 May 2010, Ahmad Shahir Zawawi from Kampar, Perak was announced the winner of the eighth season of Akademi Fantasia, defeating Siti Adira Suhaimi. He made history for being the first student to win the title after being re-entered into the competition through AFMASUK following his elimination in Week 7. As many as 3.75 million votes were cast the entire season.

Auditions

Auditions were held in the following cities:

List of songs during auditions

Songs for female Songs for male Contestants were required to be between the ages of 18 and 45, and are Malaysian and Singaporean citizens who are not embedded with recording or management contracts.

Concert summaries

Tirai Concert

Original Airdate: 13 March 2010

Week 1

Original Airdate: 20 March 2010

Week 2

Original Airdate: 27 March 2010

Week 3

Original Airdate: 3 April 2010

Week 4

Original Airdate: 10 April 2010

Week 5

Original Airdate: 17 April 2010

Week 6

Original Airdate: 24 April 2010

Week 7

Original Airdate: 1 May 2010

Week 8

Original Airdate: 8 May 2010

Week 9

Original Airdate: 15 May 2010

Week 10

Original Airdate: 22 May 2010

Students

(ages stated are at time of contest)

Summaries

Elimination chart

Cast members

Hosts

Professional trainers

Judges

Season statistics