Student
chosen to ‘Become’ video star
By Gina Ponce
On-line Forty-Niner
A
golden opportunity walked into Dior Winston’s
persuasive speaking class last week when
the crew from MTV’s show “Becoming” surprised
her with the news that she was selected
to be on the show. Winston believed
the crew to be guest speakers for the class
until it finally sank in that they were
there for her.
 A
Lincoln Navigator limousine picked Winston
up at 9:45 a.m. from Cal State Long Beach
on Sept. 9 to begin her three day adventure
as Alicia Keys. She was taken to a
studio where she met choreographers to go
over dance moves. Then hair and make-up
was done and finally to the W Hotel in Brentwood
where she would be staying in the penthouse.
This is the same hotel Keys stays in when
she visits Los Angeles.
Winston,
a third year communications major at CSULB,
had auditioned to be Alicia Keys for the
show about three weeks prior to being chosen.
She said she had actually forgotten about
applying until the night before her surprise
when she happened to see the “Gangsta Lovin’
” video by Eve and Alicia Keys on MTV and
she told her mom, “That could have been
me.”
According
to Pam Griffiths, a producer of the show,
Winston was selected after coming to a casting
call and auditioning. After that all
the tapes for Alicia Keys were compiled
into one and she was elected to be on the
show. Griffiths stated that there
are many different criteria they look for
when choosing people.
Many
family and friends knew what was to happen
to Winston, but everyone kept the secret.
“I’m
usually good at figuring out stuff, but
I had no idea.” Dior said.
“It
was really hard to keep it a secret because
she really wanted it.” Sharon Winston, Dior’s
mom, said. “Every time she saw the video
she said ‘I could do that,’ and I would
say well you gave it your all and it was
all you could do.”
The
second day started at 7 a.m. for Dior when
she was given her wardrobe for the video
and began shooting the house scene.
“It
was so exciting because it was the house
where the American Idol stars stayed.” Dior
said.
It
was a long day for her but she was also
excited to have the opportunity to choose
friends to be extras in the video.
The beach scene for the video was shot on
Wednesday where Winston had more solo parts.
Winston
has been a viewer of the show for about
a year.
“It’s
an experience of a lifetime.” Dior said.
“The MTV crew was so nice and helpful and
had a lot of advice.”
“Dior
was such a delight to work with.” Griffiths
said. “Her attitude was always up and a
smile was always there. I couldn’t have
asked for a better person to work with.
She made my life easy.”
Another
part of the experience was the gifts given
to the participants of the show. Winston
received an autographed Alicia Keys shirt,
clothes, an MP3 player, a karaoke machine
and a cell phone.
“The
most important thing, was that family and
friends were really there to support me.”
Dior said.
“I
picked Alicia Keys because I admire her
so much as an artist. She’s so musically
inclined, humble and original.” Dior said.
Dior
said the experience as a whole was breathtaking
and said there were no words to describe
what happened to her.
According
to Griffiths, the show will be airing as
the season finale on Nov. 30 at 8p.m.
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