After American Idol contestants from this past season were through playing for fans in Florida, The Ledger sat down with Sanjaya Malaker. Here’s what the singer had to say:
What are you tired of talking about?
I’m kind of tired of talking about my hair, but I figure it’s inevitable. It’s gonna happen, so it doesn’t really bother me. But it’s just kind of an old subject.
I’ll ask you the one obligatory hair question, and then we can move on. What’s the one hair-care product that you can’t live without?
Water.
Really?
I use hair products if I’m going somewhere nice or something, but for the most part I kind of wet it and let it air-dry. My hair’s really low-maintenance. I’m lucky like that.
You’re turning 18 on Sept. 10. How will you celebrate?
I kind of want to get a tattoo, but I don’t want to get it while I’m on the road because I want to get it from somewhere that’s clean, and I want to be sure that it’s clean, ’cause I’m not about to have some nasty rash on my body.
What would you get it of, and where would you get it?
I was thinking of on my arm, and my Chinese astrology (sign) is a snake and I love snakes, so I’d get a snake and somehow incorporate a treble clef or some kind of musical symbol and possibly somehow incorporate a Virgo, but I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it enough to get it yet.
What was the strangest thing that a fan has sent you?
I think the strangeness comes with what they say in their letters, ’cause there’s a lot of people that don’t necessarily censor themselves in their letters, and it’s kind of interesting to read.
Can you give me an example?
Someone said that when I sing, it’s like hot chocolate with a lot of mini marshmallows.
So is the tattoo an effort to get rid of the mini marshmallow image and move to something a little more mature?
No, I think it’s, I wouldn’t get it somewhere that’s really obvious. I’d get it somewhere that I can hide it very easily. It would be more for myself.
If you were a superhero, what would you want your superpower to be?
Psychic abilities.
Why’s that?
I think that everyone’s psychic, but they just don’t listen, and I’ve kind of gotten to a point where sometimes I can listen to my instinct and be right, and so I like to call myself psychic. … I think it’s a cool concept, and so I think it would be really cool to genuinely, actually be psychic.