Dancing to the Music in My Head
1. A Guy Like Me
2. I Got It For You
3. A Quintessential Lullaby
4. Rainy Days
5. Tell Me Who I Am
(free download)
On the weekend after Tatiana Del Toro got booted from Idol — temporarily at least — there was only one person I could possibly feature in the Idol Chatter CD spotlight.
That person: Sanjaya Malakar, one of the most controversial Idol finalists in the show’s history.
After all, he prompted Simon to say he’d quit if Sanjaya won Idol in season six. He prompted one fan to go on YouTube and announce a hunger strike, one that she vowed to continue until Sanjaya was voted off the show. And Sanjaya was a bona fide VoteForTheWorst celebrity.
But hey, I always liked Sanjaya. He seemed like a really great kid (he was only 17 when he was on the show) who somehow defied the odds and stuck around much longer than his singing ability warranted.
And season six of Idol would have been incredibly boring without him. The best singer that year, Melinda Doolittle, lacked the Idol spark. The eventual winner, Jordin Sparks, was hardly brilliant from day one. And runner-up Blake Lewis was original for sure, but his originality was very hit and miss.
Then there was Sanjaya, always smiling, always likeable, always unpredictable … and with all that hair. Who will ever forget the ponyhawk (video below)?
In late January, just in time for the start of season eight, Sanjaya released a five-song EP on Amazon.com and a book, “Dancing to the Music in My Head,” that looks back on his Idol experience.
The book’s an easy read; we’re not talking Tolstoy here. But if you’re looking for Idol dirt, head elsewhere.
Apparently one of the season six Idols posted some not-so-flattering comments about other contestants on blogs and later apologized for the misdeed, but Sanjaya doesn’t tell us who that person was.
And he barely mentions the biggest controversy of season six, when risque photographs of semifinalist Antonella Barba showed up on the Internet. I would loved to have known more about how that affected the show’s contestants.
What we do get are several great reminders that, despite what Simon might say, Idol is a reality TV show. It’s not all about singing. It’s about entertaining a TV audience. For instance:
* When he and sister Shyamali auditioned, producers had them play up a sibling rivalry that really didn’t exist. (Can’t you hear the producers right now. “C’mon, Tatiana. Laugh again. C’mon. Just one more laugh.)
* That months pass between the first audition and the day contestants appear before the show’s judges. But the contestants are told to bring the exact same outfit they wore to the first audition so the clips can be edited together to look like it all occurred in one day.
* That at the close of Hollywood Week, he and his sister were sent to separate rooms to await their fate, again for the sake of TV drama. Afterward, “a cameraman got the shot they’d all undoubtedly been dreaming of since they saw us (audition) … me clutching my sister, both of us crying in each other’s arms because one of us had gotten cut.”
* Remember crying girl, Sanjaya’s pre-teen fan? She and her family attended a pre-show dress rehearsal and she started crying when Sanjaya sang. So producers gave her tickets to the real show, hoping for a repeat, and got more crying than they could have hoped for.
* That the only time Sanjaya got really upset with the TV nonsense was in country music week. He writes that he had finally settled on a song, “Mercedes Benz,” when a producer interrupted a rehearsal just a day and a half before that week’s show and announced: “Ford is one of our sponsors. We can’t have you singing about Benzes.”
And, apparently, Sanjaya almost didn’t make it on Idol at all, almost never got to audition before Randy, Paula and Simon. When he was summoned back for his second audition, he was cut by an artist manager.
But then his sister auditioned and wowed the show’s executive producers, who inquired about Sanjaya. He says they became furious when they discovered that someone had almost spoiled their season six sister-brother act. So they put him back in the competition.
Now … as for the EP.
Yikes, where’s Simon when you need him?
Well, as Randy would say: “Ah, Sanjaya, that really didn’t work for me, dude. That really wasn’t very good.”
I mean “Rainy Days” isn’t terrible. There are lots of background singers. The rest … somewhere out there, Simon is smiling.
You can head to Amazon.com and download one of the songs for free. It’s called “Tell Me Who I Am.” Sanjaya says he and his sister wrote it when they headed off to New Zealand to chill after the Idol tour. It’s clearly meant as a message for his critics. He sings: “I’m just fine / And I don’t need your couch critiquing anymore.”
Unfortunately, the singing sorta justifies what all the couch critics were saying when he was on the show. Go ahead. Give it a listen.
Now, as promised, the ponyhawk.
UPCOMING IDOL CD RELEASES
March 10: Kelly Clarkson: “All I Ever Wanted”
March 10: Taylor Hicks: “The Distance”
April 7: George Huff, self-titled
May 5: Elliott Yamin, “Fight for Love”
May 19: Ruben Studdard, “Love Is”
June 2: Brooke White: “High Hopes and Heartbreaks.”
Note: Michael Johns announced on last week’s Idol results show that he plans to release his first CD in mid-May.
RECENT RELEASES
Feb. 3: Melinda Doolittle, self-titled
Melinda’s Reviews:
Jan. 20: ”Don’t Look Down,” an independent soundtrack with music written by former Idol contestant Michael Johns, Rye Randa and Jeff Foxworth. Michael does most of the vocals (except on “View from Up Here”.) The soundtrack features “Life is Okay,” a duet featuring Michael with Brooke White.
Jan. 20: Sanjaya Malakar: “Dancing to the Music in My Head,” a five-track EP, released the same day the book “Dancing to the Music in My Head: Memoirs of the People’s Idol” came out.
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