http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD2PykvhIeo The Arab world has crowned a winner. Yacoub Shaheen , a 22-year-old Palestinian heartthrob from Bethlehem, has been named the champion of this year's Arab Idol singing competition. He beat out two other dashing crooners: Ammar Mohammad Alazaki from Yemen, and Ameer Dandan from an Arab town in Israel. American Idol's ratings have fallen in recent years, but its Arabic-language spinoff is one of the Middle East's most popular television events. The glamorous reality TV show offers a window onto the reality of the region – and an escape from that reality, too. NPR correspondents in the Middle East break it down. 1. The winner is Assyrian. Syrian? No. Yacoub (Jacob) Shaheen belongs to the Assyrian Christian community. Depending on who you ask, they go by many names: Assyrians, Arameans, and Syriacs. They are said to descend from one of the earliest Christian communities in the world, tracing their lineage to ancient Assyria, which today spans