American Idol is still on and Anoop Desai is still in the running (top 7). The theme was disco week. Anoop Dogg sporting a moustache and pink shirt, reminiscent of Bollywood heroes of days yore (can’t figure out which one Anoop resembles), plays it safe and does a ballady number. Average performance, pitchy in spots. Because of a new rule, 2 people will be eliminated tonight on Idol instead of the customary 1. Will Anoop be one of those sent home? Something tells me Anoop Dogg’s time on Idol is running out, he’s been in the bottom 3 in consecutive weeks, but to his advantage, others may have fared worse.

Anoop Desai is a crooner, plain and simple. He seems at home with the slower ballad style numbers which allow him to stretch his vocal cords and display his repertoire. Anoop goes country and blows the audience and the judges away with his rendition of Elvis/Willie Nelson’s “Always on my mind”.

DialIdol predicts Anoop will make it to the top 10.

As we envisioned, our call centers have done their job. Anoop Desai survived, barely from what we read. [E!]

In their defense, some of our call center workers called 1-866-IDOLS-13 thinking they were voting for Anoop Dogg and instead got pre-occupied talking dirty to “nasty girl” for $3.99 a minute. Wait till their supervisor sees the phone bill. [Number Fiasco] (tip Runa)

So now what? For one, Anoop is in the top 11 contestants. From onsite reports, seems like Anoop Dogg is a fan favorite.

If you’re shocked that Anoop Desai didn’t get the ol’ heave ho on tonight’s American Idol elimination, don’t be. He’s got something on his side: the admiration of young voters (who know how to use a telephone).

“I like him because he seems nice,” said 10-year-old Nathan from Long Beach. Awwww.

We got a golden ticket to tonight’s taping and noticed that out of all the kids with handmade signs for their favorites, nearly half were for frontrunner Adam Lambert (no surprise there) and the other half were for, yep, Anoop. What?

Is Idol looking at a Sanjaya redux? Or is just that younger Americans are unable to resist dashing young desi men?

Other Anoop news of note:
Uncle and aunty Desai a.k.a Anoop’s parents have designed Obama “Hope” ishtyle pins that they proudly wear to Idol tapings.

Anoop’s parents were wearing red and blue pins featuring a photo of Anoop in the style of the famous Shepard Fairey Barack Obama “Hope” campaign posters. The Anoop pin reads: “Anoop Dogg” and proceeds go to a fund for a recently deceased friend of the singer.

Pins are cheap to buy and easy to wear, thereby confirming to our tough desi standards of “sasta and tikao”. The Anoop 09 campaign seems to be picking up steam.

In Michael Jackson week, Anoop Desai took a big risk and went with the (pardon the pun) upbeat “Beat It”. His rendition of “Beat It” was ok, nothing special. Obviously he does not have Wacko’s moves and his voice seemed to lack the intensity at certain times. But the judges came down on him pretty hard.

Randy said he thought “It was very karaoke.”
Simon ripped him to shreds: “It was horrible. It was like a really, really bad impersonation.”

You decide for yourself if Anoop should move on to the next round or not (video below). The video contains snippets of a desi uncle and aunty (Anoop’s parents), some childhood images, shots of Anoop in Ray Bans (yikes) and such.

Will Anoop move to the next round?
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He was among the last selected but it was well worth the suspense. [MTV]

This time, America didn’t vote, the judges did, and the wild-card round will see the return of such favorites as Matt Giraud, Megan Joy Corkrey, Anoop Desai and drama magnet Tatiana Del Toro.

Cowell left “one of the easiest decisions out of the eight” for last: Anoop Desai, whom he called original, likable and talented.

That’s right Anoop’s Doggs, he is back for one more crack at American Idol stardom.