Wow this is tremendous! The whole world has been "Sanjayad"! Here are some of the headlines circulating the world over:

Times of India reported:

Malakar mystery deepens: Can’t sing, but is on song
by Chidanand Rajghatta

Half the country hates him, half love him. Teenage girls swoon over him; the paparazzi are ripping him apart. His hairstyle is the talk of the country; his voice is the laughing stock.

No, we are not talking here of Sehwag, Yuvraj, Dhoni or Tendulkar.

The subject of national attention in the US is Sanjaya Malakar, a 17-year old Indian-American kid who seems to have riled and roused the country with his performance in Fox’s hit show American Idol. On Wednesday, Malakar survived yet another round on the popular show that was whittled down to nine contestants (from millions who audition for it) amid national indignation and celebration, depending on which camp you belong to.

The consensus in the entertainment industry and among the cognoscenti is that Malakar can’t sing for nuts. But he keeps surviving round after round while other more talented contestants get voted off by in nationwide viewer polls. Conspiracy theories for this Malakar mystery range from en masse voting from call centre workers in India to Indian-American vote stuffing in US.

Another explanation is that a website called votefortheworst.com is rallying support for Malakar simply to undermine American Idol, seen askitschy, over-hyped entertainment.

The popular radio shock-jock Howard Stern has endorsed the vote-for-the-worst tactic. One of the show’s hosts Simon Cowell has threatened to quit if Sanjaya wins the competition, which will end in May. But Sanjaya keeps rolling week after week, much to everyone’s surprise, including his own.

One possible explanation came during last week’s episode, which zoomed on a 13-year-old girl with braces who wept buckets of tears as Sanjaya sang.

The Associated Press reported:

Sanjaya may be a false Idol, but don’t tell that to his fans
By Melanthia Mitchell

Flowing hair and a precious smile have their rewards.

Especially if you’re Sanjaya Malakar, who is considered one of the weakest performers on “American Idol” but has a fan base that has helped him survive multiple rounds of viewer elimination — including Wednesday night’s.

In the online community and in Malakar’s home state of Washington, the croaking crooner seems to have a loyal following of friends, family and fanatics who would like nothing better than to see him achieve the ultimate “Idol” success and be the last singer standing in May.

“I think he has a career ahead of him, whether he wins or not,” said Patrinell Wright, director of the Total Experience Gospel Choir, who has known Malakar for five years.

Wright, who calls in weekly to vote for Malakar, acknowledges that much of his support likely comes from an online community of young fans enthralled with his chameleon hairdos and flashing grin.

“He’s very handsome. That’s most of it,” she said. “He’s a teenager, and young girls and guys really like him.”

In recent weeks, the lanky teen from Federal Way has taken some hard hits from the public and all three judges on the Fox show. Simon Cowell went so far as to say if Malakar wins, he’ll quit.

After Wednesday night, it’s looking worse for Cowell.

Chris Sligh, the curly-haired jokester who once claimed he was “bringing chubby back,” was bounced in viewer voting. That winnowed the list of “Idol” wannabes to nine, including Malakar. Haley Scarnato and Phil Stacey had the next-lowest vote tallies Wednesday.

In Seattle, where Malakar sang with the Total Experience Gospel Choir, Wright and Malakar’s family say the young man is holding back.

“He sings from the heart, and people who hear him can feel that heart and they become, many times, very emotional,” said Wright, who has directed Malakar in the choir for at least three years.

“He has not shown America what he can do. That’s what I said to him a couple days ago. ‘I want you to give them the showmanship. I want you to give them Sanjaya’s heart,’ ” she said.

Malakar has held up remarkably well for someone “as young and as inexperienced as he is,” says his aunt, Christi Recchi of Seattle.

Recchi introduced Malakar to Wright’s choir; she says his musical personality blossomed there. But she agrees her nephew hasn’t been at his best.

For now his success continues with fans’ assistance, as well as backhanded help from the likes of Howard Stern and groups like votefortheworst.com, which since 2004 has vowed to support any contestant that producers would like to see cut from the show.

Malakar’s singing may pale in comparison with other finalists, but his ability to work the crowd may pull him through.

“I think at this point in his career, he’s the sort of classic case of desire for fame outstripping ability,” said Jasen Emmons, director of curatorial affairs at Seattle’s Experience Music Project.

“At age 17, he’s not going to be able to stand there and belt out a ballad. But his charm might keep him in the fight.”

USA Today reported:

American Idol to End … if Sanjaya Malakar Wins
by Edna Gundersen

The question tantalizes and terrorizes American Idol viewers: What if Sanjaya Malakar wins?

The toothy teen with the big hair — crafted into a fauxhawk Tuesday night — and minimal voice sailed into the top 10 last week, ensuring a spot on this summer’s Idol tour. If he skates through tonight’s elimination round (Fox, 9 ET/PT), the fuss over his confounding staying power is bound to intensify.

In the short run, his presence makes for spirited debate, but if Sanjaya is standing in the winner’s circle, “it would destroy credibility the show’s built up in the past five seasons,” music consultant Tom Vickers says. “Instead of 30 million viewers a week, it might draw 20 million.”

A Sanjaya victory “will ruin the show,” says fan Catherine Schloss of Folsom, Calif. “If he wins, I really don’t think American Idol will be back.”

Says Bryce Smart of Seattle, “The franchise would be cheapened greatly, perhaps beyond repair.” He says Idol’s integrity would be shattered if Sanjaya wins or even outlasts a superior talent such as LaKisha Jones.

Radio host Howard Stern and votefortheworst.com have rallied Sanjaya support, but they “have very little influence when you’re talking about 30 million votes,” says Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. “People with talent have always won it. We’ve lost really good people a little too early, and sometimes the Sanjayas, Chicken Littles and John Stevens have lasted a little longer perhaps.”

An upset isn’t unprecedented. The Eurovision song contest that launched ABBA globally in 1974 shocked many when voters gave the 2006 prize to Finnish horror metal group Lordi.

So, could Malakar record a marketable album? Possibly, says USA TODAY’s Idol coach Don Waller, suggesting the enlistment of Swedish pop maestro Max Martin, who propelled ‘N Sync and Britney Spears.

“I see Sanjaya as a Leif Garrett or Shaun Cassidy. He can talk-sing light ballads and uptempo kid-friendly pop. Since looks are a big part of the sales job, they’ve got to take pages out of bubblegum. He has to do wistful puppy love stuff, no double entendres. Crotch-grabbing is a disconnect.

“I’m sure (BMG chief) Clive Davis can throw an army of producers at the kid. The guy can’t sing? What’s new? This archetype keeps coming back.”

Reuters reported:

Sanjaya’s ‘American Idol’ run — is it credible?

He’s the weakest singer with the best hair and the cutest smile. He is mocked by late-night TV comedians and has become the target of anti-“American Idol” forces.

But Sanjaya Malakar has lived to see another round of “American Idol,” prompting a passionate debate over whether the nation’s most watched TV show has lost its credibility or unwittingly created another media superstar.

“Will Sanjaya kill ‘American Idol’?” asked one fan in a posting on the www.idol-mania.com Web site on Thursday.

Malakar, 17, easily advanced into the ranks of nine finalists competing in the sixth installment of the Fox network singing contest on Wednesday after becoming one of the most-talked about people on US television.

During the past three weeks, Malakar has moved a 13 year-old girl to tears on national television, inspired a one-woman hunger strike, smiled through vicious comments from “Idol” judges and delivered almost as many different hair-dos as off-key notes.

Far from being voted off the show by members of the public, whose preferences are registered by telephone and text messages to eliminate one contestant each week, Malakar appears to be going from strength to strength.

Even acerbic British judge Simon Cowell, who quipped last month that he would quit if Malakar won the competition, appears to have succumbed.

“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,” Cowell said after Malakar’s startling mohawk hairdo overshadowed another less-than-stellar singing performance on Tuesday.

Maverick Web site www.votefortheworst.com (VFTW) claims much of the credit for “saving” Malakar on what it calls “America’s largest karaoke contest.”

The Web site’s mission, picked up and promoted by radio shock jock Howard Stern, is to “have fun with ‘American Idol’ and embrace its suckiness” by encouraging people to vote en masse for the worst contestants.

But popular culture expert Robert Thompson said he doubted Stern’s audience had the patience to negotiate the famously busy signals on “Idol” phone lines.

“Sanjaya is a really cute kid with a unique look and an incredibly dreamy smile that can get thirty 12-year old girls to vote a million times apiece on speed dial,” said Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Center for the Study of Popular Television.

“I don’t think he injures its credibility at all. ‘American Idol’ has never been about a scientific way of producing the very best vocalist of our time. It has been a silly, fun, really well-produced talent competition, and you never quite know what’s going to happen,” Thompson said.

Some diehard “Idol” fans, who have seen past contestants find success at the Grammys, the Oscars and the Country Music Awards, were not so convinced.

“Faithful watchers will stop watching if Sanjaya is not sent home. The whole purpose of this show is being undermined by a lot of people who have lost sight of (or more likely couldn’t care less about) the ultimate goal. … for the BEST SINGER to win!!!!,” wrote one fan who used the name Kshenk on the www.americanidol.com message board.