What is "idol"

Idol \I"dol\, n. [OE. idole, F. idole, L. idolum, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? that which is seen, the form, shape, figure, fr. ? to see. See Wit, and cf. Eidolon.]

1. An image or representation of anything. [Obs.]

   Do her adore with sacred reverence, As th' idol of her maker's great magnificence.
   --Spenser.

2. An image of a divinity; a representation or symbol of a deity or any other being or thing, made or used as an object of worship; a similitude of a false god.

   That they should not worship devils, and idols of gold.
   --Rev. ix. 20.

3. That on which the affections are strongly (often excessively) set; an object of passionate devotion; a person or thing greatly loved or adored.

   The soldier's god and people's idol.
   --Denham.

4. A false notion or conception; a fallacy.
   --Bacon.

   The idols of preconceived opinion.
   --Coleridge.

mid-13c., "image of a deity as an object of (pagan) worship," from Old French idole "idol, graven image, pagan god," from Late Latin idolum "image (mental or physical), form," used in Church Latin for "false god," from Greek eidolon "appearance, reflection in water or a mirror," later "mental image, apparition, phantom," also "material image, statue," from eidos "form" (see -oid). Figurative sense of "something idolized" is first recorded 1560s (in Middle English the figurative sense was "someone who is false or untrustworthy"). Meaning "a person so adored" is from 1590s.

n. A graven image or representation of anything that is revered, or believed to convey spiritual power.

1. n. a material effigy that is worshipped as a god; "thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image"; "money was his god" [syn: graven image, god]

2. someone who is adored blindly and excessively [syn: matinee idol]

3. an ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept [syn: paragon, perfection, beau ideal]

An idol is an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed or any person or thing regarded with admiration, adoration, or devotion.

Idol may refer to:

colspan=2 | Finalists

Season 1

Alicja Janosz

Ewelina Flinta

Szymon Wydra

Gosia Stępień

Tomasz Makowiecki

Paweł Nowak

Patrycja Wódz

Anna Dąbrowska

Jakub Rutnicki

Mike Zawitkowski

Season 2

Krzysztof Zalewski

Mariusz Totoszko

Bartek Hom

Marta Smuk

Gosia Kunc

Hanna Stach

Agnieszka Szewczyk

Damian Aleksander

Bartosz Król

Magda Rejtczak

Season 3

Monika Brodka

Kuba Kęsy

Paweł Kowalczyk

Michał Karpacki

Adam Kozłowski

Przemek Pakulak

Małgorzata Karpiuk

Kalina Kasprzak

Piotr Brodziński

Michał Gęsikowski

Season 4

Maciej Silski

Sławomir Uniatowski

Bartosz Szymoniak

Dominika Kasprzycka

Piotr Lato

Dominika Pawłowska

Nina Cieślińska

Magdalena Diaków

Sławomir Pec]

Karolina Szarubka

Idol is a television show on the Polish television network Polsat, based on the popular British show Pop Idol. The show is a contest to determine the best young singer in Poland. It is hosted by Maciej Rock.

In the show, people first audition but eventually the performers are narrowed down to 10 finalists, with each contestant performing live. There are four judges (or five) who provide critiques of each competitor's performance.

Viewers have two hours following the broadcast of the show to vote via telephone and SMS for their favorite contestant. On the night's results episode, the contestant with the fewest votes is sent home.

The winners of Idol were Alicja Janosz in season one, Krzysztof Zalewski in season two, Monika Brodka in season three & Maciek Silski in season four.

Although never being officially cancelled, a fifth season has been delayed several times so far.

Several philosophers have developed concepts that they have called idols, including:

• The idola of Francis Bacon, various obstacles humans face when trying to truly understand nature
• Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, abstract unchanging philosophical concepts that need to be swept away to allow for true life to emerge.

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne is a television show on the Norwegian television channel TV 2, based on the popular British show Pop Idol. The show describes itself as a "Search For A SuperStar". The contestants are first narrowed down to 100 contestants, and then down to 24-50 through several auditions and tests by a panel of judges. From this point on, the viewers decide who are in and who are out, and the judges limit themselves to commenting. TV viewers being what they are, the votes are based not solely on the singers vocal performance, but also on his or her looks, clothes, entertainment value, and other factors. In the first four seasons the agelimit for participation was 16–28 years old. In season five it was changed to 16-35.

Idol in Norway is unique in that contestants have been allowed to perform self composed songs since the first season in 2003.

Idol is a Swedish reality-competition talent show which was broadcast on TV4. It first appeared in August 2004, and became one of the most popular shows on Swedish television. Part of the Idols franchise, it originated from the reality program Pop Idol created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller, which was first aired in 2001 in the United Kingdom.

The program seeks to discover the best singer in Sweden through a series of nationwide auditions. The outcomes of the later stages of the competition are determined by public phone voting. The format features three judges who give critiques of the contestants' performances. Since Idol started in 2004, the show has featured five different line-ups of judges, a total of nine different judges, as well as twelve different presenters (including sidekicks in 2011 and 2013). From 2004 to 2007, each season had two hosts who stayed for just one season. However, from 2008, each season only has one host. For the 2011 season, the eighth season of Idol, Pär Lernström was the host. For the 2013 season, Pär Lernström has returned as host, and also has Karin "Kakan" Hermansson as his sidekick in 2013.

The winners of the first nine series were Daniel Lindström, Agnes Carlsson, Markus Fagervall, Marie Picasso, Kevin Borg, Erik Grönwall, Jay Smith, Amanda Fondell, and Kevin Walker. Smith is the oldest winner at 29 whilst Fondell and Carlsson are the youngest at only 17. To date, Idol contestants have collectively sold over 1.1 million albums in Sweden alone.

Following the completion of its eighth season, Idol was put on temporary hiatus and replaced in 2012 by two reality singing competitions: The Voice and X Factor, the latter of which also originated from the United Kingdom's version, created by music executive Simon Cowell. However, in January 2013, TV4 announced that Idol would return in 2013 and that neither The Voice nor X Factor would continue. Idol finally ended with the 2015 series.

Croatia has had two adaptations of the singing competition Pop Idol under two different titles and on two different networks:

• Hrvatski Idol, which was aired from 2004–2005 on Nova TV
• Hrvatska traži zvijezdu, which premiered February 22, 2009 on RTL

Croatia

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne 2003 was the first season of Idol Norway based on the British singing competition Pop Idol. It premiered in January and was aired until May 23, 2003 with Kurt Nilsen winning. A year later he would eventually went on winning World Idol where he competed against 10 Idol winners from other countries.

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne 2004 was the second season of Idol Norway based on the British singing competition Pop Idol. It premiered one year after the first season and was aired in the first half of 2004.

Unlike last year's winner Kurt Nilsen, his successor Kjartan Salvesen was not able to build up an international career. Other alumni of this season were more successful, most notably runner-up Margaret Berger, who established a career as an electronic dance artist and went on to become the music director of NRK P3 in 2008. Berger would also represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, placing fourth. Another contestant was Maria Haukaas Storeng who, to the surprise of many, was voted off sixth but went on to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 achieving fifth place.

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne 2005 was the third season of Idol Norway based on the British singing competition Pop Idol. It premiered one year after the second season and was aired in the first half of 2005.
Ingrid Gjessing was replaced by Kåre Magnus Bergh and with Jan Fredrik Karlsen's departure the entire judging panel was changed with Tone-Lise Skagefoss becoming the new jury foreperson.
It was also the first time that two girls faced off each other in the final 2 showdown making Jorun Stiansen the first female winner over Tone Damli Aaberge. Aaberge would attempt to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 where she ended up being the runner-up, this time to Alexander Rybak who later went on to win the contest.
Ironically Rybak has also been a contestant on Idol 2005 and in the same semifinal group as Aaberge. However while Aaberge went on winning her group, Rybak did not even manage to reach the top 5 and therefore missed out a spot in the group of final 12. Second runner-up Alejandro Fuentes was able to top VG-lista (Norwegian Single Charts) three times between 2005 and 2007. One if these no. 1 Hits was a collaboration with Askil Holm, Espen Lind and Kurt Nilsen (winner of season one). The quartet also went on tour under the name The New Guitar Buddies.

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne 2006 was the fourth season of Idol Norway based on the British singing competition Pop Idol. It premiered one year after the third season and was aired in the first half of 2006.
Kåre Magnus Bergh remained as the co-host of Solveig Kloppen who was pregnant during the show. Between March 3 and April 27 she was replaced by the following (in order of appearance): Berte Rommetveit, Guri Solberg, Sandra Lyng Haugen, Marion Ravn and Silje Stang who each hosted one show next to Bergh. Tone-Lise Skagefoss and Tor Milde remained as judges and were joined by Amund Bjørklund and Hans Olav Grøttheim.
Aleksander Denstad With auditioned with his girlfriend Vivian Sørmeland. The two of them were lead singers of the unsigned project WimpyLine. Both managed to advance through the semifinals to the top 12 and while Sørmeland placed third her boyfriend Width went on winning the entire show making him the youngest winner of the show (he was 18 at that time). Peaking at no. 4 in Norway, first album coming home also managed to become a success in Japan.

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne 2007 was the fifth season of Idol Norway based on the British singing competition Pop Idol. In difference to other seasons it was aired in the second half of the year running from September to December 2007.
After a two-year absence Jan Fredrik Karlsen returned to the judging panel as the foreperson. He was joined by Asbjørn Slettemark, Benedicte Adrian and Mariann Thomassen. Also the two hosts were new to the show in person of Marte Stokstad and Kyrre Holm Johannessen.
The Age limit to audition was raised from 28 to 35. Eventual winner Glenn Lyse profited from that rule as he was 33 at the time of his win which also made him the oldest winner of the Idol series worldwide. Lyse beat Bjørn Johan Muri, who was half his age (17), at the final with 56%. However in a long run the runner-up once again proved to be more successful: In 2010, Muri took part in the Norwegian qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, with the song "Yes Man". Here he qualified for the final, where he finished fourth overall. Despite that, the single still became a #1 hit in Norway.

Idol: Jakten på en superstjerne 2011 was the sixth season of Idol Norway based on the British singing competition Pop Idol. After a four years break, in which the broadcast station aired to X Factor seasons, the show returned to Norwegian screens on August 30.

The panel of judges consisted of 1990s pop star Bertine Zetlitz, musical composer Hans Erik Dyvik Husby, pop star Marion Ravn and artist manager Gunnar Greve Pettersen. Ravi, who was hosting the second season of X Factor shared hosting duties with Guri Solberg. The age limit again was 16-35 and auditions were held in Oslo (April 18), Trondheim (May 9), Stavanger (May 16) and Bergen.

On December 16, Jenny Langlo won over Vegard Leite and became the second female contestant to win the show after Jorun Stiansen took home victory in Season 3 six years ago.

Idol 2013 was the seventh series of Idol held in Norway, broadcast during the spring of 2013. Auditions were held in winter 2012/13, and broadcast in January 2013, with the semi-finals broadcast in January/February. The first final round was held on Friday February 15 at 20:00 CET, with the grand final being held on May 10, 2013 in Oslo Spektrum.

It was won by Siri Vølstad Jensen, 17, from Ålgård in Rogaland, with 55% of the votes against runner-up Eirik Søfteland, 24, from Os outside Bergen.

Known only as Idol during broadcast, it was the first series to drop the subtitle Jakten på en superstjerne (literal:the hunt for a superstar).

"Idol" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Amanda Ghost from her debut studio album Ghost Stories (2000). In the United Kingdom it was released as the lead single from the album on 1 March 2000 by Warner Bros., while " Filthy Mind" served as the lead single in the United States.

"Idol" received positive reviews from music critics. In the United Kingdom it peaked at number sixty-three on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States the song failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100, but was successful in the Dance Club Songs chart, where it peaked at number eighteen.