American Idol – Anoop Desai
Its becoming a trend.
Last year it was Sanjaya Malakar, known more for his hairdos than his singing. This year it is Anoop ‘Noop Dogg’ Desai. Another desi guy in the running to be American Idol.
Anoop almost didn’t make it. He was not in the final 12 selected for the Idol finals, but scraped through as a wild card, thanks to tremendous public support. Maybe the show organizers realize the importance of the Indian community which pretty much carried Sanjaya through to the last stages of the contest. There’s a lot of viewership (and ad revenue) there!
This was the performance that got Anoop through to the final round. The ones who don’t believe that saying about looks being deceptive, check out this guy. He looks like a nerd, but that voice! Wow.
Here’s a video from one of his earlier performance with the group ‘Clef Hangers’ at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hil. Check out the glasses, and check out the voice.
Now, if only there was some way to combine Sanjaya’s antics, and Anoop’s singing talent, we could have our very own Indian-American Idol!
Talking of Sanjaya, here’s a video from his appearance on David Letterman. Not bad going for a seventeen year old kid with fancy hair.
Welcome back to Amreekandesi! Subscribe to our RSS feed and get regular updates in your favorite feed reader.
Related posts:
March 8th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I had written about Noop Dawg when he first auditioned and one of his relatives or friend questioned me on why I was making fun of his attire. All said, Anoop does sing well and gazillion times better than Malakar.
March 8th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
@Solilo – Thats true..he doesn’t quite paint a very glamorous picture in those shorts. But he sure makes up with his singing!
March 8th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
[...] Read the original post: American Idol – Anoop Desai [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Sure, ANoop sings better than Sanjay..(even looks better than him)but why does he have to folllow those desi antics…Anoop dogg..they have to emulate sumone
March 9th, 2009 at 12:26 am
@Poonam – I guess these are just marketing gimmicks. Frankly i think Noop Dogg goes nicely.
On that note, I read this post recently arguing that this nickname was related to Slumdog and that now all Indians are going to be called dogs! Uff!
March 9th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Gotta watch this on youtube
March 9th, 2009 at 7:09 am
thanks for sharing
I Love these reality shows… and an Indian making it on American Idol… big news for me 
March 9th, 2009 at 8:39 am
Hmmm… Not bad… the kid sings well… I’m impressed!
March 9th, 2009 at 9:56 am
@Chirag – Youtube has a ton of videos from American Idol that you will like if you liked this!
@Dinu – This is happening quite often these days…Indians making it big on reality shows. Nobody’s won anything big yet, so sometimes you feel like maybe these are just tokens to involve the Indian community!
@Nikhil – As am i. Welcome to the club!
March 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I have to watch this..:D
havent as yet..
March 9th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
There is lot of noise about the Slumdog influence here..wonder whats the truth !
March 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I am hooked to the ‘She Will be Loved’. Its an awesome song, and he does full justice to it. Not to be missed.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
@Indyeah – You are missing some great music!
@Kavi – I have come across some of that noise…but i dont think there’s anything there. Noop Dogg is a play on the very famous rapper Snoop Dogg.
March 10th, 2009 at 2:21 am
American Idol is a good pass time
specially the removed videos.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
heh, Every show needs its own entertainer
Anoop doesn’t sound bad at all!
btw, does anyone else think he looks like a really older version of AB jr? Also, there’s this other guy in hindi moviedom that I can’t place a name to…
March 11th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Desi Movies have always been successful in capturing the hearts of true movie fans not only in India but even across the World,and if it goes on the future seems to be bright.
March 12th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
I have seen the video of his first audition and he was good. When I first saw him, I thought that he can never make it. Well, he is good!
I don’t follow AI much but I saw the finals last year and he certainly is not in the same league but sometimes personality takes you places.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
@Rads – hmm…now that you mention this, maybe there is a little similarity there!
@Amit – He sure is good. And even though i find him pretty great, i too am not sure if he is in the same league as the other contestants.
If not personality, the Indian following will definitely take him places on this contest
March 15th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Although Malakar has got a lot of negative publicity, I was amazed to see how popular he still is.
In Ocotber 2008, I was at the Cirque du Solelil show (jungle fantasy) and Malakar was sitting in the same row.
I was surprised at half time when four young kids (barely in teens) rushed to be photographed with him.
Anoop is a far better singer. I wish him Good Luck
March 15th, 2009 at 1:48 am
@Saachi – Welcome to Amreekandesi!
Just out of curiosity, was Malakar’s Mohawk disrupting the view of the ten rows behind him?
He may have been criticized a lot, but he got where he did only because of his popularity and support. Like they say there is no bad publicity! He ended up being a celebrity signing away autographs
Anoop is a great singer. I too hope he does well in the contest.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Correction: Sanjaya was in American Idol Last to last year
March 20th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I think ANoop is a pretty good singer. He doesn’t look like it, but he is pretty good
March 20th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Didn’t watch Sanjaya’s .. but cheer this desi to the end ..
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Wish one of the kids from Penn Masala would try out. Oh wait, they’re too busy going to Wharton.
http://phillygrrl.com/2009/03/22/penn-masala-spring-concert-3-28/
March 24th, 2009 at 8:04 am
@Phillygrrl – Welcome to Amreekandesi!
Yea, the Penn Masala kids would probably do well on Idol.
April 6th, 2009 at 5:47 am
Thanks for sharing this. As a Indian i feel happy on seeing such functions with the Indian as the hero of the day…
June 4th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
ANoop is a good singer…
Though he’s weird but he got the voice.
It’s a Big WOW for me….
How about Susan?
What do you think about her performance..?
July 21st, 2009 at 9:24 am
I live outside US and I’m one of Anoop’s fans. And looks he has solid, dedicaterd fans.
Follow Anoop Desai updates on AI Tour (news/pics/video) in this Forum: http://anooptroop.proboards.com
October 13th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
is back