Our very first Philippine Idol Mau Marcelo is set to compete in Asian Idol to be held in Indonesia this coming November.

The regional competition was conceived after the success of Latin American Idol where idol winners from 10 South American countries competed for the much bigger title. The winner of the said regional competition was Venezuelan born Mayré Martínez.

Seven Asian countries have “Idol” franchises–India, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. RTTI (our local cable operators have this channel by the way) in Indonesia is hosting the regional competition where the seven idol winners from the said countries will go to Indonesia vying to become the first Asian Idol.

ABC 5 is gearing up to televise the event locally earmarking the show as their “big launch” for Philippine Idol season 2.

The mechanics of Asian Idol will be similar to the first World Idol held in 2003 where each participating countries can vote for their favorite contestant EXCEPT for their very own. The point system will not be based on the number of votes but by a ranking procedure with the contestant who ranks best on most of the participating countries wins.