A Folklorist On American Idol!

One of the contestants tonight on Idol was a student in a folklore Master's program! His name is Anoop Desai, and he is from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he sings in one of the a cappella groups that inundates campuses. He looked like a gradauate student in folklore - khaki shorts and an untucked shirt, one of the judges called him a 'geek.'

Folklorist representing on Idol! And he wrote his senior thesis on southern BBQ.

He made it through to the next round, so we will - as Randy Jackson says, "See him in Hollywood!"

Join the Anoop fanclub on facebook.

A blurb about his appearance from Newsdays liveblogging of Idol:

More time to fill, so they show some clips of people singing badly. Masters student Anoop Desai shows up in shorts, Simon butchers his first name on purpose. Interesting guy, studies Southern folklore. I like his voice, he's totally unlike anyone we've seen yet this season. None of the judges expected his soulfulness, Anoop-dog is in the house says Randy. Simon says he looks a bit geeky, like out of a meeting with Bill Gates. They all like the voice though, so he and his big smile are through. I like him, a lot; curious to see if he wants this as much as some of the others who don't have fallback careers.


Could not find any videos of his appearance yet, but I did find this guy's: