Pity young Sanjaya, the ‘Idol’ contestant everyone loves to hate

[31 March 2007]

By Julie Hinds

Detroit Free Press (MCT)

It feels like a day for thankless tasks, so I’ll go ahead and make the case in defense of Sanjaya Malakar.

Somebody has to.

The 17-year-old “American Idol” contestant is the country’s new laughingstock. Late-night comics ridicule him. Critics have exhausted the synonyms for awful in their quest to describe him. A young woman from New York is so upset by his presence on the show she claims to be on a hunger strike until he’s voted off—and she’s chronicling her protest, of course, on the Web.

Hating Sanjaya is the new fad of disposable culture. Nobody cares much about the diaper-wearing astronaut anymore. The will to wallow in the Anna Nicole Smith saga is waning. Yet nearly every night last week, you could flip the channels and count the references to Sanjaya’s ineptness made by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert and on and on.

Sanjaya-bashing is now No. 1 with a bullet, and I’m still trying to figure out why.

Is it because he’s the weakest singer among the Top 10? Fair enough, but I don’t remember anyone resorting to starvation when John Stevens was doing Frank Sinatra impressions on the show a few years back.

Sanjaya is merely one of a long line of “Idol” guys who’ve survived past their logical expiration date. If you thought his performance of “You Really Got Me” last week was a train wreck, picture Kevin (Chicken Little) Covais from last season attempting it. Or burly Scott Soval from Season 4. Or Jim Verraros from the debut year.

Those images aren’t pretty, but Sanjaya is, with his warm smile, bronze skin and wavy hair, and that’s part of the problem. He has a non-threatening, slightly feminine vibe that appeals to preteen girls, like a many a bubble-gum Tiger Beat poster boy before him. This makes him an easy target. “Idol” producers practically painted a bull’s-eye on his back last week by cutting a zillion times to close-ups of Ashley, the sobbing young fan whose Sanjaya worship was parodied over the weekend by “Saturday Night Live.”

Sanjaya is undoubtedly loathed by those who are serious about popular music. Although he’d need handlers and heavy tinkering in the studio to hide his flaws, he’s already gotten more exposure in a few weeks than many aspiring artists of true vision will get in a lifetime. Somewhere, a garage band that’s waiting to be discovered is crying harder than Ashley because of this.

Sanjaya may still be on the show because of VotefortheWorst.com and Howard Stern, who are rooting for his survival as a way to mess with the show’s premise. Some muse he must have reached the Top 10 because he’s needed as a teenybopper draw for the coast-to-coast summer tour. The vote tallies remain a mystery to viewers (there were 30 million votes last week, but who received what?), so conspiracy theories blossom freely.

Whatever the reason, it’s worth remembering Sanjaya is just a boy, not a human punch line. When he auditioned, his voice seemed rather sweet and promising, sort of like Stevie Wonder lite. Once he made it to the Top 24, he tended to stand there and sound listless.

As bad reviews from the judges piled up, so did Sanjaya’s various hairstyles, which only added fuel to the humiliation fire. Then, last week, perhaps in response to criticism, he took a gamble by tackling a Kinks classic and trying to work the crowd like a Vegas star. The blowback was immediate and painful. Water-cooler tirades about his horridness were louder than any words spoken on behalf of LaKisha Jones, Melinda Doolittle, Jordin Sparks or other contestants considered to belong in the finals.

Dare I say it? Sanjaya wasn’t that bad. His voice is thin, but his tone and pitch are OK. As a reader e-mailed recently, he can carry a tune; he just can’t carry a performance.

The anti-Sanjaya bandwagon reminds me of the Howard Dean scream frenzy, when the sheer pleasure of replaying the clip of him acting like a crazy man overtook the fact that the guy was trying to whip up enthusiasm in a noisy room.

Perception becomes reality. Sanjaya may be out of his depth, but it’s more fun to label him the worst singer in the world. I just wish he weren’t 17. That’s too young to be a national joke or a nationally spotlighted anything.

 
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Comments

I think Sanjaya can carry a tune and maybe even a performance.  Actually I’ll go so far as to say that he has sounded good, just not the best.  His “you really got me going” was a step up and showed confidence.  However his previous performance was terrible because I think he got shy and scared up there.  People already were thinking he may be the weakest singer so it was that week when he did bad that the haters really went full force.

But what is he capable of?  Very few idol viewers are willing to stop and reverse their notions even if a contestant does better.  The reason is that idol is treated a lot like a horse race.  It’s as if it’s a sport and they are betting on their race horse to win, which is pretty silly in a way. 

What he is capable of doesn’t seem to matter though.  He’s the subject of being bashed because every season they look for someone to bash.  Once the bashing starts what may happen in the future doesn’t change anything.

When idol fans are rooting, their favorites become “super stars” and the ones that seem threatening suddenly can’t sing, or sound like horse shit.  Never mind that if they were heard outside of Idol they sound surprisingly good.. NOPE, they now sound like crap and can’t carry a tune according to narrow minded fanatics.

The confusion is that we have had years where some can’t sing on key.. But Sanjaya can actually sing.  Yet because there are some better singers he must be stomped on.  The funny thing is that a couple of the “better” singers have had moments where they sounded pretty shaky themselves.  Yet no one suddenly got mad at them.  That’s because it was not fashionable to bash them at the moment.  They were forgiven.

Each season attracts it’s group of “race horse” parrots that repeat any fun gossip no matter what it is.  In fact there are people who strive to help spread false rumors.  Take last year when Kellie Pickler was in.  People could see that she was getting a lot of attention.  So the sharks started circling.  That year Paris and Katharine were said to be musically trained and considered high up.  They were good, but way over rated and did make their share of mistakes..  Yet Kellie was the one attacked on vote for the worst and even by individual writers such as Dave Mcgurgan who worked together with a site called “Kick Pickler” which spread lies and rumors about her in a desperate effort to get her off the show.

I followed it closely and noticed that within 3 weeks of this, people were repeating some of the lies being told on these sites as if it were accepted common knowledge.  According to them Kellie was so horrible and could not even carry a tune.  Funny how her CD sales have nearly surpassed Taylor Hicks sales.  Not bad for someone who supposedly can’t even carry a tune.

Back to Sanjaya.. If he stays, I predict that he will be hounded, lied about, made fun of with no let up.  And it won’t matter if he improves or does a great performance.  He won’t get any credit.  Nope, they will give the credit to V4TW and they will erroneously claim they kept him in. That along with Howard Stern who will hope to boost his own programs ratings.  So while he’s not the best singer, he’s far from as crappy as they make him out to be.  And of course he could also get worse.. But what ever happens does he really deserve to be lied about? I’m against that sort of thing, but I doubt there is any stopping it when selfish people just want a laugh.

Comment by Jim — March 31, 2007 @ 5:37 pm

First os all, why in the world do have a photograph in your article of “some ugly guy” who is not Sanjaya?  What the hell was the point of that?  There was no caption or indentification of the person in your article. Most people consider Sanjaya a very attractive kid, so are you taking that away from him as well?
Second, why does everyone just assume that Sanjaya is the worst singer in the competition, and continue to repeat that as if it fact? Does everyone just assume that whatever Simon says is cast in stone? The press keeps parroting this opinion, and I sincerely doubt many of the writers have every stopped to listen to his performances or his mp3’s which are actually quite good.  I think Sanjaya has a good voice, not the best, but surely not the worst, and he is certainly the most entertaining of this sorry lot of contestants.  Who the hell cares if Haley Scarnato leaves before Sanjaya?
Moreover, it appears that the Sanjaya tide has been turning of late.  Many more viewers are getting on the Sanjaya train than getting off. Don’t you get it?  Instead of turning into a sobbing puddle of goo, this kid as proved that he has brass ones, and we love him for that and admire this courage. What a great gutsy kid.  THAT’S what you should be saying about him.

Comment by Deborah from Sacramento, CA — April 1, 2007 @ 6:51 am

Melinda is my favorite this time around, but I don’t get all the put downs of Sanjaya, I really don’t.  He’s a sweet, talented, very nice looking 17 year old.  He may not have the biggest voice, but he can definitely sing, and he’s got a great personality.  I see stardom for Sanjaya.  A lot of people like him and that’s why they’re voting for him, and it’s got nothing to do with that silly ‘worst’ site.  I like him.  Good luck, Sanjaya!

Comment by Joan from Canada — April 1, 2007 @ 7:53 pm

Someone needs to correct this misperception. One fool starts with the assertion that Sanjaya can’t sing, and then everyone starts beating that drum. But is anyone listening?? He’s got a clear, authentic voice. He doesn’t have a big, booming voice, but it’s clear and pure, like spring water. It’s a sound that’s refreshing and clean. I’m so tired of the big wailers on AI. They all sound the same. Won’t some media “expert” take courage and finally come forward with an honest assessment of Sanjaya’s voice. Don’t tell me that “serious music lovers” hate his voice. That’s totally nonsense. It’s the nonsense of people who just can’t imagine the success of a 17-year old. Somehow people find that threatening.

Comment by jjjkam from USA — April 1, 2007 @ 8:31 pm

And yes, why do you have that idiotic person of someone who looks like the caveman from that Geico commercial? What’s the point of that? You put an ugly picture of some dark-skinned fellow with unkempt black hair. Hardy har har. Looks like racism to me.

Comment by jjjkam from USA — April 1, 2007 @ 8:34 pm

This case is my biggest dissapointment of America’s youth. With all the problems in the world today, global warming, disease, war, species in extinction, etc. some idiot chick is going on a hunger strike because this guy is still on a TV show? For all the right causes you could go to a hunger strike, this is an insult to humanity. We have to wonder if the people who hate America are really that crazy.

Comment by Anon from Chicago — April 4, 2007 @ 1:16 pm

I would have taken your article seriously if you hadn’t posted the pic of some pitiful looking man claiming it’s sanjaya..isn’t that false reporting? Did you actually go to journalism school? Racist

Comment by yourunfair — April 5, 2007 @ 3:14 pm

hii everyone…its a shame to read such things abt such a talented person ....i think sanjaya can make an awesome singer n i think he is way tooooooooooo hot….i really love his hair do n incredibly cute smile….it almost makes me kiss him everytim i see his smile….
i thinks its a shame to v americans for criticizing someone just because hes not of our origin..
guys plz for heaven sake GROW UP…

Comment by jeena — April 20, 2007 @ 12:53 pm

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