The show is an opera-singing competition in which eight celebrity singers known for pop music compete to try to win the title of the show. Each week they are trained by professional opera stars (mentors) who teach them how to sing opera. The acts all perform live, giving a performance of their operatic song in an effort to impress viewers who may vote to keep them in the competition. Each performance is live on television and in front of a live studio audience. The two singers with the fewest public votes are in the
bottom two and get the chance to sing again. However, their previous performance are "forgiven and forgotten" and the judges vote based on their sing-off performance who should stay. During the first series, if the judges' vote went to a tie it would go down to the public vote. However, during series two the
head judge decided who stayed in the competition after the sing-off, if it was a tie. The head judge changed every week. However, if the judges voted against a contestant to stay in the competition they were eliminated. A proportion of revenue from the telephone votes was donated to the
Nordoff-Robbins music therapy charity. == Judges and presenters==