Sanjaya Malakar

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Americans (or Estadophiles)! Tell me about Sanjaya Malakar, or tell me where people have been saying smart things? What I know:

• He is in the final 9 finalists
  
• He's not particularly technically good - or rather he seems to understand the shapes of the effects you want for rock/soul, but not what he has to sound like for them to traditionally 'work'
  
• He's survived six rounds against opposition from the judges, to the point where Simon Cowell's stated he's going to quit if Sanjaya wins.
  
• Some people, Howard Stern as an example, have been supporting a vote for him in order to, ahem, subvert the show into the tarmac.
  
• Dudes on MySpace be on hunger strike until he's voted off (apparently)
  

Sanjaya on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough":

Watch on YouTube

Sanjaya on "You Really Got Me":

Watch on YouTube

CNN on Sanjaya:

Watch on YouTube

(Should I really be shocked that I'm shocked by the homophobia on youtube comments? It seems so assumed, like a valid argument can be equal parts "he's technically deficient", "people are using him to game the system" and "he's gay", and all of the three parts are equally solid. I realise this is not officially a poptimists question.)

Comments

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

He's the American McDonald Brothers!

He had nice hair and then he ruined it. He seemed sweet but then he seemed very weird. It's probably just because he's so talked about now that he's staying in, over others who are better but haven't made much impression. I think only Stephanie and Sabrina were voted off unfairly, though.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's this site called Vote for the Worst (http://www.votefortheworst.com/) that is pushing him hard, and yes, the goal is to undermine and ruin the show.

[curlyhairedemon.livejournal.com]

The two most important facts about Sanjaya are that his hair (and weekly hairstyle) have ensured him a huge teenybopper fan base, and most adults only tune in to see what he's done to his barnet this week, and that a ten year old girl was reduced to weeping joy by his mere presence, and has now appeared on This Morning etc as a result.

[matthew-matins.livejournal.com]

His "pony hawk (http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/27/sanjaya_ponyhawk.jpg)" has changed the course of American fashion for the next 10 years. Or so.

[getbacknow.livejournal.com]

I promise that every single popular Youtube video has some comment about how someone involved with the video is gay or a fag or a queer or something.

A few things to understand:

-one, Sanjaya's success is not bizarre...every season there are one or two people who last much longer than they should, outlasting people who are better than they are. They stay on because they're cute, they're funny, whatever. What's important is that these people never win. Once vote-splitting is a non issue and there are only a few people left, the good people stay on the show. During season 1, Nikki McKibbin and Tamyra Gray were in the bottom 2 of the top 4. Nikki beat Tamyra, which was a total injustice, but it probably happened because Tamyra, Kelly and Justin were all really good. Once it was Nikki v. the other two she was easily sent home. Other "precocious boys staying way too long" have been Kevin Covais and John Stevens...I guess it really is Sanjaya's hair that's making him so much more interesting than the other non-deserving contestants of seasons past?

-oh, and two, some hard-core Idol fans, like myself, are holding out hope for Sanjaya because we saw his audition (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXNMRwykCQ), which was outstanding. I've been really disappointed by him because I was expecting great things. I still think he has a great performance in him.

-three, again if you watched the footage, there was a scene where Sanjaya's sister was cut, but Sanjaya made it, and you saw him crying and comforting his sister...it was really touching. Never ever underestimate the power of the audition episodes to shape people's opinions of contestants. That's why Kimberley Caldwell was beat by Julia DeMato in season 2 (oh my god, I've wasted my life) after everyone saw her and her mother being a bitch to Julia.

[koganbot]

American Idol Thread on ILE

[genie22.livejournal.com]

On this chap's wikepedia page is a link to a times article and why people should 'vote for the worst'!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I don't watch American Idol but in the thing of him I've seen he reminds me of the cousin from American Dreamz. Which is an awesome film.

He's the reason I don't watch that kind of program, cus they always just seem to want someone "technically deficient" to rip the piss out of all season. It's horrible, IMO. :(