Popstar to Operastar

Overview

Popstar to Operastar is a British television programme singing competition based around the training of current pop stars to be able to sing opera. The show began airing on ITV on 15 January 2010 at 9pm. The show is repeated on TV3 Ireland on Saturday evening. The programme is produced by Renegade Pictures. With the show being a singing competition, it featured appropriate judges: Rolando Villazón, Katherine Jenkins, Meat Loaf and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Villazón and Jenkins also mentor the contestants giving them the songs to sing during the live shows. Meat Loaf and Bowen were critic-judges, who talked about their performances. However, after the first series, it was announced that Meat Loaf and Bowen would not be returning as judges. Their replacements were confirmed to be actor and opera-director, Simon Callow and classical singer/violinist, Vanessa-Mae. The presenters of the show were confirmed to be Alan Titchmarsh and Myleene Klass with the non-operatic "Dies Irae" from Verdi's Requiem as the theme tune. However for the second series, Titchmarsh did not return to the show. The winner of the first series was Darius Campbell and winner of the second season was Joe McElderry.