The seventh season of Indonesian Idol premiered on RCTI on February 17, 2012. The show aired every Friday at 8:00 pm and Re-run aired every Sunday at 1:00 pm. Daniel Mananta returned as the host, while Anang Hermansyah and Agnes Monica returned as the judges, and musician and hits-maker Ahmad Dhani replaced Erwin Gutawa as the third judges. Fabian Dharmawan became the new Executive Producer. Vokal Plus founder & CEO Indra Aziz, and Irvan Nat, both of them are professional vocal couches, became the new in-house mentors to work with the contestants on a weekly basis. Universal Music Indonesia replaced Sony Music Entertainment Indonesia as Idol's official partner record label. Cross Mobile, Coolant, Honda and Mie Sedaap, were the official sponsors of the show. This season followed the same format as American Idol season 11 and used the new title screen & logo with a different font started from Spectacular round. Season 7 is the first season to have a finale with two female contestants, while the second and third seasons had a finale with two male contestants. It is the first season where a saved contestant, Kamasean Matthews to reach the finale. Regina Ivanova is the second contestants of all seasons had never been in the bottom 2 or 3 prior to the finale and the first to be the winner. On July 8, 2012, Regina Ivanova became the winner of the seventh season of Indonesian Idol, beating Kamasean Matthews, the first female recipient of the judges' save. The top two finalists from this season — Regina Ivanova and Kamasean Matthews — and 6th place finalist, Maria Rosalia a.k.a. Rosa Yoladetta were signed to record labels.

Judges

The two official judges, Anang Hermansyah and Ahmad Dhani confirmed on early December 2011. There is some issues that says Agnes Monica will not return as judge due to her duty of her international career In Los Angeles, USA. But on 30 January 2012 Untung Pranoto, Operational Production Manager of RCTI announced all official judges, includes Agnes Monica. Hedi Yunus, Nina Tamam and Andien were brought as guest judges during the auditions in Medan, Surabaya and Yogyakarta because Agnes Monica didn't appear those auditions. Piyu 'PADI', Audy and Meltho 'PASTO' are the guest judges for school audition in Palembang, Padang, Manado and Ambon. While Nina Tamam, Charly Van Houten, Hedi Yunus and Baron are the guest judges for bus audition. In the beginning, many people were rumored to be in the running to join the judging panel, including Rossa, Sherina Munaf, Ello, Dewi Sandra, Rio Febrian and Tompi. Rio Febrian and Tompi have said (by their Twitter) that they would not be judges for this show, while Rossa said (by her Twitter) her schedule was busy and that it would probably be only as a guest judge on this season.

Selection process

Auditions

Regional auditions

Auditions took place in the following cities: Requirement : Contestants must be 16–27 years old before 24 November 2011 and lives in Indonesia at least 5 years. One auditioner who received widespread publicity was M. Ridho, also known as "Neng Neng Nong Neng", he auditioned with his original song titled "Ku Ingin Kita Lama Pacaran Disini". His catchy song was bought by Ahmad Dhani as 5 million rupiahs and he will get the royalty for 5 years.

Online audition

Online audition is the new feature in seventh season. Audition was opened from 1–15 January 2012 and can be voted by viewers from YouTube until 23 January 2012. Contestant with the highest 'LIKE' automatically will through to judging in Jakarta.

Street auditions & School auditions

Street audition held in city centers such as the mall, markets, station, town square and others. While the school auditions held in schools with the best musical talent in each city. Indonesia is first country in the world to do school auditions and these have now been picked up by Indian Idol.

Bus audition

It's the third season of Indonesian Idol auditioned with the bus. Bus audition has gone to Malang, Madiun, Solo, Semarang, Tegal, Cirebon and Sukabumi.

Elimination round

The Elimination rounds were held at Studio 4 RCTI Jakarta starting 7 February 2012. There were 109 contestants at the start of Elimination round (one of them was disqualified because didn't attend the judging). The contestants performed solo for the first round, and 52 advanced to the next round, where the contestants performed in groups. The contestants were then separated into five rooms, with two room of contestants being eliminated and one room of contestants that must perform again in front of judges. The remaining 27 contestants made it through to the final "Sing For Your Life" round. In that round, each contestant performed a song of their own choosing. Only 15 contestants made it through to the Top 15.

Semi-finalists

After the 27 remaining contestants sang their final solo in the Sing For Your Life round, they were called one by one to hear the final judgement. The semi-finalists were announced in the 30 March episode, with the top fifteen being revealed at the episode’s end. For personal reasons, Henriyanto, one of Top 15 chosen, withdrew from the competition and was replaced by previously eliminated contestant Kanza Dinar.

Top 15 show

The Top 15 Show was aired LIVE on 6 April at 8:30 pm. Below are the contestants listed in their performance order. The top five viewers' choice and top five judges' choice advanced to the Spectacular. There were fifteen semifinalists, nine females and six males. The contestants perform songs of their choice (there was no particular theme).

Wild Card round

At the end of the episode revealing the top ten, it was announced that the judges (except Anang Hermansyah) wanted to add two more finalists in Spectacular. The five possibilities were Ni Putu Karina, Intania Ayu, Febri Yoga, Maria Rosalia and Shandy Eugene. After the judges discussed, it was announced that Febri Yoga and Maria Rosalia were the top twelve finalists.

Finalists

Spectacular show

This is the fifth season in which there are 10 weeks of the Spectacular and 12 finalists, with one of the 12 finalists eliminated each week. The Andra & The Backbone's "Selamat Tinggal Masa Lalu" became the send-off song played when a contestant is eliminated.

Top 12 – The Star is Born

Top 11 – The Biggest Band

Top 10 – Songs of Dedication

Top 9 – Tribute to Judges / Boy & Girl band Indonesia

Top 8 – The Power of Love / Duets

Agnes Monica did not appear on the judging panel for week 5 due to her international album project in Los Angeles, so Melly Goeslaw took her place on the panel. Agnes still judging via Skype from Los Angeles.

Top 7 – Viewers' Choice

Agnes Monica did not appear on the judging panel for week 6 due to her international album project in Los Angeles, so Dimas Djayadiningrat, season 1-3 judge, took her place on the panel.

Top 6 – Dhani's Choice

Each contestant performed two songs. Agnes Monica did not appear on the judging panel for week 7 due to her international album project in Los Angeles, so Jaclyn Victor, winner of first season Malaysian Idol, took her place on the panel.

Top 5 (first week) – The Lucky Songs

Top 5 (second week) – Favorite & Dream Songs

Start on spectacular 9, the show aired Saturday. Spectacular 9 held on 18:00, due to be aired at 22:300 on UEFA Euro 2012 match between Netherlands and Denmark.

Top 4 – Solo & Duet

Top 3 – Indonesian Hits / International Hits / Tribute to Chrisye

Top 2 – Judge's Challenge / Disney's Duet / Tribute to Vina Panduwinata / Winning Song

Elimination chart

Due to the judges using their one 'Judges' Save' per season, in order to save Kamasean, the 'Top 5' remained intact for another week. It was only announced that Dionisius Agung received the lowest number of votes this week. The other member(s) of bottom two or three were never revealed, and safe contestants were announced in random order.

Results show performances

Indonesia Nielsen ratings

The premiere was watched by 18.9 million viewers. It was up 10 percent from the previous year's premiere, which was watched by 17.7 million viewers. Season 7 of Indonesian Idol is the most successful series in the history of Indonesian Idol.

Controversies

Hendriyanto's Exit

Top 15 contestant Hendriyanto decided to withdraw from Indonesian Idol because he was not ready to leave his family in Brastagi.

Apkasi's 350 Million Prizes

Asosiasi Pemerintah Kabupaten Seluruh Indonesia (Apkasi) or Indonesian Regency Administration Association has given a total Rp 350 million ($36.8 thousand) to Top 5 Indonesian Idol, but it made public controversy why Apkasi support Indonesian Idol whom is foreign franchise with profit oriented and not support local culture interests.

Southeast Asia television rights

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