The seventh season of Akademi Fantasia premiered on 9 March 2009 and continued until 16 May 2009 on the Astro Ria television channel.
[1] On 10 February 2009, Astro management released the list of professional trainers who would take charge of this season's contestants.
This season also featured Afiq Hakim Ahmad, who would subsequently become the overall winner of 2015 Anugerah Juara Lagu.
Ida Nerina served as the students' Acting & Drama coach, replacing Fauziah Nawi.
Contestants were required to be between the ages of 18 and 45, and are Malaysian and Singaporean citizens who are not embedded with recording or management contracts.
The top 20 finalists were announced in a special press conference held at Park Royal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, on 3 March 2009.
Rini was criticized for choosing a song that did not compliment her voice while Sidi's lack of emotion due to his nervousness did not sit well with the judges.
Despite a strong performance, Adila landed in the bottom two with Sidi when the voting line was closed at the end of the concert.
This marks the first time ever in Akademi Fantasia history whereby the students were given two songs to sing as a medley individually.
Akim was lambasted for not improving his vocal techniques while Obri was criticized for being too nervous and unsure on stage.
Original Airdate: 28 March 2009 Qhaud was chosen as the student with the best performance on last week's concert.
After the voting session was closed, Rini was later revealed to be in the bottom two with Obri, despite her entertaining performance which generally received positive comments from the judges.
Original Airdate: 4 April 2009 The fourth week kicked off with the announcement of Isma as the best performer in the previous concert.
For this week's concert, the students were assigned to sing songs that are popularized by Amy Search and Siti Nurhaliza.
During concert, most students received universal praise, notably Claudia, Akim, Isma and Hafiz.
This concert also witnessed the first time ever in history of AF whereby two professional trainers, Fatimah Abu Bakar and Siti Hajar Ismail, stepped forward to rebut the comments made by the juries.
However, despite his successful performance, Aril was eliminated at the end of the concert as he failed to attract the enough votes from the audience.
Aril had the chance to share his feelings with Siti Hajar about his experience living outside the house since he was eliminated, as well as dealing with negative criticism about him in the internet.
Akim's improvement was noted, although the judges felt that he was not giving his very best; Yazid was castigated for not taking charge of his own music style due to his disappointing performance which was deemed as too heavy and unsuitable for his vocal.
At the end of the concert, the voting line was closed and Hafiz was crowned as the seventh winner of Akademi Fantasia (ages stated are at time of contest)[7]