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Mario Vazquez
Background information
Birth name	Mario Adrian Vazquez
Born	June 15, 1977 (1977-06-15) (age 32)
Origin	The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Genres	R&B, Pop
Occupations	Musician
Years active	2005–2007
Labels	Arista Records (2006-2007)
Website	Official MySpace page

Mario Adrián Vázquez (born June 15, 1977) is a Puerto Rican-American¹ singer from The Bronx, New York. He competed on American Idol's fourth season, which aired on the FOX network in early 2005.

Biography

Early life

Raised by his single mother, Ada, in the Bronx, Vazquez is an alumnus of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. He was also involved in the CityKids Repertory Company in New York City, which enabled him to travel the country and perform in front of the President and at major charitable functions and shelters. In October 2006, he was reunited with his estranged father, Mario Rivera, who discovered that his son was on American Idol while channel surfing.²

After making it into the final round of twelve contestants on the hit reality show American Idol, Vazquez suddenly dropped out of the competition for "family reasons" a few days before the finals started. When the press contacted his mother regarding his decision, she was unaware that he had made it to the finals. There was much speculation about his decision; Vazquez appeared the next morning on "Good Day New York" on WNYW FOX5, and quashed rumors of a feud with "American Idol" producers or any of his competitors. "American Idol was only positive. They were only wonderful to me, from the beginning through the middle, to the end," he told the show. "It had nothing to do with the contract or anything signed with J Records." J Records is the same company that manages Idol winners Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino. Vazquez later explained that he wanted to control the "sound" that he has worked on since he was 13 years old and he felt that American Idol would not let him do that. He also wanted to avoid being labeled as a top 12 contestant – he did not want a "number". He felt that since he was now known worldwide as a semi-finalist, he could end the competition and go solo. He believed that his musical success would not make a difference whether he quit as a semi-finalist or participated in the finals round. Vazquez was replaced on the show by Nikko Smith, who had previously been voted out.

Record deal

In August 2005, it was reported that Vazquez signed with record executive Clive Davis and Davis' Arista Records.³ Vazquez's manager is Arnold Steifel, of Rod Stewart fame. He was reportedly set to work with Houston rapper Mike Jones. Other co-producers were to include Ne-Yo, Soulshock and Karlin, Lester Mendez, Scott Storch and Luny Tunes. Many of these artists' songs with Vasquez did not make the final cut on his album.

Vazquez's self-titled album was released September 26, 2006 by Arista Records. The album debuted at #80 with 12,000 sold, falling out of the Top 200 within two weeks. He stands as the third lowest selling American Idol contestant, in front of Corey Clark who was disqualified and Ayla Brown who did not make it to the finals, and behind even William Hung.

Later that year, Vazquez performed on the Cartoon Network Friday block on August 25, 2006. A second single "One Shot" was released to radio in February 2007 after 10 months of relying only on the first single to promote the album. It began receiving moderate airplay and by early March was hovering around #58 on Mediabase 24/7's CHR/Pop chart.

Vasquez would be ultimately dropped from Arista Records in early 2008. Vazquez was not heard of since 2007, and his website was shut down shortly after being dropped by Arista Records. His myspace has not been logged into since 2007.

Discography

American Idol performances

Note 1: Originally making the Top 12, Vazquez withdrew from the show due to personal reasons. He was replaced by Nikko Smith.

References

External links

• Mario Vazquez on the Internet Movie Database
• Mario Vazquez at MySpace
• Mario Vasquez interview