Sanjaya Malakar - Glendale, AZ - American Idol Tour

Teen Pop Sensation Sanjaya Malakar in Glendale, AZ

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Torch report from whitevelvet at dazeoffire:

First and foremost I want to apologize in advance for the delay in posting my report. We were actually two hours away from the venue and I had no access to a computer from the end of the concert to the time traveled back home. We didn’t even get back until almost two. But every mile driven was worth it; even every sweat drop that fell from my brow from the intense heat outside was worth it. Okay, so you really didn’t need to know that.

Anyway, let’s rewind back to about five o’clock yesterday afternoon…

We went to a place called Moe’s Southwest Grill for an early dinner. I started to get a little worried inside the packed place because all I was seeing were Jordin Sparks fans. Although, I was right smack in Jordin’s hometown, so I was at a disadvantage there.

After dinner we had about a half hour to get inside the arena before the concert was scheduled to begin. We were smart and parked up in the front in a lot close to the stadium. I had to go back to get my tickets, and we happened to notice some people going in from the back of the arena. That worked out perfectly because I walked right up to the door, handed them the ticket, and was inside.

Our seats were closer to the stage than I thought. The little illustration they give you of the seating chart is a little misleading, and I was expecting to be a little further away from the stage than I actually was. This lifted my spirits up immediately because I knew I had gotten my money’s worth. On the chairs there were little TV Guide magazines that had pictures and information of each of the idols inside. That was a nice little tidbit. When I sat down I looked around the arena because I heard that Jillian had been seen wandering around the stadiums before the show looking for orange. I was wearing a plain orange shirt, and orange flip-flops. I also had my hair up in pigtails with these cute orange ponytails that looked like flowers. I thought they were festive so I wore them. Anyway, I didn’t see Jillian but I looked around the arena and saw a lot of orange in every part of the arena that I could see. So that made me really happy.

I wasn’t surprised when the concert didn’t start right at seven. By the way, did anyone else have this problem at his or her venues? I think they were running behind schedule and didn’t start until twenty minutes after seven. The pop-tarts guy came out and entertained the crowd by having them scream.

He never really came by our section, but I did get a pretty close picture of him…

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Suddenly, the lights dimmed and I immediately heard Blake start beat boxing. They all came out one by one jumping around and singing to the opening number “Let’s Get it Started”. I think I heard Sanjaya doing the “rapping” part in the second verse. Am I right? If it was, I thought he actually did really well! His voice was strong enough to fill the arena, and he had great rhythm. I tried to take some pictures but all of them came out blurry at that point (I apologize I don’t have great pictures; I didn’t have floor seats and I think the lights really tampered with my camera’s picture quality).

Anyway, I got excited when Melinda started singing Proud Mary because I knew Sanjaya was going to come out soon. I whipped out my camera and got ready for his entrance on the stage. Let me tell you guys, I loved him singing this song with Melinda! He had great projection, and his smooth yet husky vocals complimented Melinda’s professional and immaculate tone. I just loved it! And when he ripped the bottom of her skirt off…oh MAN! At that point I felt a little weird that my parents were watching this with me. XD I tried taking pictures of this performance, but they all came out blurry.

I heard the “Thriller” intro and started jumping a little in my seat. I was so excited and jittery; I couldn’t wait to see his solo performance LIVE. I loved that he appeared from the middle platform on the stage. His back was facing the audience as it was moving up and when it stopped, he turned around and did the JUMP. There were lots of cheers when he was coming up on the platform, and even more when he did the jump. I was just so happy to be able to hear him and have everyone in the arena hear him. He CAN sing and this performance solidified the fact that he is an amazing singer/entertainer. Those pelvic thrusts, though…oh man. That was something else. That was…well, you know. LOL! I must say, though, his moonwalk wasn’t as perfect last night as it was when I saw it on YouTube, but it was still pretty darn good. I was very impressed with how well he handled that performance. I loved his little bit afterwards when he ran up and down the stage to have different sections of the stadium scream. It was one of those competitions to see which section could scream the loudest, to get the crowd excited. My sister and I screamed the loudest we could, but unfortunately the floor section ended up winning. XD

The Crilljaya skit was very cute, and what I really liked about it was that we got to hear him sing a little a capella! The skit was with Phil and Sligh. He started singing a very soulful version of “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys; I happened to know the words to it because they WERE in my generation. I wanted to hear more, though! It reminded me of when we were listening to that little clip of him singing the Wonder Years theme song. I love his soulful voice! You can feel the music when he sings, and that’s just something I’ve grown to love about him so much. He did very well with skit, as I’ve noticed some people said he struggled with it a little earlier on. I say he nailed it.

From then on I didn’t see him again until all of the idols came out to sing the last chorus of “You Give Love a Bad Name” with Blake. I actually got a semi-good picture of when he came out…

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Then the intermission came and I just stayed in my seat because I was too excited to get up and walk around. I also tried to fix my camera to make sure I could take SOME decent pictures. It was kind of annoying how they kept playing the same music videos over and over during the intermission.

Anyway, the next part with Sanjaya was the “boy band”. I happened to LOVE both songs that they performed. I thought they all did very nice with the instruments, and it was cute how Sanjaya was playing the tambourine on “Crazy”. I wish he could have sung a verse of “Hey Jude” because I know he could have made it so soulful and crazy. But he played rhythm guitar during the verses and played it well. I play guitar myself so I know when someone’s faking or playing. I just wish I could have heard him more, but it WAS acoustic. Anyway, he did sing over the “Naaaa na na nanana naaaa” with a little run and that was pretty impressive. I got some pictures of the “boy band”, some with him playing tambourine and some with the guitar.

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After that performance the grumpy old man sitting next to me said to his wife, “That was the best part of the whole night. Now we have to sit through the rest of this crap.” I really wanted to lean over to him and say, “If that’s how you really feel, then why did you spend $67 on tickets?” That just didn’t make any sense to me at all.

Anyway, I was disappointed that there wasn’t more of Sanjaya in the second half, but I did enjoy the others. His last appearance before the very end was a trio with Haley and Chris for “Life is a Highway”. I remembered hearing that other venues have had mic problems with his little solo part on this. I could hear him but not as well as I could with his other performances. Of course it’s kind of a fast verse he sings by himself so that could be part of the reason. It was still great to see him up there with the other two, and I did get some pictures…

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Then the part I was dreading the most unfortunately came—The Jordin Show. It was a lot worse than I was expecting. Not only did she have like, five solos, but she also did a lot of talking about personal stuff after each performance—kind of like artists do when they’re at their own concert. I don’t know if Haley did this in her hometown and the other idols that were performing in their hometown, but it honestly felt like it suddenly turned into a different concert. None of us really enjoyed it. Also, didn’t “Livin’ on a Prayer” get cut from the set list? She did end up singing it again; maybe they added it since it was her hometown. There WERE a lot of screams for her but it was expected.

I liked how all of the idols came back out for an encore and sung forty seconds or whatever of their solo. That means I got to see Sanjaya singing “The Way You make me Feel” one more time.

Then the concert was over, and I met up at the top of my section with a security lady that told me to wait there to go into the room to meet the idols. We were then seated and waited about ten minutes. I was feeling jittery again and had butterflies in my stomach. I was so excited! There was quite a bit of people sitting there with me but still not that much considering. It was a nice feeling being able to do something exclusive as this. I looked up and down the rows and I did see a girl that was wearing orange and had a picture of Sanjaya on her shirt. That made me happy.

A guy eventually came over and told us to follow him. He led us into this room that had a bunch of high tables. After I was in there for about ten seconds I realized that the idols were in the room with us. I first noticed Sligh, and then Blake. It was so interesting seeing them right in front of us. I looked everywhere up and down the room, standing up on my toes looking for Sanjaya. I couldn’t see him, though. Someone overheard that I was looking for him and told me he was around. I decided to take the time waiting for Sanjaya to get some pictures with the other idols. I got a picture with Haley because I knew that would make my boyfriend happy. XD After that, I noticed Jillian walking around and I waved at her and she smiled and waved back.

My parents then pointed out that Sanjaya was near where Haley was signing. There were some other girls over near him so I waited patiently. Then it was my turn and I smiled and said hello. He seemed VERY shy and I’m not sure why…but very smiley which I love about him. I didn’t have much time to say anything to him really. I had him sign this picture of him I printed out from the night he sung Bésame Mucho, and during that another girl came up waiting to get his autograph.

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Then my mom took a picture of us. I’ve decided I’m not going to post those pictures because I feel a little uncomfortable with my picture with Sanjaya traveling all around the web and not knowing who’s looking at it. I then said, “Thank you, you were great tonight!” with a big smile and he just gave me that big smile and said, “Thanks” very quietly. Like I said, very shy and I’m not sure why…after being a great big ball of energy earlier. LOL!

After that I ran into Jillian and said hello. She was wearing an orange shirt and was even more gorgeous in person, as everyone else has said. I introduced myself and told her I was the Torch Reporter for Glendale. She asked me what my handle was and I told her. She asked where I lived and I told her how we drove two hours up here from south of Tucson. We talked about Sanjaya and the tour and how surreal this whole experience is for the both of them. We talked about the show a little and how unfair the media was. It was a nice conversation; Jillian is a VERY nice lady, and I can see how Sanjaya is the person he is. I got a picture with her, too. Then my sister came back and said she got a picture with Sanjaya and I said, “Hey, we should try to get a picture with him together!” Jillian said that would be fine and then someone else came up to her and started talking.

My sister Kara wanted to get in the line where Jordin was and I figured I’d go to ‘cause she wanted me to get something signed so she didn’t have as much. That line took forever because there was one guy that had like, 50 shirts he wanted her to sign. Finally the same guy that led us into the room after the show came over and told him he needed to move on. I kept looking over at Sanjaya to make sure he wasn’t leaving anytime soon so I could get back over to him one more time. I saw the girl with the orange shirt over talking to him and smiled. She kept blushing around him and her sister made fun of her for it. XD

After ten minutes of being over in the Jordin line we walked back over to where Sanjaya was and I saw a lady talking closely to him. Then I started to see him start to leave the room. I wasn’t just going to let him go, so I called out to him. XD I had to be kind of loud because there was a lot of loud chatter going on in the room, but I think I was still civil. He heard me and turned around. I smiled at him bashfully and waved; he smiled as he walked over. I told him that I thought it would be really cool if I could get a picture of him with my sister and I, and he was very nice about it. Suddenly he wrapped his arms around both of us and turned towards one person with a camera, but it wasn’t my mom! LOL! So she was looking at our backs. XD She was like, “Um, I’m over hereee!” We all started laughing and turned around with his arms still around us. Like everyone has said, he has a tight embrace. :O He is so much taller than me and he is skinny, but you can feel he’s buff. I hope they’re feeding him on the tour, though! XD

After that I got some more autographs from Lakisha and Melinda, and by that time most of the idols were gone so we decided to get going. I told my parents to hold on for a moment as I walked over and said goodbye and thank you to Jillian.

So that was my experience, and it really was one of the most fun nights of my life, and I thank Lou and Jillian for adding that little bit of whipped cream to the end of an already amazing day.

I was just so happy that Sanjaya came out; apparently Gina didn’t come out at all because her throat was really sore or something. So I got lucky. I’m sorry that it took a while to get this report to you guys, but I hope I delivered. I had so much fun and was in a daze about it the whole two hours back home. Still in a daze…man, I actually MET Sanjaya! I wish I had gotten to talk to him more but they were already falling behind schedule a little and it DID seem a little rushed. But it was nice having the whole meet & greet sort of free flowing. You just approached the idol you wanted to get an autograph/picture for and it worked out pretty nicely that way.

Anyway, thank you all for reading! Whitevelvet signing off…

Just to let you know...where it says "(Insert)" is where I'm going to put in pictures. I use photobucket and it's down right now, so I'll leave that for later.