Thursday, April 19, 2007

So long, Sanjaya



They are going to miss him. Sanjaya Malakar attracted whole new audiences to America Idol, Most of them will go away now that the controversial teen-ager is gone. Sanjaya was voted off the island last night. Oops, wrong metaphor; wrong season.


I get bored with American Idol / Dancing With The Stars shows after the first season. The guttural noises about Sanjaya's singing ability would make you think that he was cruel to cats, or rather, sounded like one. When I checked out the show, I saw a budding showman with a weak voice. Like that first hit of maryjane, one hit and you're hooked (I have no first hand experience with that). One view of Sanjaya, and you had to come back to see what would come next. And we were enchanted by him.


Sanjaya's carriage and mannerisms are inviting targets for witty barbs. Why, for example, would a man want to hula? And tell people about it? I had my darts aimed at his skinny butt, until I learned that he is just a teen-ager, age 17. Away went the barbs. They can come another day. Like when he's legal.


So, now I get it. Sanjaya is cute; supermarket teeny-bopper magazine cover cute; bright eyed Gameboy gamer next door cute. Why can't cute can be a talent? I comment on the talented First Ladies of Football (gratuitous Redskins reference to justify this post). They're cute. It's just part of the package. And Idol knows it, else why would they let the kid get this far? His only crime? He sings like the teen-age boy next door. But, he has a hot sister. That so bad?

"I don't know what 'it' is, but whatever it is, I've got it." ~Katherine Hepburn

So, good-bye, Sanjaya. Maybe you can't sing, but you got that "it" thing going for you. They are going to miss you. Only, lay off that hula dancing, OK? Men don't do that.


Next mindless rip off of TV shows with minimal football tie-in -- is the Washington Redskins draft strategy smarter than a fifth grader? I'll let you know April 30.
SANJAYA WATCH:
Sanjaya was a guest on last Thursday's (April 19) Jay Leno Show. Fellow Guests Donny Osmond and Jack Black were said to be impressed with the man.
Sanjaya will be a guest on the EllenDeGeneres Show, Monday, April 23rd. Check local listings.
TMZ.com posts a film clip of 9 year old Sanjaya in a 1999 Hawaiian Children's Theater performance of Bugsy Malone.
Sanjaya was the guest at the People's Magazine table at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday, April 21.
Sanjaya will appear on the David Letterman Show, Monday, April 23, and will present the "Top Ten Little-Known Facts About American Idol's Sanjaya."


Photo: www.jossip.com

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed your blog on Sanjaya (even if, albeit, I came to it 7 months late!). Only one small comment...uh, actually, yes. In traditional Hawaiian culture, men DO dance the hula. In fact, for many centuries it was the exclusive domain of males and females were not allowed to perform it. That only came about in very recent years. Just thought you should know. Actually, I love Sanjaya and I thought the whole hula thing was cute and funny as hell.