How Music Talent Shows Find and Train New Singers, From Casting to Contract

Star Academy, the French singing competition broadcast on TF1, has opened casting for a new season set to premiere in autumn 2026, according to Sortiraparis. Applicants must be between 18 and 24 years old and apply through an online registration form before the show's established selection process begins.

How casting starts: two different discovery methods

Talent shows generally use one of two methods to find contestants before cameras roll. Star Academy relies on an open casting call: hopefuls fill out a form with personal details and social media links, describe their musical background and motivation, and submit several photos along with at least two singing videos of one minute 30 seconds to two minutes, according to Sortiraparis. Submissions are reviewed by producers before candidates advance.

The Voice uses a different mechanism known as the blind audition. Coaches, who are established recording artists, sit in chairs facing away from the stage and decide whether to select a singer for their team based only on the roughly one-minute performance they hear, according to NBC's official description of the format. If more than one coach presses their button, the contestant chooses which coach to join.

Training: boarding school versus coach mentorship

Once contestants are selected, the two formats diverge again in how they develop talent. Star Academy houses its contestants together in a boarding-school setting called "The Academy," where instructors coach them across multiple artistic disciplines such as singing, dance and theatre, according to Wikipedia's entry on the format, which originated in the Netherlands in 2001 and has since been licensed in more than 30 countries.

The Voice instead assigns each selected singer to the coach who picked them. Coaches mentor their team through battle rounds, where two teammates perform the same song and the coach eliminates or "steals" an artist from a rival team, followed by knockout rounds and then live televised performances where the public votes, according to NBC's format description.

Elimination and the weekly verdict

• Star Academy: weekly prime-time shows combine judges' verdicts and audience voting to remove the lowest-ranked contestant until one remains, per Wikipedia.
• The Voice: after knockouts, surviving artists from each coach's team perform live each week, and viewer votes eliminate the lowest-ranked singers until one winner remains, according to NBC's format description.
• Both formats end with a single winner who receives a recording contract, though the financial terms differ by country and show.

Does winning actually launch a career?

Outcomes vary sharply by show. American Idol produced 14 winners, nine of whom went on to release platinum-selling albums, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Scotty McCreery and Phillip Phillips, according to an analysis by Scripps News. The Voice, by contrast, had produced eight winners over its first four years with none reaching platinum album sales; its best-selling winner, Cassadee Pope, had one platinum single but sold roughly 200,000 copies of her debut album.

Scripps News also noted that of the hundreds of vocalists who have competed since 2002, only about a dozen went on to lasting success, while shows such as American Idol and The Voice have also generated large audiences and award recognition for the networks that air them.

What winners actually receive

Prizes are generally a mix of money and a recording contract rather than guaranteed stardom. According to NBC's official description of the format, The Voice's winner receives a recording contract; NBC's page does not specify an exact cash amount. Star Academy's winner receives a record deal and usually a sum of money, according to Wikipedia, though exact contract terms are not published by the shows themselves.