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Amanda Latona: New Face On Vteens.org (July 2002)

By: Melissa

Our story begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the year is 1990. A nervous 11 year old waits patiently for her turn to audition for "The Mickey Mouse Club." As she waits, a petite 9 year old named Christina Aguilera performs Mariah Carey's hit "Vision Of Love," blowing away the competition, and ultimately landing the coveted spot on the popular kids TV show. Show off.

Not to be discouraged, our confident and self assured heroine kept singing, knowing that a career in music would eventually find her. Four short years later, our heroine and her family decided to pick up their Pittsburgh roots, and set their sights for the land where boy bands and belly baring divas grow. That's right folks; they had their sights set on Orlando, Florida.

Who is the fearless hero of our story? It's none other than J Records' own Amanda Latona, poised and ready to kick ass and keep it real.

Continuing our story in sunny Orlando, Amanda and her brother soon began to frequent the local theme parks, particularly Universal Studios, where they would often sit in the audience and watch the Beetlejuice show. This is where Amanda met her first friend, Joey Fatone, hometown boy later turned Nsync stud.

"My brother and I were hanging out in the audience of the Beetlejuice show, and Joey introduced himself. He was my first Orlando friend," recalls Amanda. "We got to talking for the longest time! He told me that I should go to a school where I could learn dancing and singing, and I ended up in the same group as Joey and Chris (of Nsync). "

Well, how about that. Disney was right; it's a small world after all.

Soon after Amanda began attending her new school, she decided to audition for the role of Pocahontas at Disney World. Pale faced and dressed as Disney's Native American Princess, Amanda reveals why the role wasn't exactly best suited for her.

"I remember my mom helping me to get the costume just right, and heading to Disney World, and seeing this long line of girls who looked exactly the part. I remember looking at myself, then looking back at them and thinking to myself 'Amanda, what the hell are you doing?!' I looked NOTHING like Pocahontas, "Amanda exclaims with a laugh, " I was pale as a ghost, and it was probably the most embarrassing moment EVER."

Despite Amanda's embarrassing moment and audition as an albino Pocahontas, she landed the job, and soon began work as the main female Disney characters.

"Working at Disney was too much fun! You dress up as all these fun characters like Belle and The Little Mermaid, and in the meantime you get free park passes. You can't beat that," says Amanda in reference to her stint at Disney World.

Cut to a few years later, and Amanda had just become member to a girl group called "Innosense, " formed and funded by the very mogul who sends chills up boy band spines everywhere, Lou Pearlman. A then 18-year-old Amanda had seemingly arrived. But alas, our heroine wasn't happy. Curses.

"Innosense was my first real professional gig. In the beginning I honestly thought to myself, 'This is it Amanda, you've made it,' but it just got to a point where I wasn't happy," she explains. "It wasn't just one particular thing…it was well, everything. It was the direction the company took us, the way the group itself was going. "

After much consideration, Amanda decided to leave the group, taking her powerful and growing legion of loyal fans with her, realizing that if the group became huge, it was something she'd have to live with for the rest of her life.

But for the record, has anyone outside of Orlando ever heard of Innosense? I particularly didn't think so.

After Innosense, Amanda decided to take a sabbatical from the music scene, opting to try her hand in acting. Not finding it to satisfy her natural love for entertainment, Amanda decided to dive head on into her music career, but on one condition--- that she do it all on her own. Amanda Latona, independent woman, extraordinaire.

"When I decided to pursue music full on, my boyfriend at the time, AJ Mclean, kept saying 'Amanda, let me help you get a deal,' " says Amanda. "I never wanted to use AJ or his connections. I never wanted to be the BSB girlfriend who got everything thrown to her because of who she was with."

Continuing, Amanda says seriously, " When I do something, I always have to have self worth in what I do. I wanted to get the record deal myself. That way I knew people wanted me for me, not because of a favor someone owed AJ. "

You go, girl.

Following a two year relationship together, Amanda and AJ parted ways, and literally two weeks after the break up, Amanda's career changed for the better.

Through a writer/producer friend that had a production deal with DreamWorks, Amanda was slated to be signed to the label. He then introduced Amanda to her current manager Larry Mazer, which led to her eventual home on the J Records roster.

"After I made a demo, we sent it to James Deiner at J Records, and he called us up everyday for 3 weeks screaming, "WE NEED HER!," exclaims Amanda with a laugh. "The signing of my record deal went by so fast. I literally flew up to New York on a Monday, met with James on a Tuesday, sang live, met with the publicist and all that good stuff, went home on a Wednesday, and literally, as SOON I got home, I got a phone call. It was my manager, and he said they wanted to audition me on Thursday! I think I screamed my head off! I met with Clive Davis and sang to him on Friday, and I was signed in ten minutes. Is it supposed to be that fast?" Amanda laughs, "I'm still not sure if it's supposed to go like that."

Amanda's luck and hard work had paid off, and judging by Amanda's tracks that Vteens.org has heard, she has a unique pop/rock blend that will undoubtedly have America saying, "Britney who?"

Amanda gives the inside scoop on her upcoming debut release.

"Can I just say that I love my album?! It's got great songs, and this whole female empowerment theme to it," gushes Amanda. " It has such a live band sound with drums and guitar. My favorite song I've cut right now is "Can't Take It Back." It's just cool 'cause it's a really rockin' song. It's the first song I learned on guitar, and I'm just proud of myself for learning an instrument I never thought I would play. In all honesty, right now I just feel like the most blessed girl ever."

In short, our heroine seems to have reached her goal through hard work and dedication. It looks like our heroine truly is living happily ever after.

so, keep your radios on July 22nd--Amanda has plans to take radio waves by storm!

Opened: 22/10/02
Webmistress: Iris
Layout vers.: 2.0
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