Sanjaya Malakar

American Idol Finalist Regrets Shout Out To Vote For The Worst

VoteForTheWorst.Com has received much of the credit for keeping Sanjaya Malkar in the competition, even though American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe has compared the site to a fly buzzing around a cow. Considering how unpopular the website is with American Idol producers, it was very surprising when one of the American Idol finalists apparently gave a shout out to the founder of Vote For The Worst on one of the American Idol performance shows. After singing “She’s Not There,” Chris Sligh shouted out “Hi Dave” as Ryan Seacrest was giving out his phone number, and Dave is the name of Vote For The Worst’s founder.

When Chris Sligh was specifically asked in a recent media conference call if his shout out of “Hi Dave” was meant for the founder of the Vote For The Worst website, Sligh pleaded the fifth. Sligh said “I don’t know if I should answer that question.”

When Chris Sligh was asked if that website might have been what did him in because they were voting for performers that weren’t as strong as him, Sligh said “I think that people underestimate Sanjaya. I think that Sanjaya is actually a very good vocalist. If you go to AmericanIdol.Com and you download his songs, or even just listen to a preview, he has a good voice. He’s 17 years old. When I was 17 years old, I don’t think that I knew how to sing in a live situation. I think that he gets a bum rap. He’s a very, very sweet kid.”

When asked if his shout out to Dave of Vote for the Worst was just for fun or a strategy to get votes, Chris Sligh said “I think that I’ve shown all along that I joke around about different stuff. I think in retrospect, it was a poor choice because I think that certain people took it as disrespect towards the show. Sometimes with a snarky sense of humor, it can come across like that. I honestly did not mean it as disrespectful towards the show. I was just being stupid and silly, and it ended up not being a good choice.”