How many people think they kept the wrong sibling? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F2qAmOxIMk&mode=related&search="]Sanjaya & Shyamali Malakar Auditions - YouTube[/ame]
Thank You America! It's bittersweet. He will still earn a fat paycheck for his appearance on the American Idol tour.
You know what I find ironic? How the actual winners of American Idol are slowly forgotten as the years pass by. I mean Taylor Hicks I can barely even recall. And wasn't he last season's winner?! Fantasia something something, Rubberd stud and Clay Aiken(?). Whatever happened to them? Its like they are left in the ocean all alone with only their own support to continue their music careers. But the funny thing is...... EVERYBODY would know who William Hung is if he is ever mentioned. Same with Sanjaya. Sanjaya will be remembered longer than this season's winner of American Idol. Trust me on that.
Taylor Hicks has sold about 700,000 copies, is running the small club circuit, and is poised to be the first winner who will not be certified platinum. The runner up, Kat McPhee, has barely hit 500,000 albums. Daughtry is poised to be Season Fives success story; his debut album has sold over 2 million copies, and he was fourth. Carrie Underwood won Season Four and has gone multiplatinum and swept all the awards shows, including the grammies. She'll have a career. Fantasia won season three, got four grammy nods for her debut release, and between both of her releases has gone multi-platinum. Just not getting the airplay for some reason; new album has sold about 300,000. Reuben was lucky to break a million copies, but has been shifting genres so much it's hard to follow his career. First release was pop/r&b, second was gospel, third was more standard r&b. Kelly won season one, and well, the rest is history. Multimillion seller, several grammies, and out of her AI contract, along with Reuben, Fantasia, and possibly Taylor. Sales aren't horrible, but they're not all gettig the fame the show promises, which, d'uh.
UHm, yeah, she does have it. She's on the AI label, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was the 2nd highest debut single of 2006, and AI is kinda contractually obligated to market her. But she skipped out on the tour, and is getting better airplay than Taylor b/c she is more marketable. And besides, Elliot or Chris should have won
Ok, but I'm sure they do a lot more to market the winner than the runner up, otherwise what's the point of naming a winner?
Fantasia's doing okay on the R&B circuit. Kelly Clarkson is still doing fantastic on the pop charts. Her career is going very well. Carrie Underwood is a bona fide star in country and western. Of this lot, I think that Blake will be guaranteed a legitimate career out of this. I don't know about the rest of them. They're all selling records.
Melinda FTW, although I see her as more of a Broadway act than a pop one. Jordin Sparks and Blake have the most pop appeal. Lakisha, despite being a good singer, has all the personality of chewed gum and not the bubbalicious kind either. Oh, and to add a name to the list of sort of success, let's not forget Jennifer Hudson.
Here's why I don't really like the rest of AI this season: Melinda Doolittle: she needs to dump the "aww shucks" attitude (the girl sang with some big names for crying out loud, she knows she can sing), but worse, hasn't really sang anything modern. She's not gonna have much of a career if she can't break away from the American standards and Adult Contemporary charts. LaKisha Jones: C/W night showed she can't do anything but hit the glory notes. Rewatch her cover of Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take the Wheel" or her cover of "Conga" by Miami Sound Machine. Her lower register is non-existant, she can't do pop, has no personality, and sorry, but if you're not as vers. as Whitney or Chaka, and you wanna be Whitney or Chaka, just stop while you're behind. Plus you shouldn't ignore the advice of Tony Bennett, Lulu, and Diana Ross. They have a lot more experience, and LaKisha basically says "whatever" to them. Blake Lewis: He's good, and I can see him sell, but there's just something about him that's boring. It was like he beatboxed his way onto the show, now he just comes across as a boy-band reject. Now that he's in the top, it's almost like he left his originality at the door. But he is hip and modern, so he gets points there. Phil Stacey: He's just awful. Hopefully he'll be coached into C/W. Chris Richardson: I like something about him, but he really isn't much more than a glorified boy-band singer. His strength is he's more modern than a lot of the other contestants, but he sounds like N*Sync. Jordin Sparks: Should be top two with Blake. She's modern and hip, but needs to grow up ever so slightly. Her biggest strength is that she's not afraid to take chances, but her biggest weakness is that she's already released a couple of CDs! I don't know. Without Sanjaya, there isn't a whole lot to talk about. None of these kids really offer anything different or new like Carrie or Kelly or Chris Daughty or Elliot Yamin or even Taylor Hicks. Plus who is VFTW gonna support now?!? Probably Chris...
Also I must say Sanjaya is one of the first (if any) contestant to have South Asian ancestry surviving so far on the show. That creates some interest in viewers I suppose.
