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Ricco Responds!
Fantasia's older brother, Ricco Barrino, woke up from his late night recording session and gave me a call this afternoon. I had to put down my tuna sandwich to get to the bottom of exactly what happened during his "American Idol" audition in Dallas and why it was never shown last night. Unfortunately, I'm still a little confused about the whole 'Fantasia making a phone call' part of this (more on that in a second) from my last post but I'll at least give Ricco the chance to try and explain what happened.
First of all, you have to know that even though Simon Cowell called his singing "dreadful" and Nigel Lythgoe said talent skipped over him in the family, Ricco is a backup singer for his sister, a song writer for EMI and an artist who has put out some singles and is working on his album.
As for why he even auditioned, Ricco says he was pushed into it.
"I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do in my heart. It was basically something that I was talked into for some good exposure. I really wasn't looking to try and make it to the top."
Ricco admits things went bad in front of Randy, Simon and Paula because he knew he didn't want to continue with the show, but swears that when he met with the producers it was a different story.
"The biggest obstacle is getting through Nigel and Ken [Warwick]. Those guys to me matter the most out of the whole situation. From what they seen when I came in with my A game they look at me and said 'we gotta have you.' So, that's love. Basically my accomplishment ended with them. After that I lost my drive. I didn't care to do it anymore."
Seems a bit conflicting since both Nigel and Ken told me they didn't think he was talented. Ricco's response to those comments was,
"It's television. You gotta have an edge. It's different strokes for different folks. Everybody has got their own taste and preference."
Now back to this whole Fantasia making a phone call to the "Idol" folks to get Ricco's audition pulled from last night show - this morning I was told she had. Then when I asked Ricco and his publicist they backtracked a little and said she didn't make a phone call. Then they came back and said she had spoken to her management (who are all part of the "Idol" machine).
"I didn't want it to affect my career because what I'm doing now I take very seriously. Right now I'm in a position where the good man, the lord is blessing me to be able to shake hands with people that most people don't shake hands with."
Both Ricco and his publicist believe that whatever Fantasia did worked. Ricco's rep Linda told me, "The producers of the show realize that he is a fantastic talent and I think they respected and they see that he is a true artist and not just an aspiring wannabe, next 'American Idol' they see that he truly has talent."
I still stick with my theory that Fantasia has no pull over what Nigel and Ken want to do. Next time I see them, I'll be sure and ask.
Thanks for the update Laura!
Actually, I think Fantasia has a huge amount of pull after the millions of dollars she brought in to "The Color Purple", as well as from her double platinum debut, her gold sophomore CD (the two CD's combining for 7 grammy nominations), best selling book and tv-movie, besides the role she almost got in Dreamgirls which Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar for. Making Fantasia out to be less successful than she is is getting old. Shows bias on the author's part and much of the caucasian race (I'm also white) rather than any sort of fact.