At the age of 18, Salma decided to take a chance and auditioned for
the second season of
Arab Idol. The Moroccan audition took place in Casablanca, and Salma performed "Ya Moniyati", a Yemeni song that is extremely popular throughout the
Persian Gulf region, in front of the jury panel composed by Arabic superstars
Ragheb Alama,
Ahlam,
Nancy Ajram and Egyptian producer
Hassan El Shafei. Salma was then accepted by all of them and flew to
Beirut,
Lebanon, to pursue the casting process. She performed then "El Ward Gamil" from
Umm Kulthum with five other contestants, than she performed "Awal Marra" by
Abdelhalim Hafez and managed to be picked among the 27 finalists who would compete to get into the finale stage. During the first prime, she performed
Talal Maddah's classic "Zaman El Samt", but even if the jury was convinced by her beautiful and powerful voice, her interpretation was judged too aggressive. Ahlam nevertheless said that if she just focused a bit more and doesn't get carried away in her performances, she would "break" the Arab world (as being the new Arabic musical sensation). Unfortunately, Salma didn't manage to get enough votes, and she was one of the eight contestants picked by the jury to perform in order to get one of the 4 wildcards. She was picked by
Ragheb Alama and performed
Umm Kulthum's "Ya Msaharni" for survival. She was eventually saved alongside
Bahraini contestant Hanane Reda, which allowed her to finally be part of the thirteen finalists. Salma performed various songs during the competition, from classic singers such as
Sabah,
Umm Kulthum,
Mayada El Henawi, to folk singer such as
Fouad Ghazi or
Arabic pop singers like
Samira Said or
Sherine. What was remarkable about Salma's path is that even if she didn't get enough votes in the beginning, she managed to be in the safe zone most of the time, thanks to her on-growing fanbase. She was acclaimed by the jury and the audience each Friday and even Egyptian superstar
Mohammed Mounir told her : "You have something rare in the Arab world : a great voice with a huge charisma". She was contacted by many people from the Arabic music scene who praised her for her voice, such as
Syrian singer
Rouwaida Attieh and Lebanese lyricist Salim Assaf (who wrote songs for top singers like
Carole Samaha,
Najwa Karam,
Ramy Ayach and who told her he will write her a song) as well as various people from the Moroccan scene. On the 7th prime, she performed
Ahlam's tube "Nawaylak Ala Niya", then sung with Lebanese pop singer
Diana Haddad the folk song "Bayn El Assr wa El Maghreb" during a medley dedicated to the star of
Bedouin music
Samira Tawfik and rended the cult song "Mistaniyak" from
Moroccan diva
Aziza Jalal with the two other female contestants. On 8 June 2013, she was voted off with
Kurdish contestant Parwas Hussein, being ranked 5th. Even if she lost the competition, she was praised by the jury as being the surprise of this edition, and as being a rare voice. According to jury member Hassan El Shafei's Twitter, Salma signed a ten-year contract with Platinum Records, the music recording label affiliated with MBC and directed by
Saudi superstar
Rashed Al-Majed. She will tour with
Ragheb Alama in all his concerts and was chosen with
Mohammed Assaf from
Palestine,
Ahmad Gamal from
Egypt and
Farah Youssef from
Syria to be a part of the contestants who will tour throughout the
Arab world. == Performances in Arab Idol ==