Is this the night Sanjaya Malakar is actually, well good? You know it, according to his uncle.

"His objective has always been just to get to the Tony Bennett phase," Sanjaya's uncle Steve Recchi said Monday.

Famous crooner Bennett is this week's American Idol guest mentor. And Recchi is banking that now his 17-year-old nephew is going to "kick some serious butt" in terms of his singing.

"I'm not sure what he's doing to do with hair though," Recchi said, adding the extended family is delighted with Sanjaya's success thus far. "I'm proud of the boy. He's becoming a performer right in front of our eyes."

That's one way of putting it, we guess.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.