Sanjaya Malakar
News

The acting stage, that is.

Sanjaya Malakar will be a special singing guest in the Intiman Theatre's production of Black Nativity in Seattle. Two other former American Idol hopefuls are also scheduled to appear.

Malakar, as well as Karma Johnson (first season) and Leah Vladowski (who competed as Leah LaBelle in 2004), will perform December 2 at the 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. shows. Each will take on a solo during the two performances of the Intiman's annual holiday production.

The three singers are alumni of the Total Experience Gospel Choir, which is founded and directed by Pastor Patrinell Wright — musical director and arranger as well as a performer in the show since its first production in 1998.

Tickets to Black Nativity at the Intiman Playhouse, 201 Mercer Street in Seattle Center, are available by phone at (206) 269-1900 or online at intiman.org .

The American Idols Live Tour is still in full swing - and Sanjaya Malakar is still going strong.

Below, TV Guide asks the finalist and fan favorite a few questions...

TV Guide: Are you exhausted yet?
Sanjaya: Yeah. I just got back from Chicago at 5 o'clock this morning. It was my birthday yesterday so I went there.

TV Guide: Happy birthday! Did everyone go with you?
Sanjaya: No. I actually went to see a concert but it was raining, so it was canceled. So everyone came to Greensboro and I went to Chicago basically to buy a pair of shoes.

TV Guide: What concert were you supposed to go to?
Sanjaya: Stevie Wonder.

TV Guide: Did the Idols do anything for your birthday?
Sanjaya: I haven't really been able to celebrate with them yet. But hopefully we'll be able to have some kind of party. The guys are going to kick my butt because it's my initiation into manhood because I'm 18, so that's cool.

TV Guide: They're going to beat you up?
Sanjaya: Well, Phil Stacey described it as a "good old-fashioned country butt-whooping." So I'm fine with that. I figure I probably need it. I'll probably have big welts on my face at the next show.

TV Guide: Aside from that, are you excited about turning 18?
Sanjaya: I guess for voting, but I'll be 19 when I vote for president. I don't smoke so that doesn't really excite me.

TV Guide: Any stories from the tour?
Sanjaya: I've been trying to sleep as much as possible. Right now I'm exhausted because I barely slept last night and I had a two-hour flight at 4 o'clock in the morning, so I just got here. I've just been trying to catch up on sleep as much as possible. I'm definitely an insomniac.

TV Guide: You have very enthusiastic fans. Have you met anybody memorable on the road?
Sanjaya: Actually, I'm really happy with my fan base. At first I was kind of freaked out because they were a bunch of screaming 12-year-olds. But it's actually a lot more diverse than I thought it was. There's all kinds of people. It's cool. I actually got a little stuffed monkey from a fan. I named it Dog and I wore it on stage. That was pretty cool. That was my little guest star for the show.

TV Guide: Are you nervous about moving [to L.A.]?
Sanjaya: Yeah. I'm a little apprehensive; I've never really wanted to live in L.A. because I'm very much a Seattle boy. If it made sense for me to do it, I'd much rather stay in Seattle, but it doesn't make sense, because I want to be in the entertainment business. So why not go to Hollywood?

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The start of the “American Idols Live!” tour was just a little over a week away, and Sanjaya Malakar was raring to go when he phoned in for an interview.

Whether he knew the exact date of the first show might have been another issue.

“I’m really excited about the tour. It’s going to be a blast,” he said. “We’ve been doing rehearsals for the past, a couple of days, I think. I don’t know, I have kind of a warped sense of time now.”

Malakar can be forgiven for losing his bearings a bit. Since his debut on the mega-popular talent show American Idol last spring, his life has been the epitome of a whirlwind.

He didn’t win the competition. In fact, he was voted off the show in April and finished seventh. But that doesn’t change the fact that Malakar was the story of “American Idol,” season six.

On the one hand, Malakar quickly built a fanatic following — especially, it seemed, among young girls drawn to his charismatic stage presence, boyish good looks, and of course, his full mop of hair, which turned out to be one of the biggest topics of discussion as he changed styles from episode to episode. One audience member, Ashley Ferl, even made a name for herself after cameras caught her bursting into tears whenever Malakar was on stage.

But many others weren’t at all impressed. A “Vote for the Worst” Web site that supported voting for Malakar to sabotage the show became news nationwide. Howard Stern started a similar campaign on his radio show.

Malakar was also savaged in the media (the Washington Post labeled him a “talent amputee”). The always-blunt “Idol” judge Simon Cowell at one point said he would quit the show if Malakar won.

So while this summer’s tour may be headlined by the winner of this season’s competition, Jordin Sparks, and runner-up Blake Lewis, the top drawing card may well be Malakar.

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After American Idol contestants from this past season were through playing for fans in Florida, The Ledger sat down with Sanjaya Malaker. Here's what the singer had to say:

What are you tired of talking about?
I'm kind of tired of talking about my hair, but I figure it's inevitable. It's gonna happen, so it doesn't really bother me. But it's just kind of an old subject.

I'll ask you the one obligatory hair question, and then we can move on. What's the one hair-care product that you can't live without?
Water.

Really?
I use hair products if I'm going somewhere nice or something, but for the most part I kind of wet it and let it air-dry. My hair's really low-maintenance. I'm lucky like that.

You're turning 18 on Sept. 10. How will you celebrate?
I kind of want to get a tattoo, but I don't want to get it while I'm on the road because I want to get it from somewhere that's clean, and I want to be sure that it's clean, 'cause I'm not about to have some nasty rash on my body.

What would you get it of, and where would you get it?
I was thinking of on my arm, and my Chinese astrology (sign) is a snake and I love snakes, so I'd get a snake and somehow incorporate a treble clef or some kind of musical symbol and possibly somehow incorporate a Virgo, but I don't know. I haven't really thought about it enough to get it yet.

What was the strangest thing that a fan has sent you?
I think the strangeness comes with what they say in their letters, 'cause there's a lot of people that don't necessarily censor themselves in their letters, and it's kind of interesting to read.

Can you give me an example?
Someone said that when I sing, it's like hot chocolate with a lot of mini marshmallows.

So is the tattoo an effort to get rid of the mini marshmallow image and move to something a little more mature?
No, I think it's, I wouldn't get it somewhere that's really obvious. I'd get it somewhere that I can hide it very easily. It would be more for myself.

If you were a superhero, what would you want your superpower to be?
Psychic abilities.

Why's that?
I think that everyone's psychic, but they just don't listen, and I've kind of gotten to a point where sometimes I can listen to my instinct and be right, and so I like to call myself psychic. … I think it's a cool concept, and so I think it would be really cool to genuinely, actually be psychic.

FOX will telecast the Teen Choice Awards August 26. Until that date, fans can vote on a handful of America Idol-related nominees. To wit:

Reality/variety show: "American Idol," "America's Next Top Model," "Dancing With the Stars," "The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll," "The Hills."

Choice TV personality: Nick Cannon of "Wild 'N Out," Ryan Seacrest of "American Idol" and E!, Simon Cowell of "American Idol," Tyra Banks of "America's Next Top Model," Bruno Tonioli of "Dancing With the Stars."

Male reality/variety star: Apolo Anton Ohno of "Dancing With the Stars," Flavor Flav of "Flavor of Love," Jojo, Diggy, Russy of "Run's House," Sanjaya Malakar of "American Idol," Three 6 Mafia of "Adventures in Hollyhood."

Female reality/variety star: Jaslene Gonzalez of "America's Next Top Model," Jordin Sparks of "American Idol," Lauren Conrad of "The Hills," New York of "I Love New York," Paris Hilton of "The Simple Life."

Sanjaya Malakar was known throughout American Idol for his upbeat attitude and smile. But things may have changed a bit since he was voted off.

"At a certain point all the judges just gave up," said Malakar in the June 20 issue of Steppin' Out, a weekly entertainment magazine published in the New York-New Jersey area. "[The judges] realized the fans are going to do whatever they're going to do, and they're always going to vote for whomever they want.

They didn't have the power to change the way the fans felt. In fact, if anything, the more [Idol judge Simon Cowell] was mean to me, the stronger the fan support got. That's why all the judges got frustrated and just gave up... I didn't take it personally because I was just thinking what I needed to do."

Malakar continued to voice his displeasure at some of the ways he was treated by the panel.

Of all the show's judges, the crazy-haired one said he thinks Cowell was the one who was "trying to get a certain reaction out of the fans" through his criticisms. However, Malakar added he actually has "respect" for the sharp-tongued Brit due to his "unbiased honesty."

"I actually kind of like Simon. He was really mean to me - but he's also really honest - and I was searching for that," Malakar said. "Not a lot of people are like that anymore. Especially in this business. He doesn't say things the way you might want to hear them. He says what he feels with every speck of sugar off of it. It's complete raw and brutal honesty. I really think that's important to hear. You need at least one person telling you that stuff so you can learn from it."

We agree.

Meanwhile, Malakar added he wishes radio shock-jock Howard Stern would stop taking credit for his popularity on Idol, and would instead like to recognize those who really did help him make it as far as he did in the competition.

"I have to give all the credit for my success to my fans," he said. "They are the people who brought me back to the show each week. They are the people who truly supported me wholeheartedly... They're really the important people who make a difference in an entertainer's career. They're the people who actually make you who you are. They're the people who buy records and vote for you on American Idol."

With the American Idol tour getting underway shortly, The Houston Chronicle asked Sanjaya Malakar the following funny questions:

Q: How do you feel about touring 57 cities in 76 days?
A: It's crazy. I'm really excited about it. It'll be a lot of fun.

Q: What's the worst pronunciation of your name you ever heard?
A: Sonia Mowlicker. Freshman year in high school they announced names on your birthday, and that's how they announced mine. My birthday is Sept. 10, so for the rest of the year my friends called me Sonia.

Q: If they made a movie about your life, what would the title be?
A: "Back When I Was Rich and Jewish."

Q: Gel or mousse?
A: On normal occasions, I don't put anything on my hair.

Q: If you were stuck on a desert island, would you rather be with (fellow contestants) Jordin Sparks or Blake Lewis?
A: Jordin Sparks, not because I like her more but because Blake Lewis is kind of loud and sometimes obnoxious. On a desert island I would end up not liking him. But I do like him, so . . . yeah.

We haven't forgotten about you, Sanjaya Malakar.

While Blake Lewis has stolen a lot of your buzz (he is still in the competition and everything), we'll give a shout out now to the man with the best hair on all of reality TV.

Here is Sanjaya as he takes on the UCLA cheerleading squad in Venice Beach on Friday:

A couple of ousted American Idol finalists felt the love of their hometowns this week.

LaKisha Jones’ shooting star fell from the American Idol galaxy Wednesday night, but on Thursday Flint continued to embrace her and the bright future it hopes for her.

Residents said they still are in Jones’ corner, and store marquees, Internet blogs and even a highway billboard continued to scream out “LaKisha” in a swell of community pride. And city leaders will honor her efforts.

A parade outside City Hall is planned, and Mayor Don Williamson will give 27-year-old single mother a key to the city. A local auto dealership owned by Williamson’s wife, Patsy Lou, is kicking in a free six-month lease of a Buick Lucerne.

Flint Budget and Information Services Director Michael Townsend said Thursday that Jones has meant so much more to the community than just singing on a television show.

“This has really brought positive attention to Flint, and we’ve been so used to getting negative attention all of the time,” Townsend said.

The city of about 120,000 people — like many in Michigan that once relied on the automotive industry — is trying to rebound from past economic woes. The mid-1980s brought downturns in the industry with layoffs and plant closures, and the problems in this blue-collar city about 60 miles north of Detroit continue today.

So it was a pleasant change when crews from Good Morning America and Access Hollywood came to town to do features on Jones and her American Idol run, city attorney Trachelle Young said.

“There is such a spirit of hope that LaKisha has given the city. It’s infectious,” Young said.

City workers even volunteered on their off-time to hold miniature Idol rallies downtown on Tuesday nights prior to Jones’ performances on the show.

Jones’ appeal in her hometown crossed racial barriers. Flint is about 60 percent black, but Young estimated that about 75 percent of the 200 to 300 people at Tuesday Idol rallies were white.

“So many would not come to downtown Flint,” she said. “LaKisha served as a catalyst to get people down here.”

Meanwhile, in Federal Way, Wash. on Wednesday, teenage fans of Sanjaya Malakar, voted off the show three weeks ago, gave him an enthusiastic welcome home.

About 600 Idol fans shrieked, asked for autographs, invited him to their prom, and posed for pictures with 17-year-old Malakar at a Federal Way shopping center.

Amanda Reed of Federal Way — a city of about 84,000, 20 miles south of Seattle — waited for more than five hours with her mom and her brother to be first in line to get Malakar’s autograph.

“She was like a kid before Christmas,” Laurie Reed, Amanda’s mother, told The News Tribune of Tacoma.

Malakar, accompanied by bodyguards, police officers and his mom and sister, signed 200 autographs, and mall officials passed out another 200 pre-signed autographs for each donation of $1 or more to World Vision, a Federal Way-based humanitarian organization.

As one of American Idol's most polarizing figures, fans either love or hate Sanjaya Malakar – but he says he's always been popular with women.

"I've always gotten along with girls better because I was raised by women," Malakar tells People magazine in its new issue.

Malakar, whose parents divorced when he was three, says his ease with women comes from being close to his mom and his sister, Shyamali Malakar, who were his biggest influence growing up in Seattle. But getting along with girls didn't always work to his benefit.

"I got teased in school because people figured I must be gay because I understand women," the popular American Idol castoff says. "I think that's why guys didn't like me – because I got along with girls so well. When I went up to girls they would give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek like I was their gay friend. But I was the straight guy that understood them."

As for his dating past, Malakar, who is now 17, says: "I had a girlfriend but she became clingy, and I didn't want to get into a really serious relationship because I was 16. Before his arrival on the hit FOX show, "I just wanted to date and have fun," he says.