Afghan Star was a reality television show competition that searched for the most talented singers across Afghanistan.

A panel of judges chose the best auditionees and put them through to the public voting round of the contest.

The first season of Afghan Star launched in September 2005, with more than 1,000 hopefuls from around Afghanistan gathering to partake in the talent search.

The eventual winner of the series was Shakeeb Hamdard from Kabul, who released his debut album Mashalla in late 2007.

[2] Afghan Star season two started in August 2006 with auditions in Kabul, Mazar, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Peshawar in neighboring Pakistan.

The second Afghan Star was more successful than the first, with Najibullah Mahmoudi a 35-year-old man from Mazar-i-Sharif, voted as the winner.

Auditions were held for the first time in Kunduz and Ghazni as well as the cities visited in previous series.

Afghan Star's fifth season started airing in October 2009, concluding in December of the same year.

The judges were Wali Fateh Ali Khan, Shahlah Zaland, and Jawad Ghaziyar and the host was Mustafa Azizyar.

Qasem Rameshgar returned as one of the judges and the other two, Wali Fateh Ali Khan and Shahlah Zaland, were the same as the previous season.

The previous winner, Sajid Janaty, replaced Ahmad Popal as the host of Ba Setara Ha.

The judges were the same except Wali Fateh Ali Khan was replaced by Ustad Sharif Ghazal.

For the first time, Afghan Star had auditions outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which were in Australia for one episode.

The contestants who made to the top 3 were awarded a trip to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and they were Sayid Jamal Mubariz, Zulala Hashemi, and Babak Mohammadi.

Mubariz became the second rapper to make it into the show's top 12, with performances that were praised by the judges each week.

As it was customary with the previous seasons, the Grand Finale was hosted on Nowroz day, on 21 March 2017.

After being declared the winner, Mubariz decided to give the trophy to Hashemi, due to her placement in the show, as well as showing respect for women in Afghanistan, due to the dangers and hardships they face everyday in the country.

A diverse group of twelve talented artists from across Afghanistan made their way to the show after being juried by Miri Maftun, Qais Ulfat and Saida Gul Maina.

[9] Sediqa Madadgar from Kabul and Zahra Elham from Ghazni province were two of the female contestants participating in the show.

The overall format of the season was that the contestant with the majority of the votes from the public will be moved forward in the show.

In this season, Wasim Anwari, Firuz Fazel and Zahra Elham made it to top three.

Therefore, this season marked the first time that an eighteen-year-old woman, Zahra Elham, won the competition.

In her interview with Al-Jazeera TV, Zahra mentions that both of her parents supported her dream to become a pop singer.

The third season of the spin-off Superstar (Abarsetara) was to be aired in May 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was postponed to January 2021.

A new feature was introduced in this season called the Golden Buzzer, which gave the coaches the power to keep one of their favorite contestants from elimination.

Aryana Sayeed used it for Khalil Yosufi when he was eliminated for 3rd position, while Qais Ulfat's Buzzer chance remained unused till the end.

The previous host of the Afghan Star TV series, Daoud Sediqi, travelled to the United States in February 2009 as part of the promotion of the film worldwide.

[19] Previous to working on Afghan Star, Sediqi had been a DJ on Arman FM and a presenter on Tolo TV.

[21] The documentary follows Elham and fellow finalist Sadiqa Madadgar as they are mentored by judge Aryana Sayeed, and the challenges to all the women as singers and performers from the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the aftermath of Elham's win.