Fame Academy 1

"Fame Academy 1" was the first series of the BBC's reality talent search "Fame Academy", which was first broadcast in the UK over ten weeks in October - December 2002. It was won by David Sneddon. The live shows were presented by Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty.

The series

Format

Eleven previously selected contestants were showcased to the nation in the first live episode, while the first viewer vote of the series was announced in a surprise twist - three other potential finalists would be showcased to the nation - and the public could vote for whom they wanted to enter the Academy, making up the final line-up of twelve contestants. The final place in the academy was a vote off between David Sneddon, Sinead Quinn and Stoke on Trent's Paul Macdonald. Paul Macdonald famously went on to co-write the song "breakdown" with guitarist Richard Brookes. There is also a rare V-Sky version of the track available, influence greatly by comments from the film Vanilla Sky featuring Tom Cruise.

Each week, the teachers put three contestants on probation. They would have to sing for survival live on Friday night on BBC One, in order to fight for their place in the Academy. The public would then vote for who they wanted to save - the person with the most votes would be safe. However, the fate of the two other contestants on probation was decided by their fellow contestants, who had to vote for who they wanted to save. In the event of a tie in the student vote the public votes would decide who is eliminated. All four contestants were put on probation in the penultimate week, with the public saving two.

Guest teachers were brought in to "teach", this happened periodically throughout the series, the guest teachers included Lionel Richie (who also co-wrote a song on the Fame Academy album), Shania Twain, Mariah Carey and Ronan Keating.

The Friday night live shows were filmed in front of an audience at the BBC's Shepperton Studios, and were lavishly presented. They featured duets and group performances by all the students which were choreographed by dance teacher Kevin Adams, as well as the songs by the three probation students. The guest teachers also sang on the liveshow. In the case of Lionel Richie he performed twice, returning to duet with Lemar on their co-written song "Back To You".

As well as the live shows, highlight shows aired at 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights on BBC One. A late night uncut show was later added to the schedules. Extra coverage was shown on BBC Choice, with round-the-clock live streaming also available on BBCi and Freeview.

The students

In order of elimination:

*Ashley House
*Naomi Roper
*Chris Manning
*Camilla Beeput
*Pippa Fulton
*Marli Buck
*Nigel Wilson
*Katie Lewis
*Malachi Cush
*Ainslie Henderson
*Lemar Obika
*Sinéad Quinn
*David Sneddon

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/09_september/30/fameacademy_students.shtml]

Eleven of these contestans were pre-selected and then the public voted in the twelfth,Sinéad Quinn. This made the final line-up, until Naomi fell ill and was forced to withdraw from the competition, she was replaced by eventual winner David Sneddon who had received the second highest number of votes to enter the academy after Sinéad.

The contestants' time in the Academy included singing lessons with Carrie Grant, exhausting dance and exercise classes with Kevin Adams, and song-writing lessons with Pam Sheyne who co-wrote Christina Aguilera's hit single "Genie in a Bottle", and Grammy nominated Steve DuBerry who wrote Tina Turner's hit "I Don't Wanna Fight" (plus hits for Joe Cocker, Simon Webbe, Liberty X). Headteacher Richard Park was also never far away, and managed to keep order for most of the series.

As well as the dramas of singing for survival, there were dramas among the contestants too. David and Ainslie were claimed to be rivals for most of the series. Katie almost got thrown out of the Academy as a punishment for damaging equipment during a waterfight she instigated. Camilla and Lemar got closer and closer, until on the night when all of the contestants returned to the house, they kissed in one of the bedrooms. Sinéad and Malachi were also very close, but a relationship failed to materialise once they left the Academy.

Each week, the teachers were given the task of putting three of the students on 'probation,' where they would be forced to sing for their survival the following Friday, with one of the 3 being saved by the public. The final 2 performers fate was then left to the other students, who would decide who stayed and who left the Academy for good.

Probation Week By Week:

The students were voted out of the Academy one per week in the following order: Ashley, Naomi, (midweek due to illness) Chris, Camilla, Pippa, Marli, Nigel, Katie, Malachi, Ainslie. This left the last 3 students - David, Lemar and Sinéad to compete in the final.

The final

The final was broadcast live as two separate shows. The final three contestants were David, Sinéad and Lemar. In the first half, after votes totalling over 4 million, Lemar was the first to be voted off by the public. Neither of the two remaining finalists, David and Sinéad, had been in the original group of eleven students chosen by the judges at the start of the series.

In the second half David sang I Don't Want To Talk About It and Sinéad then sang The First Cut Is The Deepest. Then David and Sinéad sang I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues. After a total of over 6.9 million votes were cast, David won with 3.5 million votes. He then sang what was to become his debut #1 single, Stop Living the Lie, to end the show.

The aftermath

David signed a £1 million record contract with Mercury Records as part of his prize. His debut single "Stop Living The Lie", entered the UK charts at #1 and remained at the top for 2 weeks. He is one of only a few artists from reality TV shows to have a number one hit record with a self-written song. He had a further two top twenty hit singles and a top ten album, "Seven Years Ten Weeks", (which was recorded with Elton John's band) and signed a development publishing deal with Universal Music in Ocober 2003. Lemar eventually signed a deal with Sony Records, and has since won several BRIT Awards as best urban act. Malachi, Ainslie, Lemar, and Sinéad also went on to release hit records.

Ratings were average, but not spectacular. Most of this was blamed on the format being too similar to Pop Idol, while fans of the reality tv element were disappointed by the awkward timings of the highlight shows [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2337903.stm] . Despite this, a second series, Fame Academy 2 was commissioned for the following year.

Album and tour

An 18 track album featuring songs by all the contestants was released at the end of the series. It sold over 300,000 copies in the first week and reached #2 in the uk compilation charts. Profits from this and the following nationwide tour helped to fund the Fame Academy Bursary.

"Fame Academy" (Mercury) December, 2002

Track Listings
# "With A Little Help From My Friends" - Ainslie & David
# "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - Lemar & Sinéad
# "Fields Of Gold" - Malachi & Marli
# "(Come Up and See Me) Make Me Smile" - Ainslie & Marli
# "Lean On Me" - The Fame Academy Students
# "The Tracks Of My Tears" - Marli
# "Eternal Flame" - Pippa
# "Brown Eyed Girl" - Chris
# "I Can See Clearly Now" - Ashley
# "Genie In A Bottle" - Camilla
# "Perfect" - Katie
# "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" - Nigel
# "Vincent" - Malachi
# "Goodnight Girl" - David
# "Don't Speak" - Sinéad
# "Back To You" - Lemar feat. The Fame Academy Students
# "Keep Me A Secret" - Ainslie
# "Lullaby" - Ainslie & Lemar

In April 2003 all 12 students reunited for a 12 date arena tour of the UK, performing live to sell out audiences, with a final concert at Wembley Arena. A DVD of their performances, Fame Academy - Live, was released in September 2003.

ee also

*Fame Academy
*Fame Academy 2

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/09_september/30/fameacademy_bbci.shtml BBC press release]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2569749.stm David wins Fame Academy, BBC News]