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VIDEO: Backstage And On-Stage At The Billboard Music Awards

Ralphie Aversa  —  06/03/2018 — Leave a comment

For my sixth consecutive year, I made the trek out west to Sin City on the weekend before Memorial Day to cover the Billboard Music Awards. This year, due to I presume the Vegas Golden Nights’ deep playoff run, the broadcast relocated from the T-Mobile Arena to its original home – the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The BBMAs also switched networks, moving from ABC to NBC. Despite the changes, the Billboard Music Awards held true to its trademark of celebrating the past, present and future of music in both the awards handed out and the performances showcased.

In addition to covering the show and interviewing artists backstage, I also served as the warm-up act for the broadcast. This was the fifth straight year that dick clark productions asked me to join the production in this capacity, and I could not have been more honored to stand on-stage in front of thousands, including many artists I adore, while previewing the big night ahead.

Check our interviews and photos from the event below.




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INTERVIEW: Here’s How Often Miss America Travels

Ralphie Aversa  —  01/11/2017 — Leave a comment

Sure some women grow up with the dream of one day becoming Miss America – but how many of them also envision the crown’s travel schedule, which involves a different state every 48 hours?

“I live in airports and in hotels out of my suitcase,” the current titleholder, Savvy Shields, told me on New Year’s Eve in Times Square. The two of us chatted for a few minutes on the third floor of the Good Morning America building after her TV appearance. “It’s been good. I don’t really remember much of it so that’s why I’m trying to journal and if I look at my social media then I remember everything I did.”

The journal idea was something Shields, who represented the state of Arkansas in last year’s competition, mentioned to me when we chatted the day after she won. Since that interview, the 21 year-old hasn’t sat still, but has experienced some cool moments including a trip to the American Music Awards where she joined Florida-Georgia Line on stage.

“(B.K. and Tyler) were fantastic,” she noted. “I mean, we’re southern people so we get along right away.”

With Shields’ personality, it’s hard to envision her not getting along with anyone, nor is it a stretch to think that she’s now getting recognized throughout these travels.

“I’ve gotten a lot of ‘Are you on TV?’” she said. “So it’s like, they know who I am, but it’s not until I have the crown on that they put two-and-two together.”

And contrary to popular belief, Shields isn’t always wearing the crown. Matter of fact, it wasn’t on her head at the AMAs; that and her new hair style that night which featured bangs lead yours truly to not recognize the titleholder, an occurance Shields did not let me forget during our interview. However she also joked that there is another time when people don’t realize she’s Miss America.

“If it’s an ‘airport day,’ they don’t really believe me,” Shields said. “So I mean it really depends!”

There are certainly more “airport days” on her docket, but also some once-in-a-lifetime destinations such as the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards, both of which take place this spring. “Miss America” is produced by Dick Clark Productions, which also handles all of the aforementioned award shows along with “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” another show that Shields participated in. The Arkansas-native didn’t seem to mind the December climate in New York too much.

“Maybe it’s everyone dancing that’s making it not as cold?” she wondering out loud. “I was expecting to be layered in like 7 parkas but I’m actually just down to one so we’re good to go.”

Hopefully for Shields that meant not having to pack or travel with as much; right after witnessing the ball drop she skipped the champagne toast and received an escort out of Times Square to grab a head start on the next part of her never-ending itinerary. Although I’m sure at this point, she couldn’t envision her night any other way.

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Backstage News And Notes From The 2016 Billboard Music Awards

Ralphie Aversa  —  06/03/2016 — Leave a comment

Some news and notes from my weekend in Las Vegas covering the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.

– If you saw a photo of me on stage at last Sunday night’s BBMAs, it was not an illusion. For the third consecutive year, dick clark productions hired me to fill the role of “warm-up act” for the show. This entails working closely with both the executive producer and stage manager of the broadcast to disseminate information to the crowd before we go live on ABC and during commercial breaks. Essentially I’m on stage in front of 20,000 people (and a lot of celebrities) hyping them up on the next performers or reminding them to wear their light-up bracelets.

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And on the latter point, I thought the bracelets looked excellent on TV. If you attended Taylor Swift’s 1989 World Tour, the wrist bands were almost exactly the same. You had to wear it so that the buckle was on the top of your wrist and the light-up part faced out towards the bottom. They were activated twice during the show; once during Meghan Trainor’s performance of “No” and again during Madonna and Stevie Wonder’s rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”


– In addition to handling on-stage duties for dcp, I helped out with our red (read: magenta) carpet broadcast on our national radio network, Westwood One. Because I was needed inside I only spent about an hour on the carpet, and man was it a hot one. The Vegas humidity and dry air always gets to me and wearing a suit while standing directly in the sun only amplifies this. Many artists walked the carpet with hair and makeup stylists almost hand-in-hand for touchups as they made the rounds from outlet-to-outlet.


– A person I had the chance to speak with, albeit briefly, was DJ Khaled. He is one of two celebrities I follow on Snapchat, so it was quite interesting to see him “snapping” in real life. It is also quite the production: he is using multiple phones and camera people, and of course will use multiple takes as well if needed. The mogul’s presence at the BBMAs was a part of a big sponsorship by T-Mobile, who of course also holds the naming rights for the new arena that the broadcast was held in.

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Although I was at dress rehearsal, I asked Khaled what his role was during the broadcast (in addition to some backstage vignettes, he was tasked with introducing Justin Bieber’s performance). His response.

“Stay tuned alert!”

But of course, if you watched Khaled’s Snapchat story on Sunday, you saw this. Definitely Snapchat peaked at the BBMAs.

– With my gig, I watch the show with the stage managers, trophy presenters and other stage hands right behind the curtain on stage. This vantage point provides a number of cool sightings and moments, but perhaps most memorable was Celine Dion’s performance. She loaded on to the stage from our area, so we had the chance to hear her final vocal warm-up before she went live. As Dion was wrapping her cover of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On,” her son René-Charles Angelil was escorted to our post. He was then handed his mother’s trophy and sent out on stage.

Suddenly there was a lot of applause. And not a single dry eye in the house.

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