{"id":6460,"date":"2011-03-28T01:24:37","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T06:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=6460"},"modified":"2011-03-29T10:41:50","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T15:41:50","slug":"sanjaya_returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/28\/sanjaya_returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanjaya returns to the stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good news, American Idol fans! Sanjaya Malakar, Sepia Mutiny’s all<\/a>–time<\/a> favorite<\/a> contestant<\/a>, is back.\nSanjaya, a 2007 Idol finalist, is currently starring in the off-Broadway musical Freckleface Strawberry<\/a>. Based on actress Julianne Moore’s children’s book of the same name<\/a>, the play follows the title character and her friends as she learns how to accept her freckles and individuality. Sanjaya plays Danny, a friendly athlete who is one of Freckleface’s closest friends.<\/p>\n\n

“This is the first time I’ve done professional theater,” said Sanjaya when we recently spoke over the phone. “I love the challenge of really taking on a character.”<\/p>\n\n

\"FrecklefaceStrawberry.jpg\"<\/p>\n\n

Noting that the play had a very positive message for children, he said, “I think the main thing is that you are who you are. [The play is] about finding out what you have and working on that and bringing that to the world.”<\/p>\n\n

In addition to his rehearsal and performance schedule, Sanjaya has also been working on his next album, a follow-up to his debut Dancing to the Music in My Head<\/em><\/a>. “I write most of my own songs, though I do have some songwriters come in,” he said. “It’s a story, very emotional, very real, with definitely an R&B vocal.”<\/p>\n\n

Additionally, some of the new material has been influenced by traditional South Asian music. “My father was a classical Indian musician and lived in an ashram growing up,” said Sanjaya. “I grew up going to the temple every Sunday.”<\/p>\n\n

“[Indian classical music] is different because it is sung for a different reason. When you sing a raga and you are singing to God, it’s different from singing a normal pop song. It’s the same for Gospel music,” he noted.<\/p>\n\n

Of course I also had to get his thoughts on the current season of American Idol and the new judges. “I think it’s great, it’s a great panel to get feedback from,” he said of stars Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and longtime judge Randy Jackson. “When I was on, you had the performer [Paula Abdul], the producer [Jackson] and the executive [Simon Cowell]. It’s a little bit more performance heavy now.”<\/p>\n\n

Idol also recently lowered its eligibility age to 15. Sanjaya, who was 17 when he competed on the show, said that a strong support is key for younger contestants. “As a 17-year-old, the emotional stuff you go through, I think it’s hard.”<\/p>\n\n

“Music and performing is personal, you are putting yourself out there at a young age. The good ones will last though.”<\/p>\n\n

Visit the official Freckleface Strawberry website<\/em><\/a> to purchase tickets and for more information. You can catch Sanjaya through April 23.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good news, American Idol fans! Sanjaya Malakar, Sepia Mutiny’s all–time favorite contestant, is back. Sanjaya, a 2007 Idol finalist, is currently starring in the off-Broadway musical Freckleface Strawberry. Based on actress Julianne Moore’s children’s book of the same name, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6460"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}