American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar was attending a Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles with friends over the weekend when he was booed by the crowd.

The 17 year old was apparently sat with friends enjoying the game, when a camera person spotted him and beamed up onto the big screen. A witness, who was there at the game told Star: �He was just sitting there having a good time with his friends, just like a regular person, and when the Dodger camera noticed him the camera guy ran over and taped him.�

�Sanjaya's face pops up on the big screen right away. At first he smiled, he seemed to like the attention. But when the entire crowd at the stadium started to boo - and it was loud! - his smile faded a bit and his eyes looked sad.�

The contestant has divided the US audience during his time on the show. However he has remained defiant in the face of stern criticism from the judges as well as the audiences (which includes one American Idol fan declaring she would go on hunger strike until Sanjaya left the show).

Sanjaya�s sister Shyamali Malakar recently said her brother is dealing with the criticism well: �He is thin-skinned as far as being empathetic and having concern for friends and family, but he does not worry about criticism. He has no trouble changing his style and crazy hairdo, he does not care what people say. He says, �I am confident.� I believed Simon more (when he was criticizing me) than Sanjaya believes him (now).

However, his defiance may be waning, if his appearance at the baseball game is anything to go by : "It's like he was trying to keep a fake smile on, but you could tell he was crestfallen. He just kept waving and smiling for a few seconds more then his image went off the screen."