Baltimore-born R&B singer Mario lost out on one of the biggest stages in show business when he was voted off ABC's Dancing with the Stars this week. But his impressive run on the hit TV series has given the 21-year-old performer a shot at reaching new audiences - not just as a musician but also as an actor, industry analysts said yesterday.
The question now is what use he makes of the newfound momentum.
"Being on Dancing with the Stars opened up Mario to a whole different audience who didn't know of his talent and personality - and they got to see him in a different light than your usual R&B singer," says Biff Warren, president of The Agency, a multicultural marketing and media company that includes such clients as Alicia Keys and Jamie Hector.
"So, this will benefit him and open more doors for him when it comes to television and film. Even in his own music career, it will make him more recognizable in different radio formats, because the show is so popular across the board. It will do for him what it does for football players like Jerry Rice - let viewers see them in a new and personal way."
Music critic Craig Seymour, author of Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross, sees Dancing with the Stars as a golden opportunity for Mario in so far as it may have helped him overcome mainstream cultural stereotyping. But it is crucial that the singer waste no time in capitalizing on his heightened recognizability.
"Often R&B stars, especially young R&B stars, have problems ... becoming distinguishable from one another in the minds of mainstream viewers. ... So, he's had an incredible opportunity to present himself as an individual to a mainstream audience," Seymour says.
"But he now needs to do something with that expanded platform. He might want to parlay into a TV series or something. But it's just really important that he uses this momentum that he has right now, because let's face it, by next year at this time, if he doesn't do something with this, everybody may have forgotten him and moved onto someone else."
While some TV interviewers like ABC's Jimmy Kimmel raised the question of whether the singer's appearance on a network TV show with a mass audience will hurt his credibility with his core urban audience, music industry experts and pop culture analysts generally dismiss such concerns.
