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Country helps ‘Idol’ sailor survive

After more than two months of ups and downs with the judges on “American Idol,” Phil Stacey finally found a way to please not only them, but a much more important constituency: Idol Nation, which voted strongly to keep the sailor for another week.

Stacey, a musician third class with the Navy Band in Jacksonville, Fla., claimed his niche in the week’s country music theme, which enabled him to bring out a natural Nashville sound he hadn’t yet been able to showcase on “American Idol.”

But Americans won’t have Sanjaya Malakar to kick around any more.

The 17-year-old national punch line from Federal Way, Wash., whose musical ineptness had heretofore presented no barrier towards his advancing on “Idol,” finally was sent packing Wednesday. When host Ryan Seacrest announced that Malakar was cut in the episode’s final minutes, it looked like a body blow for “Idol’s” contestants, judges and audience members, who sensed that now the games were over, and talent would count again.

“We won’t soon forget you,” Seacrest told Malakar, who appeared genuinely shocked that his following of teeny-boppers and “Idol” saboteurs had forsaken him. He wept as he watched his goodbye video package and then ground out one last warbly rendition of “Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About,” which he certainly has.

Malakar may have cashed his check, but Stacey was buoyed this week by a universally-hailed performance of “Where the Blacktop Ends.”

“Dude, from a producer, man, you gonna have a career in country music, man,” judge Randy Jackson told the sailor, who for the first time in two weeks was not among the episode’s lowest vote-getters.

And “Idol” observers in the press, from the Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan to the Los Angeles Times’ Richard Rushfield, agreed this week that it was Stacey’s strongest outing.

The sailor will sing again on April 24 for the monstrous “Idol Gives Back” two-episode series, which will include a glut of guest performances and celebrity appearances.

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