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Note: This was written after the preliminary rounds. The latest update on the Malakar siblings progress including pictures was posted later. Sanjaya and Shyamali pictures added too in previous link. Scroll down for video links. Dial Idol’s prediction on Sanjaya’s fate. Don’t click if you don’t want spoilers. Sanjaya finally makes it to the top 12 but only barely. And now, he is making little girls cry.
Since everyone desi is gung ho about Big Brother in UK and frothing at the mouth at the alleged racism, I’ll be brave enough to go to the other extreme and admit my guilty pleasure of enjoying American Idol. I am not a rabid fan although I know of another prominent blogger who is [care to guess?] I missed the last season as I didn’t have access to a TV then. But the sixth season kicked off on Tuesday and I couldn’t help tuning in.
The first episode was followed by another couple of hours on Wednesday and mostly consisted of preliminary qualifying auditions in Minneapolis and Seattle. The auditions predictably were dominated by horrendous renditions of otherwise beautiful songs. I simply don’t understand the levels of delusion that motivates these participants to try out for American Idol and humiliate themselves on national TV. Or are they hoping to emulate William Hung.
(image source: American Idol via Uberdesi)
Anyway, bad singers apart there were two desi teenagers - Shyamali and Sanjaya Malakar from Lacey, WA who actually managed to impress the judges including Simon. In earlier seasons, there were couple of desis who made absolute fools of themselves (the infamous ‘West Punjab’). But this brother-sister duo partly thanks to their training in Indian classical music belted out Summertime [Shyamali] and Stevie Wonder’s Sign, Sealed, Delivered [Sanjaya] in admirable fashion.
Of course, they were nervous as hell but as the judges observed, Shyamali had better screen presence and Sanjaya had the better singing ability. Of course, Idol was quick to pitch this as a sibling rivalry. Going by Shyamali’s expression after her brother was asked by Seacrest whom did the judges think had the better voice, she might actually be falling for it. Sanjaya humbly refused to answer the question. They have a mixed parentage [Indian dad and Amru (?) mom]. Probably this could be the immigrant idol year.
Now both Shyamali and Sanjaya have it in them to at least make it to the final 12 if they brush up on their charisma and get over their relative shyness. I just hope the sibling rivalry angle doesn’t cause their mutual downfall. Update: Unfortunately, Shyamali got cut in the ‘Hollywood’ round. Here is their progress and some more pictures.
Sepia Mutiny is glad to see so many desis on American television although Abhi professes to have chanced upon American Idol while surfing yet had the post up by early morning. Hmmmm… Uber Desi did the initial research of digging up their images and yup, also their MySpace profiles. Their friends list went from 48 today morning to 350+. Nope! I’ll not be keeping score.
Update: For those who couldn’t or didn’t see them, here is the video of their audition. Daily Motion has the video too in case Google Video decides to pull it.
Update: Whoa! Rediff in their characteristic fashion are jumping the gun by predicting they might win American Idol; not to mention, a misleading headline. The Malakars are not Indian; they are Indian-Americans. Let us not adopt the ‘good’ NRIs and banish the so-so ones. Also, I am not sure they are twins as Rediff claims. Shyamali is in college whereas Sanjaya is in high school. And of course they “speak with a distinct American accent”, they are Americans, remember. Just because they are brown doesn’t make them Indians for life.
by Patrix | on Thursday, January 18th, 2007 at 9:32 pm | 
Television, United States . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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January 19th, 2007 at 1:46 am reply
Desi American Idol Hopefuls - Sanjaya and Shyamali Malakar…
Desi American Idol Hopefuls - Sanjaya and Shyamali Malakar posted at IndianPad.com…
January 19th, 2007 at 11:14 pm reply
Hey Guys,
My name’s Dharshini a.k.a Dash (-) I am a Indian but not from India. I am from Malaysia. I am 16 years old. When I saw you guys…. I was like Cool at last some Indians are gonna audition for American Idol. Shyamali you are so good in singing and Sanjaya you rock. I swear, I will always vote for you guys. Plus my support is always for you guys!!! ROCK ALWAYS…… Reply me at dhar_shan@yahoo.com if you guys have time. I am really looking forward for the reply. If you don’t mind, can you guys give me you’re My Space add. 10q. SORRY if there is any spelling mistakes.
Love,
Dharshini @ Dash
January 20th, 2007 at 10:01 am reply
Yay! but they have a lot of work to do if they hope to make it to the final 12…but yay! really and it’s o.k to admit that you like Idol :)
January 20th, 2007 at 3:32 pm reply
Darshini @ Dash, wrong tree, wrong bark. I am not related or even connected with the Singing Malakars. You can contact them through their MySpace pages.
Orchid, yeah…top 12 would be cool.
January 20th, 2007 at 4:46 pm reply
It is interesting to see Desi kids join the bandwagon in the States.
January 20th, 2007 at 7:54 pm reply
You hit the nail on the head - Patrix. These are not Indians - they are Indian-Americans. They are also not desis - as Suja says, if we take the literal meaning. I don’t consider these kids or any other kids to be indian for one minute. They were born in America, they have the American values and culture affiliation except maybe a little bit of knowledge of their parents’ mother tongue and their only association with India/Indianness is usually limited to food, movies and some music.
Rediff and all these other publications seem hell bent on adopting any person with a remotely Indian sounding name which is absolutely ridiculous. They are keen on adopting Jindal (Senator/MP- whatever) and astronaut and others and believe it or not there was also an article about a businessman who donated around $18 mil to some univ in Florida. Rediff even came out with a ridiculous headline saying “NOW Indians are educating Americans” or something to that effect.
January 28th, 2007 at 8:01 am reply
[...] Ever since they made it through to Hollywood in American Idol Six, the desi brother sister duo of Sanjaya and Shyamali Malakar have never been off the news. (via Ultrabrown, Sepia Mutiny, Uber Desi, Patrix) [...]
January 31st, 2007 at 10:27 am reply
Nice article and Yay for the Malakars…and kudos to their dad for training them so well…they just need some guidance on stage prescence and for god sakes Sanjaya..get a hair-cut !!
I was so proud watching those two impress the judges…
As for Rediff, they have been, and always will be the crappy desi web site that some fools even go to the extent of saying ‘reputable’.
It really is sad that India, the “top-notch” software and IT country, has no web sites worth its salt. When one gets successful, they kaleidoscope their sites with ads and their webmasters have no idea how
to maintain them properly.
Also sad that with the lack of interesting-outside-of-india talent, they resort to glorifying non-Indians ! Why doesnt Rediff glorify Vijay Singh as another great Indian ?
Anyway, enough of flaming a crap site, all the best to the Malakars, being of Indian descent and all, and having truly gifted talent.