If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email alerts. Thanks for visiting!
The discussion of Sanjaya’s relevance has moved beyond American Idol. Whether he is voted out today or not, he is surely here to stay and is not your typical 15-minute-fame-guy. Initially I was disengaged on his fate in American Idol. I know he doesn’t sing that great or doesn’t have that overpowering stage presence of erstwhile AI contestants (remember Bo Bice?) but like Simon said yesterday, it doesn’t matter. And now Sanjaya seems to be brimming in confidence and is ‘taking light’ (saw Nishabd recently…argh!).
He strutted out in an awesome mohawk hairstyle made up of ponytails bundled up in a Troy-like headdress. One look at him and I thought he was a goner. But then he pulled it off well and I am amazed how he manages to keep the attention on his sole strong point - his hair - rather than his singing abilities. That in itself embodies the attitude of American Idol. The judges can keep shreaking that it is a singing competition but the voters decide what it really is about. After all, Taylor Hicks wouldn’t have stood out last year if it weren’t for his odd hair. Even Ryan Seacrest, the token metrosexual on TV doffs his hat to Sanjaya’s changing looks each week. Probably, people just keep voting him in to see what he might do next [image source: Gauravonomics.]
Also, you know you are a pop icon and a minor celebrity when Saturday Night Live impersonates parodies you [video] - “As [Andy] Samberg butchered You Really Got Me, three people were shown crying with glee in the audience — among them, legendary SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd.” Also, Comedian Eric Schwartz aka Smooth-E presents the Sanjaya Anthem [video link via Manish.] What more could an American Idol possible also-ran want?
Like I said, the conversation has moved beyond the reasons he is still on the show. I bet, American Idol producers are pulling out all stops to ensure that the buzz keeps going. Nigel Lythgoe, the executive producer recently commented on the ‘controversies’ plaguing American Idol like Vote for the Worst and Sanjaya Malakar. Mind you, this is quite different from the Big Brother fracas few months back. Talking about Sanjaya, Nigel said:
“I’m old school, so any time my shows are talked about, I’m really happy. Saturday Night Live often has had pot-shots at us. And we’ve always enjoyed it. I don’t mind. Part of our humour here is making fun of ourselves, so it really doesn’t worry me if anyone else makes fun of it. I think we’re going to have this thing called the Sanjaya effect. And I feel as though, myself, last week, I was
‘Sanjaya-ed.’ I don’t know what the controversy is, to be frank. He has guts, this kid, and you have to applaud that. If half the people with more talent than him had his guts, we’d be getting better talent all-round. I don’t think he’s stupid.”
If you were in any doubt regarding American Idol’s intentions in hyping up the Malacrazy phenomenon, this statement by Nigel ought to do it:
“Even if we lost 50% of our audience, we still would be in the top three programs in the country.”
Exactly. Only if so many of the people hating Sanjaya would get this. It’s about the ratings, stupid! American Idol benefits if Sanjaya stays on. Rob Ward seems to get it and was kind enough to send me his post. Forget the racist and call center (how stupid!) angle, it is all about business, showbiz style.
Technorati Tags: Sanjaya Malakar, American Idol, television, Saturday Night Live, mohawk
by Patrix | on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 5:27 pm | 
Media, Society Culture, Television, United States . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:51 pm reply
And so he stays on for another week. Again yesterday Chris Sligh butchered his song badly, and Chris Richardson made a mess out of Dont Speak - suprisingly for all the flak Sanjaya gets, he sounded a lot better than both of them. From purely a singing standpoint, hearing the MP3 version of his song belied the kind of comments he receives.
I for one hope stays for another couple of weeks - I want to see if any more starving overweight people are joining the fun.
He’s got guts. Nigel is right - if half the ppl who criticize him actually got up on stage, then there wouldnt be a need of Sanjaya at all.
S
March 28th, 2007 at 8:27 pm reply
[...] Sri Lanka kicked it up a notch especially Lasith Malinga. Yup! that dude with the crazy hair (after aamcha Sanjaya, of course.) Malinga took it down to the wire and gave South Africa, the perennial chokers, a [...]
March 29th, 2007 at 6:51 am reply
I think Sanjaya sporting the mohawk has raised him to a new level. He is not a bad singer, as someone else said and if you listen to the sound only, he was better than Haley, Phil, Chris R and Chris S.
And I like “Malacrazy” now that Malakar Mania has been trademarked ;-)
March 30th, 2007 at 12:15 pm reply
[...] Patrix for your regular updates about [...]
March 30th, 2007 at 8:04 pm reply
Suyog, yup! Actually now I’m loving it that he is staying on…even if it is to irritate all those partly racial conspiracy theorists.
Santosh, yup! Actually he is better than at least 3-4 people still left on the show. I now expect him to reach at least the top 6.