Sanjaya Malakar

Sanjaya Joseph Malakar (born September 10, 1989) is an American singer who was a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol.

He gained national attention on the series, controversially advancing to 7th place with public votes despite being poorly received by the show's judges, particularly Simon Cowell.

After Idol, Malakar made many television guest appearances and has been commonly parodied in popular culture.

He placed fifth in second season of the reality television show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Malakar was born in Seattle, Washington the son of Vasudeva Malakar, a Bengali Indian immigrant born in Vrindavan, India and Jillian (Recchi) Blyth, an American of Italian descent on one side and Dutch, English, and Irish ancestry on the other.

He later lived in the nearby suburb of Federal Way.

His parents filed for divorce when he was three years old and they had already been separated for a year.

He and his mother and siblings then lived on welfare in a Seattle apartment.

. His mother remarried, but his stepfather died soon afterwards.

Although Malakar spent the majority of his formative years in the Seattle area, he has also lived in both California and Kauai, Hawaii, where he performed with the Hawaii Children's Theater group.

While in Seattle, he spent three years with the Total Experience Gospel Choir.

Malakar attended Martha Lake Elementary School in Lynnwood, Washington for elementary school, and the Seattle Waldorf School and Northshore Junior High School for middle school in Bothell, Washington.

He attended Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, Washington during freshman year, and Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way, Washington during sophomore year.

After his sophomore year, Malakar passed the General Educational Development test, in order to leave high school early and focus on a music career and on his participation in American Idol.

On September 19, 2006, Malakar, a shy teen, entered the open audition for American Idol at the Seattle Center in Seattle, with his sister Shyamali.

Simon Cowell commented that Sanjaya had a better voice than his sister.

Both were advanced to the Hollywood round by the judges.

Malakar cited Stevie Wonder as his idol, and sang one of Wonder's signature songs, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" at his Seattle audition.

For his next performance, in Hollywood, Malakar sang "Some Kind of Wonderful".

He was shown tearfully embracing his sister when she was cut, though he progressed to the Top 40.

Next, Malakar sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

The judges were largely critical of his performance, though Simon Cowell admitted that Malakar is popular with the voters while Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul gave a more positive appraisal of his "You Really Got Me" performance in the Top 11.

A 13-year-old girl named Ashley Ferl was highlighted repeatedly during Malakar's performance in the Top 11 episode, crying tears of joy, although Ferl also cried for Melinda Doolittle, Jordin Sparks, and many other contestants.

On March 27, 2007, Malakar sang No Doubt's "Bathwater" wearing a fauxhawk made from multiple ponytails.

The style was called the "ponyhawk" by host Ryan Seacrest.

While singing, Malakar hesitated with some of the words to the song.

Simon Cowell remarked, "Sanjaya, I don't think it matters anymore what we say ... I think you are in your own universe and if people like you, good luck."

The following night, host Seacrest walked out on stage wearing a wig with the same hairstyle, parodying Malakar.

On April 3, Malakar sang "Cheek to Cheek", wearing a white suit, donning a slick hairstyle (with a recent cut), and dancing with judge Paula Abdul.

Abdul commented, "I get it. I get why people love you. You are charming."

On the following April 4 results show, it was revealed that Malakar had finished in the "middle three," among nine contestants.

Malakar's performance of "Bésame Mucho" in the Top 8 on April 10 was his first unanimously well-received performance by the judges in the finals of the competition.

During rehearsals Jennifer Lopez remarked, "I like this kid. I love Sanjaya!"

after hearing him sing in Spanish, the only one of the remaining eight contestants to do so on the Latin-theme night.

Randy Jackson commented, "You're one of the smartest contestants I've ever met. That was actually really good. It was," while Simon Cowell offered the halting, "I'm going to hate myself for this. It wasn't horrible."

Malakar continued on, entering the Top 7, following that performance on the April 11 results show.

After performing "Something to Talk About" on the previous night, Malakar was placed in the bottom three and was subsequently eliminated in 7th place on April 18, 2007.

Singing his farewell performance, after the line "let's give them something to talk about", he ad libbed "other than hair" in place of "how about love".

American Idol's ratings dropped 9% in the episode following Malakar's elimination, which was Idol Gives Back, a charity episode featuring many celebrity guests.

The music news website Moldolva.org reported that this was due to Malakar's departure.