Elegant Whirlwind
         What happens when you cross five girlfriends with nothing else to do?  You have a group… OK, not the usual story, but it did happen for some of them.  Elegance—Lauralee Deverson, 22; Laura Tramcoli, 23; Veronica Passaro, 22; Elizabeth Whorston, 22; Bianca Boratio, 20—have already climbed the charts with their debut self-titled album, has had three number one singles, and have just earned two Grammys.  One can say this could be a fantasy land for these girls, but not one person can say that they haven’t earned their keep, despite critics who say they’re too “white” for R & B, and too connected because of their affiliation with the Backstreet Boys.  They tell their whole story… the good, the bad and the ugly… and what its really like to balance being a superstar and being in a relationship with the biggest pop group since the Beatles.
          It started gradually when Deverson met Backstreet Boy Alex “AJ” McLean while she was in Florida for an internship.  “I met him through his grandmother, who was a good friend of my grandmother’s.  I was in Florida for a week, didn’t know anyone, when my grandmother gave me her number.  I gave her a call and she invited me over.  Alex happened to walk in to visit.  I didn’t know who the hell he was, which group he was in, or what he did.  All I knew was that he was fine and I wanted to get to know him better.”
          And she did.  AJ asked her out that day, and they have been together ever since.  “You know when someone loves you for who you are, not what you do.  I never cared what Alex did.  Whether he was a singer selling millions of albums, or the fry guy at McDonalds, he treats me like a lady.  He never raised a hand towards me, never put me down.  To me, that’s all I ever asked for.”
          Lauralee had been brought into the Backstreet enterprise at first a secret.  Their former manager, Lou Pearlman, with whom Backstreet separated with in 1998, told Lauralee that she had to keep the relationship a secret.  “It was real hard.  Going out to clubs, restaurants, we had to stay in the back.  We couldn’t show any signs of affection in public.  Everything that we did we had to watch over our shoulders every second for fear someone would see us.”
          Lauralee heaved a sigh.  “Sometimes I thought it wasn’t worth it.  I was sick of the fact that I couldn’t be like other girls with their boyfriends.  I wanted to go to a movie and make out with him, hold his hand when we took a walk.  I was sick of it after a while, and Alex knew it.  We constantly talked about it, and kept reassuring me that Lou knew what he was doing.”
          Two months later, her best friends, Laura and Veronica came to see Deverson for a visit.  “Oh God, the only details I’ll reveal of that night we met them was that a lot of tequila was passed around,” Laura grins sheepishly.  “Veronica and I knew who they were when we first met them, but we weren’t like fans or anything.  We just wanted to meet Alex, and maybe get a tan.  All I know is I saw Kevin and I was floored.  He was just gorgeous.”
          “Same for me,” Passaro agrees.  “I’ve always had a thing for Latin guys, and Howie fit the bill perfectly.  He had the look and the moves that could charm anyone, especially me.”
          Whorston met Brian Littrell after she had gone to see them at a concert at Deverson’s invitation.  “I had met Brian once before, when I stopped by Lau’s house to drop off something.  I thought he was cute, but I was really shy about talking to him.  When I saw him a couple of months later, he asked me out for lunch, we hit it off, and then asked me to spend a week on tour with him.”
           Boratio, the youngest of the group, met Nick Carter during a basketball game.  “Lauralee called me up, because someone wanted to play a game, and I never turn down a chance to play basketball, so I went.  But I had no idea who I was going to play.  I wound up mopping the floor with him, and he took me out.”
           The girls then lived the life of being a superstar’s girlfriend.  “Basically it was waiting all the time,” recalls Passaro.  “You waited at the hotel, the studio, the dressing room.  Even by the phone, waiting for an hour and then finally getting the call because they were held up.  It was a boring process.”
           It was that boredom that caused a group to be born.  Staying in their rooms while Backstreet was at a press gala, the girls decided to go to a karoake bar to have a fun night out.  They performed a song, and people gave them a standing ovation.  “That’s when we decided to practice singing.  It was something to do while they were busy.  We sang in green rooms, hotel rooms, anywhere we were stuck.  It was something to pass the time,” Whorston recalls.  “It was the studio that we got discovered by Riley and got the ball rolling.”
           Riley Thomas, their manager representing The Firm, in which Backstreet is also affiliated, overheard the girls singing while he was walking past.  He gave the girls his card and offered them a chance to get some connections.  He wound up playing a tape he made in his office for Tommy Mottola, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, and Tommy automatically wanted the girls to record a demo.
           “We found out at AJ and Nick’s birthday party that Tommy was interested, so we made an appointment to record a demo for him.”
           It was another birthday celebration, Lauralee’s 21st, that the girls found out that Sony offered them a record deal.  “That was the best moment of my life,” Lauralee smiled recalling the incident.  But that’s when the secrets kicked in.  Thomas wanted to keep the girls a secret, thinking that the girls wouldn’t get any airplay knowing that they were white and singing R & B, as well as their relationships.  “He didn’t want us to be the next Spice Girls, something made up.  So we agreed to do it,” Bianca stated.
           The girls recorded their album in hiding as well as in record time.  “We recorded the album in 3 months, not a lot of time for relaxation.  We spent 10 hours a day in the studio, not revealing to anyone what we were doing.  It was trying on all of us, especially not telling our families or our boyfriends what we were doing.  It put a strain on all of us, especially our relationships.  There wasn’t a day one of us walked in with red eyes from crying over a fight we had on the phone,” Deverson sighs.
           In June, the girls made their first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey show, where Backstreet was doing an interview for the talk show diva.  Needless to say not only was Backstreet shocked, but the whole nation.  They were expecting to see 5 black girls, but when they realized it was in fact them, mouths all over the nation dropped as well as Backstreet’s.
           “All I saw was their mouths open during the whole performance,” Elizabeth recalls.  “I wanted to laugh my ass off; it was hard even concentrating on the song seeing Brian’s face like that.”
           At that point, the girls had no clue about the phenomenon that they were about to face.

All-American Girl?

          Lauralee put the key in her door of her Orlando house and let herself inside, and I followed.  “Want something to eat?” she asks.
           We settle down into the kitchen as she grabs a McDonald’s bag and settles herself down.  “I haven’t eaten a thing in hours!  Hopefully Alex won’t miss this.”
           Lauralee Deverson, 22, has been the unofficial leader of Elegance, despite that she’s not the oldest.  But she was the first for a lot of things: first to get a boyfriend, first to come up with the idea of to sing, and set up the rest of the girls.  “I’m not usually a leader.  The girls just come to me with stuff.  I always have flashes of ideas, be it music or some other scheme that pops out of my head.  Sometimes the girls just look at me and give this look that’s just ‘you’re out of your friggin’ mind.’”
           Although she has been compared to the likes of Mariah Carey, with a chesty voice and an eight-octave range, she has no plans for a solo career at this point.  “Record companies have come up to me and asked me if I was interested, but I turn them down.  I want to do an album sometime in the future, but I’m happy where I am now.”
           You should be, I say, and she gives a smirk.  “Maybe someday, when I’m not too busy, but the thought of separating from my friends is not even a question.”
           Lauralee could be the profile of the All-American girl.  She’s an only child raised in New York City, was voted Most Likely to Succeed in high school, and graduated valedictorian.  “Education was the most important thing to my family.  They told me to strive for the top, even if you fall, at least you try your damnedest, so that’s what I have always done.”
           But this All-American girl’s life has been short of perfect.  It all started when she had lost her father in June of 1996 due to a car accident.  “You know,” Lauralee swallows her chicken McNugget.  “I don’t understand it.  Some prick decides to pump back a few and get into his car.  Then he kills someone.  I’m not saying I’m perfect, I admit, there have been times when I was drinking, before I was 21.  But I haven’t lost control and driven home.”
           Lauralee gave me a look to change the subject of our conversation to her father.  “He was the most caring man in the planet.  Lots of teenage girls have relationships with their fathers and think they aren’t cool, but not mine.  My dad was the first one to organize birthday parties, and then knew to stay out of the way as to not embarrass me, but I dragged him out and introduced him to my friends.  He could dance with the best of them.”
           It is no surprise then that she had gotten her musical ability from him.  “I learned everything about music from my father.  He taught me to play piano since I was three, but he never forced me to do it.  If I wanted to quit, he would have stopped.  Then he taught me to sing.  My dad had an amazing voice and we went over vibrato, scales, you name it we did it.”
          I asked Lauralee if she thinks AJ is like her father.  Lauralee lets out a guffaw.  “I think if my dad first saw Alex, he would have frozen from fear.  My dad was a little on the conservative side: never got a tattoo, never had a piercing, but I think my father would have liked Alex once he got to know him.  Alex has the heart of my dad.  He may have this tough exterior, but inside, he’s the most romantic soul I have ever known.”
          “Alex” or AJ McLean, the self-proclaimed “bad boy” of the Backstreet Boys, is Lauralee’s now live-in boyfriend.  They moved in together at the end of Elegance’s first US tour.  “He asked me when we were in Florida during their tour.”
          Did you say yes right away?  “Nah, I waited about 2 months before I said yes.  I really had to think about it, you know, moving to Florida, leaving my family.  It was hard to decide to go along with the idea.”
          But she did, and AJ and her seem to be happy.  “There are some things that we disagree on, but we talk it out.  When you’re in a relationship in which your man is constantly away from you, you have nothing else better to do than communicate.  Trust me, the proof’s in our phone bills.”
           But, how is it that you and he… fit?  Lauralee looks directly at me and smiles.  “People ask me and say ‘OK, you’re a gorgeous girl, but I can’t see the correlation between you and him.’  I say, why, because I don’t dye my hair every week that we don’t fit?  People then think I lead the life of some biker chick that guzzles beer and wears leather on off days.  They don’t see what goes on behind our doors, they don’t know what goes on in our relationship.”
          Lauralee finishes her stuff, and puts the McDonald’s bag away.  “Maybe he’ll just want the fries, he won’t miss the nuggets.” 
          Looks like this all-American has some slyness after all.

Always a Child at Heart

          Bianca Boratio heads out to the court, which is only about a 5 minute drive from her new home in Orlando.  “I want to build a court in my backyard when I have time to be home.  I would never leave my house.”
           We step out on the court, where Bianca spins the ball on her finger.  “Wanna play?”
           No, I have to take notes.  “Suit yourself,” she sets herself up and sinks the ball in perfectly.  “1 for 1, so far,” she gives a grin that makes her brown eyes crinkle.
           This girl may be the most envied out of all the members.  She’s got her man, the heartthrob Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys, in which the crowd’s noise elevates whenever he takes center stage.  “I’m amazed at how girls swoon at him.  He’s like God to some of these girls.  I once heard that a fan said she would take a bullet for him.  Now that’s border-line nuts.”
           Do you see him like that?  “Nah, don’t get me wrong, I met him after the whole Backstreet thing came out, but to me, he’s just Nick.”  Bianca stops and puts on her CD mini-stereo.  Her choice: LFO.  Whoa… another boy band?
           “They’re real cool.  Lauralee and I went to a concert the other night and got to meet them backstage.  Lauralee knew Rich and Brad, but I think she had a thing for Devin.  Don’t tell Alex though.”
           Who’s your favorite?  “Rich, you know I always go for the blondes,” Bianca smiles and sinks in another ball.  And she got the blondest one of all.
           Bianca, 19, is the youngest one out of all the girls, but is treated like an equal.  “Even though I am the youngest, the girls treat me like their own age.  And that’s how it’s always been, since I was younger.  Lauralee never treated me like a kid, even when she introduced me to friends, or we were in public.  That’s how I got to be friends with her.”
           Bianca met Lauralee about 6 years ago when she moved next door to Lauralee’s aunt.  “I kinda wanted to hang with her because she was older, you know how pre-teens want to be older, so I just came over when I saw she was there.  Lauralee’s like an older sister to me, was always pushing me to do better in my grades.  I sucked in high school; I’m amazed they gave me a friggin’ diploma.”
           Bianca may be not the academia, but she can certainly do it on the basketball court.  She was on the Varsity basketball team all through high school, and even had scouts check her out in her freshman year.  “People would come to see me, saying they would give me a scholarship if I played for their college; one of them even offered me a car if I signed up when I was a sophomore.  I probably would’ve, but then we got the deal.” 
           “I would love to go back to college eventually, maybe get a communications degree, possibly play some b-ball.  But I love singing as much as basketball, and well, the opportunity was there for singing, so I grabbed that first.”
           What if it was college?  “Hmm,” Bianca dribbles the ball furiously.  “Tough question, but it never came, so I can’t dwell on the past.  Live in the now, as I always say.”
           She sits on her basketball and looks at me.  “Think we can continue this at my house?  I got this new video game I wanna play and I’m almost beating it.”
           No, I think we got enough.  “Good,” she runs over and stops the stereo.  “Maybe next time I can get you to play.”
          Let me save my embarrassment for another time.  “Probably whip your ass anyway.”  That same crinkled smile again.
          Probably, no, definitely.

Always what’s on Her Mind

           Laura Tramcoli is blasting the music on high, so much so that the walls are vibrating in her house.  She dances over to the stereo and turns Snoop down.  “Sorry, I just love that song.”
           We sit down in the living room where Laura folds her legs under her and leans against the arm of the fluffy couch.  “OK, so shoot.”
           OK, we’ll start with Kevin.  “How much time you have?  What do you want to start off with first?”
           Permit me for being forward, but how is it that you and he… “Fit?  You know, that’s a funny thing.  One reporter told me that Alex and me were better off together.  No way!  I would be out of my rocker if Alex and I went out, plus we’d kill each other within one day.”
           Then how?  “Some people fit if they’re equals, but I fit with him because we balance each other out.  Kevin’s calm, I’m wild.  Kevin’s a perfectionist; I let it fly.  But, as crazy as it seems, we’re totally in tune with each other.  We can be as equal as two people can get.  I can be the voice of reason just like him, and besides, I’ve seen Kevin do some freaky-ass stuff.”
           Although Laura wouldn’t go any further with the “freaky-ass” side of Kevin, I understood what she was saying.  The wild one of the group and the oldest, it seems like an oxymoron.  But not to her.  “Just because someone’s the oldest, doesn’t mean they automatically have to grow up.  Besides, there’s only a 1 month difference between Veronica and myself, and a 5 month difference with Lauralee.”
           So, you don’t feel like being put into stereotypes?  “If we wanted to be put into a stereotype, we would have been the next pop princesses,” Laura makes a face like she swallowed a lemon.
           Laura seems to be the most sensitive of all when it comes to the subject of race and music.  Although Elegance have made their way into the hearts of the R & B world, there’s still those critics who say they are hiding behind a façade of R & B and trying to be a gimmick.  “I remember reading an article in this magazine.  This guy ripped us to shreds, saying we should stick to what we know, and wondering which other group we would sleep our way to the top with.  I was seething with rage.  I called the editor-in-chief of the magazine, saying how dare he have such an arrogant asshole on his staff.  He responded with something like ‘It is the US and free speech.’  I told him that he would have no access to Elegance again, because they were lining up a big spread on us.  He said ‘So I guess that’s your rebuttal.’  I told him ‘Yeah and you know where you can stick my rebuttal,’ and hung up the phone.”
           Jeez, Laura, don’t hold back anything.  “But I understand that people have a voice, or a laptop, and have the right to say anything they want to.  But it pisses me off that some people are so color-blind that they don’t know their ass from their elbow.  All we want to do is create music.  We’re not hiding behind Backstreet or our color.  We’re not trying to be black; who said we were?  I’m trying to be me; I’m not really a pop music fan.  I don’t have anything that is pop besides Backstreet Boys in my CD wallet.  I know that may sound cliché, but it’s what I feel strongly about.”
           Right on Laura, right on.

The Dreamer

           Elizabeth sits on the back porch of her home, sipping her chamomile tea, which seems to be a ritual for her daily.  “Soothes the vocal cords,” she adds.  “Gotta protect my money, y’know what I’m saying?”
           Elizabeth Whorston seems like the old-fashioned girl with the heart of gold.  Her home in Orlando looks like it belongs to a 22-year-old woman (whoever owns one), but you see the antique remnants she has added: an antique rocker in her living room, soft lace accents in some of the rooms.  “Some psychic that I went to in Greenwich Village said I had an old soul.  I usually don’t believe in that crap, but from my tastes, I guess she was accurate on that part.”
           So it seems to me that she would be the type of person that would rather sit home on a Friday night, knitting doilies.  Not true at all.  “Another reason is because I’m nursing a major hangover.  Went to Tabu with the girls and I was the free with the alcohol.”
          Ah-ha!  So there is some type if wild streak in her.  “I maybe somewhat old-fashioned, but I’m not a 50-year-old trapped in a 22-year-old body.  I like to have fun.  I go out with my friends or my boyfriend, laugh it up, have a few drinks.”
           We had gotten deeper into conversation, and Elizabeth had just told me a very dirty joke.  I mean REAL dirty, the kind that you laugh at and blush at the same time. 
           “See, told you I’m not a prude,” Elizabeth folds her arms.
           So, let’s get to Brian.  “He’s my life saver.  I never thought I would find another relationship in my life, but when you least expect it, I guess it just happens.”
           Whorston’s last relationship, was, how shall we say… “The most wasted year of my life,” she concludes.  “He was the type of guy who just wanted someone when he felt he needed someone.  He would call me up, we’d be together for a month, and then he needed his space, so we’d split.  I was hung up on the fact that he was just exploring, man was I dreaming.”  Well, it’s obvious what happened, but found it real hard to get into the social scene again.
           “I kinda clamed up, trying to avoid guys at all possible.  I hung out with friends, anything to avoid the subject of men.  Then, I met Brian and all things changed.  I never found such a remarkable man like him before.”
           Elizabeth leans back in her seat and looks up at the sky.  “Eventually I wanna get married, have a big house with kids scampering around.  I like to think that Brian is in that picture.  Lots of platinum records hanging on the walls, and telling my kids stories about my life… well the clean ones at least.”
           Did you ever think you would have a career like this?  “That’s what I think about everyday.  I think of when I was in college, trying to get my degree and my life back on track after one of my many break-ups with my ex.  If someone told me that this was gonna be my life, I would’ve told them they were out of their mind.”
           “But I’m happy with it.  This is where I always wanna be.  Hopefully one day we can be going on later in our lives, traveling on the road with our kids playing on the buses.”
           Maybe you will.

The Big Heart

          The last stop is at Parc Studios in Orlando, Florida, where Veronica Passaro is in one of the booths jotting down some lyrics for a song she has just written.  The other girls will meet her later. 
          “One second, just got to write this last word down,” she puts her pen down and looks right at me.  “I’m all yours.”
          Veronica Passaro, 23, is the girl who takes second lead to most of Elegance’s songs along with Lauralee.  She also seems to be the other musical brain behind the group. 
           “I’ve been writing poetry since I was in high school.  That’s what all songs are, poetry to music.  I thought I wasn’t going to be able to write songs, but Lauralee convinced me to take the poetry and put it to a beat.  She showed me by putting one of my poems to a melody she wrote, and boom, we had a song.”
Veronica seems to be the softest one in the group, being the shoulder for everyone to cry on.  Seems perfect to her counterpart, Backstreet Boy Howard “Howie D.” Dorough. 
          “Howie and I, we seem to be on the same emotional wavelength.  We don’t like to see conflict; we are always the peacemakers in our respective groups.  I love to help people, and make sure they are OK with themselves.”
          Veronica is also very giving to charities, especially children’s charities.  In fact, she had just told me of a fundraiser she attended in her hometown of New York, the Children’s Hope Foundation, in which they grant wishes to children with terminal illnesses or disabilities.
          “I have been fortunate over the past year and a half.  Therefore, I feel the need to help others.  There are so many ways everyone can help, be it in the public eye, or otherwise.  I have been volunteering my time since I was a kid.  My dad always said, ‘If you can’t help others, how can you help yourself?’”
That doesn’t mean that she cannot have fun.  “I was a, let’s say, precocious, teenager.  There were things Laura, Lauralee and I did that could frighten people.  We were always cooking up big schemes, the next adrenaline rush.  I can’t say that high school wasn’t boring.”
          Can you tell me anything specific?  “Hmm… Ok I’ll give you a scenario in words.  3 teenagers, fake ID’s, sailors, and our first taste of red wine.  That’s it.”  Veronica smirks and leans back in her chair.
So, do you see yourself singing for a while?  “You bet your ass I do.  Sometimes I look back on my life and say, shit, I cannot imagine that this is what I do.  I never take advantage of every day of my life, because it could all end tomorrow.  We are in a business in which your career could end in a day.  I always see the next event as the last one.”
          “However, I can’t see myself in any other business but this one.  Even if Elegance ends, I would like to go into a solo act, songwriting, or producing.  I love this, and you should always do what you love.”
           I couldn’t agree with you more.

The Whirlwind Continues

           The girls are all back together as they are going over Veronica’s latest song she finished writing.  They are starting the preliminary work for the follow-up album.
           “It’s exciting for us to be back in the studio again.  We can take time to record the songs and put more of our own input in it,” smiles Lauralee.
           Although they won’t go into too much detail for the new album, they did give me some insight.
           “We got some really good ideas for the next album.  We all wrote some songs, and Lauralee is going to produce for the first time too,” says Elizabeth.  
           “We also got some heavyweights working with us for the first time.  Maybe some collaborations as well,” adds Laura.
          “We’ve grown so much over the past year,” Veronica said.  “The experiences we’ve had, the things we’ve seen.  It affects the way you look at life.  I know I can speak for most musicians when I say you write, it’s about your life, so that’s what the songs we’ve all written will reflect.”
           When I asked them what experience has affected them the most, they all agreed on one issue.
          “By far, it has been winning the Grammy,” Lauralee smiles.  “I remember getting nominated.  We found out in Germany, and we were like, OK, we’re nominated, but there’s no way in hell we’re going to win.  When they announced our name, I just looked at the girls as if I was hearing wrong.  I saw the proof when the guys, our manager, and Tommy [Mottola] stood up and cheered.  Then I walked up stunned.  When I thanked the guys, I saw Alex crying, that’s when I cried.”
           “We knew that we had a good album, but to win the Grammy, not once, but twice, well, it showed that we were respected.  That was our crowning achievement.”
           Now that they have won the most coveted prize in the music business, that doesn’t mean the ball stops rolling. 
           “We wanna go for three or more,” smiles Bianca. 
           But, would there be a group after, if Backstreet comes out of the picture? 
           “Absolutely,” Laura said immediately.  “Men come and go, but friendship is forever.  We aren’t known as Backstreet’s girlfriends anymore.  People hear Elegance and they know who they are talking about.  We knew we were going to have an identity as BSB’s girlfriends for a while, but we were surprised by how quickly it faded.  We have our own identities now.”
              “We love our boyfriends with all of our hearts,” Bianca adds.  “They know that we have careers.  We didn’t want to stand at the sidelines and watch.  When we knew we had something, we wanted the same thing.  Our relationships have grown stronger than ever because of what we have accomplished.”  
              They all lean back, knowing Elegance has come to a full circle.  They have disproved they are a gimmick through their accomplishments.  They have disproved that they are the bimbos behind Backstreet.  They want the whirlwind to continue.  Knowing the strength of these ladies, the storm will continue to blow through, leaving an elegant calm behind.
F.Q.s' Note:  A friend of mine who absolutely loved the story, though it would be fun to write an article about Elegance.  She's into journalism, so she wanted to write it as if Elegance was doing a spread for a Rolling Stone-type magazine.  I thought it was great, so I decided to post it.  You can E-mail me to let me know what you think about it and I will pass it to her.
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