Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jessica Sanchez might not have won American Idol, but she’s landed a number of high-profile gigs since Season 11 ended.

Part of that is because Phillip Phillips’ kidney ailment has kept him on the sidelines since Idol, leaving Jessica in the position of making the TV rounds and being the face of the show in the days immediately following the finale.

In addition to the talk show appearances, she sang the national anthem at the National Memorial Day ceremony televised on PBS and at the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley World Welterweight Championship fight Saturday in Las Vegas.

The latter is an invite that had more to do with Jessica’s Filipino background than Phillip; Pacquiao is from the Philippines as well. And Jessica tweeted enthusiastically about getting to meet Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, president of the Philippines, at that event.

Another high-profile performance comes tonight, when the 16-year-old will sing the national anthem before the first game of the NBA finals between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City.

The game airs tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC.

And, of course, Jessica has an Idol summer tour to prepare for and “working on upcoming album :),” she tweeted yesterday.

Meanwhile, speaking of Phillip, he’s been released from the hospital after undergoing kidney surgery and told E! he’s back to work and “looking forward to the future.”

All along, we’ve been told that future starts July 6 with the Idol summer tour opener in Detroit. So far, there’s been no news to the contrary.

Meanwhile, here are more photos of Jessica from her Saturday night performance.