Sanjaya Malaker is out of the running for the TV "American Idol" title, but he is most definitely not out of the public's hearts.
It's been a matter of days since his elimination and he's already showing his true star power.
No, I'm not talking about the obligatory talk show circuit that everyone A.I. cast off does.
Rumors are spreading of a possible duet with Sanjaya and Britney. After all, he's in need of some good lip synching training if he wants to make it as a true pop star.
He's impressively made it on the guest list for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner tonight. Random, I know.
And, above all, Sanjaya is the most searched celebrity on Yahoo.
OK, the kid couldn't sing as well as the others. But what pop star can, except for the "American Idol" winners? Britney, the Simpsons, or Hilary Duff? And am I the only one who noticed that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was the only song last season's runner-up Katharine McPhee could sing without going off-key?
Sanjaya has the "it" factor that is so necessary to be a celebrity, to be an idol. He's caused a sensation with his hair (I would love to hear Sanjaya and Donald Trump swap men's hair tips) and dominated blog and mainstream chatter. He's even made E!'s The Soup a 10 times better show, for which I must thank him.
Personally, I do not watch "American Idol." I don't find people singing entertaining. But I do find Sanjaya and his ingenious chameleon hair shtick to be incredibly entertaining.
I can't wait to see more.
Kristen OGorman @ Sun, 04/22/2007 - 11:25am
I'm going to miss Sanjaya. The show is going to be pretty boring without him. He makes for good TV... a show about singing never interested me before, but I started watching this year mainly because of Sanjaya. The producers obviously knew what they were doing when they put him on the show. I would LOVE it if he did a duet with Britney, that would be hilarious.