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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Giant head vs. giant head 7/27/07   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, July 27, 2007 Ousted 'Idol' Malakar happy to keep singing By Alan Sculley, Special to The Herald The start of the "American Idols Live" tour was just a week away, and Sanjaya Malakar was raring to go when he phoned in for an interview. "I'm really excited about the tour. It's going to be a blast," Malakar 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 popular talent show "American Idol" this spring, his life has been the epitome of a whirlwind. He didn't win the competition. In fact, he was voted off of the show in April, about half way through the season, 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 with Malakar. 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"). Always-blunt "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell at one point said he would quit the show after the season if Malakar won the title. Like many of Malakar's detractors, Cowell was less than impressed by his singing talents and didn't think his stage presence made up for his shortcomings as a performer. So, while this summer's "American Idol" tour may be headlined by the winner of this season's competition, Jordin Sparks, and runnerup Blake Lewis, the top drawing card may well be Malakar. Malakar wasn't thrilled to be the center of so much attention. "It makes me uncomfortable kind of when a lot of people are talking about me or putting energy toward me," he said. "So it was kind of weird to be in a situation like that where it was so concentrated." Malakar said he did his best to ignore the intense media scrutiny so he could focus on the most important task - his on-screen performances. "I guess I trained myself to not really have to take that in and be able to ignore that and move on without really processing it," Malakar said. Even the many humorous comments about his ever-changing hairstyle didn't ruffle Malakar. "Coming into the show I didn't care what my hair looked like," Malakar said. "I just wanted it to look nice and presentable because I was going to be on TV and I had never really been on TV. But then we got on the show and we got to the top 24 and we had hair stylists. They were really excited to get their hands on my hair." For this summer's tour, "I get to sing a couple of songs with a couple of people," Malakar said. "... We have a couple of numbers that I think are going to definitely be show stoppers. "There are a couple of solos," he added. "There are also a lot of small group numbers. It's a nice kind of mix." Associated Press Sanjaya Malakar finished seventh, but was a big draw in this season's "American Idol."

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