a night of motown with sanjaya and shyamali

[babybluefanjaya]

This is wonderful!! Congrats Sanjaya & Shyamali!!

Sanjaya's featured on the main page!
http://www.npacf.org/Home.asp

Events Page
http://www.npacf.org/Events.asp



Bernadette Bascom's
A Motown Evening
with Sanjaya & Shyamali Malakar
Benefit Performance for SAS Music Program
Sunday, April 6, 3:00 pm
Adults $30.00
Student/Senior $25.50

Seattle’s soulful Bernadette Bascom will be joined by American Idol's Sanjaya and his sister Shyamali to premiere this exciting new production, A Motown Evening. A cast of special guests including students from the Northshore School District's Student Academy for Success (SAS) Music Project will surely rock the house! Proceeds from this show will benefit the Music Project, which brings professional musicians into the schools to work with students.

This program was originally advertised as "Broadway Meets Motown," however the "Broadway half" of this performance will not be available to perform. All tickets sold for "Broadway Meets Motown" will be honored for "A Motown Evening." Please call the NPACF office at 425.408.7997 if you have any questions or concerns. We apologize for any inconvenience.

__________________________________________________ _________

Also mentioned here http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/132800.asp


[Excerpt]

Now, Sanjaya and his sister, Shyamali, who also auditioned for the show and was frequently seen in the "Idol" audience, are going to be the special guests in a new production, "A Motown Evening," on April 6 at 3 p.m. at the Northshore Performing Arts Center. A cast of special guests including students from the Northshore School District's Student Academy for Success (SAS) Music Project will also perform. Proceeds from this show will benefit the Music Project, which brings professional musicians, such as Bernadette Bascom, into the schools to work with students.

The Northshore Performing Arts Center is at 18125 92nd Ave. N.E. in Bothell, on the edge of the Bothell High School campus.

Tickets are available online through the Northshore Performing Arts Center Foundation or through TicketsWest. Or, charge-by-phone: 800-992-TIXX or stop by the NPACF box office at Mills Music Inc. Bothell store, 10120 Main Street, Bothell, WA.

from dimples at daze of fire.


rickey, can you PLEASE put this along with the book signing up on your blog for everyone to see? thanks!

[Hester]

I am thrilled to hear Sanjaya and Shyamali are doing this. It sounds like a worthwhile project. Jill had said a while back that Sanjaya had some charity gigs lined up, and I think it's a great way for him to get his name out there in a positive way and let people see what he's about.

[sunnygrace]

thats great news, sanjaya said he wants to use his fame to help others ,this is a good chance for people to see sanjaya helping others & hear him sing even if he just sings one song thats still good people will hear that boy can sing VERY WELL !! & keeping his name & face out their is good for his future.and best of all I see sanjaya's heart is still in seattle he's been helping charties close to home.good for them.

[HisOneAndOnly]

Ooooooooooooooooooooooohhhh! :D

Who's going and can somebody video tape a little of it, maybe?!!!? :)

[sunnygrace]

Ooooooooooooooooooooooohhhh! :D

Who's going and can somebody video tape a little of it, maybe?!!!? :)








blackraven is going ,maybe kapua i'm sure they'll try to get video we told them to buy one of those little spycameras & be sneaky to video tape sanjaya's performance :cool:.'
his "hisoneandonly" I dont see you in daze much, miss seeing you there!:)

[HisOneAndOnly]

blackraven is going ,maybe kapua i'm sure they'll try to get video we told them to buy one of those little spycameras & be sneaky to video tape sanjaya's performance
his "hisoneandonly" I dont see you in daze much, miss seeing you there!

So Blackraven is the only "reporter"? :confused:
Well I guess that's okay but I think it's best to have another person---at least it was for me! I had ALOT of people.

Anyhow I hope Kapua can go. :)

I haven't been to Daze out of fear---fear that another sexy photo of Sanjaya may surface. The shirtless one sent me into a shock so bad I couldn't "right-click" for 30 minutes. All I could do is lay there on the floor and try to think pure thoughts. :p;)

[babybluefanjaya]

So Blackraven is the only "reporter"? :confused:
Well I guess that's okay but I think it's best to have another person---at least it was for me! I had ALOT of people.

Anyhow I hope Kapua can go.

I haven't been to Daze out of fear---fear that another sexy photo of Sanjaya may surface. The shirtless one sent me into a shock so bad I couldn't "right-click" for 30 minutes. All I could do is lay there on the floor and try to think pure thoughts. :p;)

oh my yes, that was a great pic. hollygo72 wasn't kidding when she said ROCK HARD ABS after the LA concert!:eek:

[Kapua]

I went! It was outstanding. Unfortunately, I did not bring a camera, but it worked out OK because everyone else did. Here's a snippet of my Daze report:

After lunch, we head over to the Center again and go inside. The rest of the Fanjayas are already there and Jill is with them. We walk over and get acquainted/reacquainted. Jill says "Sanjaya's little brother is over there," and points him out to us. And Dadjaya and his wife Santana are there with Sri. Sri is the cutest little guy you can imagine!!! We had a very large window of opportunity to talk with Famjaya before the show. Then we were ushered in... all of us had great seats. The room was larger than I thought it would be - maybe the size of a large theatre. It was a benefit, so there was a lot of promoting going on. There were dignitaries in the audience - a congressman for one, and a radio DJ for another. Bernadette's performance was wonderful and she wasted no time in introducing Sanjaya.

Oh.My.GOD. Sanjaya hits the stage dressed in a black shirt, black slacks, white jacket with a red handkerchief in the pocket, and red shoes. Sanjaya is definitely a trend-setter, not a trend follower. The Fanjayas went berserk (well, I did, anyway, LOL!) He looked magnificent... His hair was unhighlighted, naturally wavy, full and I wish my hair looked like that just for ONE day of my life. He was ON his game, Fanjayas. On it like white on rice. He came out singing Smokey Robinson's "Ooh, Baby, Baby" like he meant it. Went down on his knees and came back up as gracefully as a gazelle. DAYYYUMMMMN! He blew me away and I know what he is capable of. His performance skills are improving by leaps and bounds. God, I hope you unfortunate folks who were not there have the privilege of seeing this performance - somewhere. Sanjaya commands the stage; he is magnetic, charismatic. When he is onstage, you just cannot look at anyone else...

So then Sanjaya introduces Shyamali and she does a solo. She is drop-dead gorgeous and is wearing a short, fitted, brown lame dress. She looks elegant! As she was performing, I was wondering how she might have placed if she had made the Hollywood 12 on Idol. She's an excellent singer and she works the stage well, too. After her number, she and Sanjaya sang "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" together. What a great song for the two of them! They really look out for each other in "real" life. As they were performing, I was thinking how well they compliment each other. The two of them onstage together is double dynamite!
After Sanjaya and Shaymali's number, Bernadette comes back out in a short red satin dress. (Her first dress was a sequined yellow chiffon gown, very Vegas.) You can tell she knows her way around the business. After her number, she talks about the girls who will be up next. Then there was a short intermission. I ran out and got a small water, then went right back in. The show starts and the girls come out all in long gowns of different colors and styles and long, white, satin gloves. Very retro, nice presentation. The girls did a medley of Diana Ross songs (sure wish I would have taken notes.) One was Stop in the Name of Love. At the end, Bernadette comes back out in a strapless lavender dress (my fave) with a ruffled, slit skirt. She looked great! She joined the girls for "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". Then she did two Gladys Knight songs, "Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye)" and "Midnight Train to Georgia." Gladys would have been proud... OMG... and then Sanjaya came out and sang and DANCED with one of the girls, Olivia... Again, TOP of his game. He was slick, polished. He twirled her under his arm... SMOOTH... confident, superb.

At some point before the finale, they ask for donations and send Sanjaya out into the crowd to collect the cash and checks. Whoever donates $250 gets to go onstage and sing with Sanjaya. That's how our Amanda got her opportunity. Our energetic man was raking in the $$$$$. I hope they raised a bunch of money for the kids.

The finale was Stevie Wonder's "Love's in Need of Love Today." Bernadette said that Sanjaya personally picked this song out:

Love's in need of love today
Don't delay
Send yours in right away
Hate's goin' round
Breaking many hearts
Stop it, please
Before it's gone too far

The show ended and we went up the stairs and ran into Jill. Still highly energized, I told Jill that this could/should be Sanjaya and Shyamali's theme song.

[blackraven]

An excerpt from my report:



I was mesmerized by the entire performance. Of course he LOOKED fabulous. The contrast of his dark hair and skin against the white jacket...you can't get anymore RICCO SUAV-EY than that! The look reminded me somewhat of his TWYMMF outfit from the tour, except that the slacks were dark instead of the trademark red. (I'm wondering if this was the same jacket, or one of the jackets, from the tour? Hmmmm...guess I'd have to go dig out some of the tour pics and do an inspection to say for sure) but he was certainly very polished, elegant and put together. And you've all seen the pics by now, so I don't have to tell you how handsome and fantastic he looked!

Of course, I do believe all eyes were on those bright red Pumas! They definitely...er, commanded attention.

The performance was incredible. He commanded the stage from the moment he took it. I have to say, I was absolutely blown away by his vocals, and this is coming from someone who, of course, has supported him from Day 1 and ALWAYS believed in his talent, but I was amazed by how strong and powerful his voice actually is, especially in a setting that up-close and personal. I don't think even the Idol tour (as great as he was then) did him as much justice as this show last Sunday. I couldn't help wondering if some of those "they purposely turned down his mic on AI" theories were true, because when he comes through loud and clear, as he did on this performance, there is not one person on God's green earth who would DARE say, "This kid can't sing." Not only can he sing darn well, he is a powerhouse. I'm sure, of course, some of that is the result of all the intense vocal training paying off, but whatever the case, he was amazing.

As I said, it was a very supportive crowd but I could sense that there was a palpable reacton of "Whoa!" going through that room. You could feel it like an electric current; let's just say I think there were some very pleasantly stunned reactions from some people who may not have been expecting much other than some big hair and an entertaining spectacle from the "class clown" of AI. Well, of course Sanjaya is ALWAYS entertaining; we know that. In fact, I daresay, we expect it. But Sanjaya literally blew this crowd away on the strength of his vocals alone...no gimmicks, no shenanigans; just a straight-up classy performance that went above and beyond doing Smokey proud.

Then Sanjaya introduced "my beautiful sister" and out came Shyamali. She wore a short, brown sequined dress. I thought of Dustin Hoffman's line from Rain Man..."she looked sparkly. Very, very sparkly." And you know what? I HAVE to say this...forget Sanjaya's hair for a moment. Let's talk Shyamali. I am sooooo envious. That girl has the greatest hair of anyone I've ever seen. No kidding. She could be the Farrah Fawcett of the 2000's!

It was magic watching them perform together. I couldn't help but think back to the first time I ever saw them together, the night their audition was broadcast on AI. It still blows my mind to think what an amazing journey it has been, from that simple beginning to the moment that I was sitting in my chair on Sunday evening watching this performance. Sometimes I am still pinching myself to make sure it's all real, and not just a wild and crazy dream I've had.

The song Sanjaya and Shyamali sang together was Ain't No Mountain High Enough. I will admit (and I've been quite vocal on this in the past) this song was one of a couple of choices Sanjaya made while on AI that I actually disagreed with at the time, thinking it was not the best song choice for him. But on this duet with Shyamali, I understood why he felt so strongly at the time about this selection; minus the nerves and fear of being ripped to shreds by Simon, he did a fantastic job; they both sounded great.

Next came Shyamali's solo, which was Ain't Nobody. I sensed she was a little nervous once Sanjaya had left and she was alone onstage, but she did a fanatastic job on the song. Her voice has this incredibly pure tone; if this makes sense, her tone is like silk to Sanjaya's satan. (Okay, that was corny...I'll have to do better ). But you get the idea.

After their segment, Bernadette came back out for another song. Of course, we hoped that would not be the end of Sanjaya and Shyamali's part in the show, but it was hard to second-guess, since the program listed the songs but had oh-so-cleverly failed to note who would be singing what (keep 'em guessing, I'm assuming, was the motto! ). So there was just no way to know if that was the last we'd see, or if more was still to come.

Well, as it turned out, not only was there more to come, but the best was yet to be!

[sunflower]

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4761/motown9zo7.jpg

[sunflower]

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5458/motown7mq4.jpg


http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5207/motown6np0.jpg

[Hester]

These pix are great! I'm so proud of Sanjaya. Wish I could have gone!

Jill was in chat on Daze the other night and said that she'll have a video soon and will post snippets. Also someone is checking with the organizers to see if we can purchase copies!