Jessica Mendoza

government.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Jessica Mendoza.

It's Monday, February 16th.

We've got a lighter listen for the holiday weekend.

Coming up on the show, Boy Throb's quest to bring Darshan to the U.S.

Boythrob has its roots in a not-so-happy story of rejection that started with Evan Papier.

I sat down with him and the rest of Boythrob last week.

Evan didn't make the cut, so he reached out to another former American Idol hopeful, Anthony Key, on social media.

Anthony had auditioned with a song by Korean boy band BTS.

And he also got rejected.

Anthony, when Evan told you his idea, what was your first thought?

Evan and Anthony started looking for other singers to collaborate with.

And Zachary Sabania kept popping up on their social feeds.

Aren't you in law school, too?

You sound a lot less excited about that.

Zach was on board.

Now, the band just needed a fourth member, a countertenor, to round out the quartet.

Darshan has nearly 140,000 followers on TikTok and more than 800,000 on Instagram.

He's even been in commercials, like this catchy ad for KFC.