Eric West

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eric West
Eric West and guest at the first annual Urban Music Awards in New York
Background information
Birth name	Eric Rosa
Born	May 18, 1982 (1982-05-18) (age 26)
Origin	New York, New York, U.S.
Genre(s)	Pop, pop rock, R&B
Occupation(s)	Actor, singer, songwriter, record producer, model
Years active	1996 - present
Website	www.eric-west.com

Eric West (born May 18, 1982) is an American R&B/pop singer, actor, socialite, and former male fashion model. In 1996, he made his television debut; in 2004, West hit the international model scene, while two more movies followed. West made early TV appearances on CNN People In The News, MuchMusic, MTV, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. In the early 2000s West attempted a modelling career in Europe.^[1] West spent 2005-2007 as a model for Italian clothing line Energie,^[2][3][4][5] and will be wearing their clothes in public appearances; he also signed an endorsement deal with the popular American clothing line American Eagle Outfitters that same year.^[6][7]

In 2007, a rumored relationship with Christina Milian appeared in tabloids around the world, however both parties denied the romance.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} As 2007 ended West continued to work on music with Mario^[13][14][15] and X-Factor finalist Daniel DeBourg. That same year the Internet Movie Database named West one of Hollywood's Next Breakout stars.^[16]

Contents 1 Biography and career 1.1 Media spotlight 2 Filmography 2.1 Films 2.2 Television 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 3.2.1 Notes 4 Awards & nominations 5 References 5.1 Footnotes 5.2 Databases 5.3 Photo databases 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Biography and career

He was born Eric Rosa in New York City, New York. West started recording music at the age of 12 much like his uncle Grammy winner Smokey Robinson of Motown fame.^[17] Fergie discovered the young singer, and invited the then 15 year old to appear on stage with the Grammy winner at a concert in New York City for Jane Magazine.^[18] In 1996 West released his debut single "End Of The World". under the name Eryk in Asia, it achieved top ten status on the Tokio Hot 100 chart of local radio station J-Wave.^[19] In the summer of 1998 West took his voice to radio, at age 16 he was the youngest DJ in history on FM radio in New York City,^[20] when he became a co-host of the Top 9 at 9 on WBLS with radio personality JC Jordan.

On September 21, 2000, West joined Rich Cronin of the band LFO, in Brooklyn, New York to help lead the Light The Night Walk with 12 year-old leukemia survivor Kimberly Thach, the Society's National Youth Ambassador. West, Cronin and Thach lead approximately 1,000 leukemia survivors, friends, and family members carrying illuminated balloons over the Brooklyn Bridge to commemorate lives touched by cancer.

With no record deal and an album that never got released, West decided to become homeless.^[21] "For years I kept it a secret, my best friend didn't find out until last year. It was one of two of hardest points in my life so far. I was still on TV, and not one person knew. I was homeless for about 8 months, I refused to live with my dad or anyone for that matter. So I stayed somewhere that had no hot water, ever, no heat, I told myself I have to be strong and get through it on my own, I had lied to everyone so that no one knew that was going on. I had lost everything, I had nothing, after having everything, I didn't know how I was going land on my feet, but I knew that I would. I didn't know why my life was so bad, and why this was happening to me, and then one day I realized that God had a plan for me, and till this day I am thankful for that experience."

Nearly a three year break, West returned briefly in late 2002 with "Can You Help Me?" his first single in over five years, originally recorded for a motion picture, the single was serviced to the airwaves for consideration. Produced by Stay-C Hogan and written by West, it became an international radio hit reaching number one the B-Radio Latin American radio charts for two weeks,^[22] rivaling songs by Justin Timberlake and Madonna for the number one spot, while hitting Top 5 on numerous stations in Chile, Bolivia and Mexico (No.19 most successful Untapped Resources International Top 200 singles of 2002), rumors of an album being released floated around on the Internet, but were untrue at the time. In 2002 West got together with Grammy winning producers David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager to write a song for legendary media icon Cher for her forthcoming album, a demo version of the song "Love Don't Live Here" was leaked to the internet.^[23]

West once again disappeared until early 2004 but returned more visible than before. He appeared in ads for Artist Against Racism in America. Artist Against Racism is an organization that also includes superstars like Céline Dion, Lenny Kravitz, Sarah McLachlan, Mike Myers, Bush and Aerosmith. He made his TV debut acting a TV pilot called In My Lifetime directed by Devin Hampton and Little X who has directed music videos for Sean Paul, Usher, Alicia Keys, R. Kelly and Nelly. Eric then received a top honor from the OCTN; he was awarded the Humanitarian Award: Youth Of The Millennium.^[24] He received the award for the charity work he's done in his community over the years.

In 2004, West also appeared in his own fashion spread in Marie Claire Japan. He was featured as one of fashion's top new models and singers.^[25]

On August 28, West wore a "I Support Janet Jackson" T-shirt to the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards, which was a statement in regard to Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime controversy. West told Teen People USA, "It was my way of showing Janet support after being blacklisted by so many media outlets".^[26] The T-shirt earned mentions in the New York Daily News, New York Post, Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times to name a few. Jackson and her fan club sent the singer a thank you message for his support according to reports.

As the year went on West continued to work on his album Half Life. West was scheduled to tour the UK as opening act for British artist Matt Goss famous for UK hits "When Will I Be Famous", "Try" and "I'm Coming With Ya", but the tour was canceled due to Goss' ill health at the time.

West also began working on a new song with producer and DJ, Galbis. The track is slated to debut in clubs sometime in early 2006 close to Eric's CD release.^[27]

On January 20, 2005, AOL Music^[28] announced it will premiere Eric's debut single from "Half | Life" as part of their "Breaker" artist program, he therefore became on the same promotional path that boosted such previous Breakers as Avril Lavigne, Josh Groban, 50 Cent and Jet. On West's official site, it states the LP's first single will be between "Half | Life" and a track titled "If I Only Knew", according to numerous websites the album will include songs called "Black Rose," "Wires," and "Underdog". West has said in interviews that the album is a mixture of Electropop, R&B, Rock and Hip-Hop.

Attempting to further popularize his name and image, he signed on to be a model for the hugely popular "Day Birger et Mikkelsen"^[29] line in Denmark and the UK in April 2005 and later with Guess?, LA Denim Atelier and Energie.

On August 6, 2005, Eric co-hosted The Reign at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre in New York City with actress/singer Christina Milian, the event was designed by a group of inner-city children in 2003 to raise funding and awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention education for men, women and children living with HIV and AIDS through the Elton John Aids Foundation, as well as working with the Fresh Air Fund to continue to help other inner-city children and family's. Both Milian and West were awarded Outstanding Achievement Awards for their humanitarian efforts.^[30] Eric also appeared on NBC's Weekend Edition to talk about hosting the event. He also appeared at Body Positive benefit, that year, the organization, dedicated to empowering people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS, had Eric on hand to honor Marj Dusay of Guiding Light, local Congressman Timothy H. Bishop.^[31]

In October, Paramount Pictures announced Eric will appear in David Fincher's 2007 film Benjamin Button with a small role alongside Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt.

According to PauseandPlay.com^[32] Eric's forthcoming album will arrive summer 2006, its first single is scheduled to be released mid-May. A song called "Hurt" was leaked onto the Internet. In April 2006, Atlanta Gossip reported Eric is one of the collaborators on Mario's next album.^[15][33] On August 10, 2006 it was reported that West will appear in an upcoming issue of GQ, and that his album title has been changed to Mr. Eric West, and was delayed so that we can work on film projects, he was quoted saying The movies were important, you don't let these sort of opportunities pass you by.

Eric performed at Nas' MTV Awards party in New York City on August 30, 2006.^{[34][35][36][37]}

According to PRWEB.com West has moved to a new label, and is working on an album of all new songs which will include songs from "Half-'Life". West was also a model during New York's Fashion Week early 2007.

[edit] Media spotlight

With West's media attention rising, in 2005 he became a gossip column and Internet rumor favorite. One journalist considered West to be the Paris Hilton of the music and film industry, which lead to a semi-famous quote; Eric West has yet to release an album but is a gossip column favorite? He must be the Paris Hilton of music, famous but for what?

Gossip websites and radio stations falsely claimed West became a father in 2005,^[38] and more recently claimed he is dating Christina Milian.^[39] The two were photographed arriving together at New York's 2006 Olympus Fashion Week and at a New York airport. Eric denied the rumor saying they are just friends. Some radio stations and newspapers claim they are secretly dating, although Milian recently claimed in the New York Daily News, "I probably shouldn't give this that much attention but I have no idea who Eric West is. There is a rumour I am dating this guy and I have no idea who he is! No offence to the guy, but I just had to get that off my chest." Then later said on 102.7 KIIS-FM with Ryan Seacrest it was a "big misunderstanding". The nonexistent relationship resulted in a parody in FHM. XXL was quoted saying Her [Milian] fan base really just vanished into midair after Eric West. I think that's when the fellas started to realize they could get cleaner more honest girls.^[40][41] He was also linked to Mandy Moore in 2006, but the rumors were once again not true.^[42] They were both photographed together by paparazzi in New York, and photos appeared in In Touch Weekly. In a recent issue of Vibe, under 20 questions of the month featured Hasn't Eric West finally made it since he has his own WikiPedia entry as the number ten most important question of the month. The Internet Movie Database named West one of Hollywood's Next Breakout Stars.^[16]

On September 27, more recent pictures of West appeared online, he was a guest at Janet Jackson's release party for her album 20 Y.O.^[43][44][45] and he appeared on Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and Extra and was named "flasy" by Robert Laughlin on The Daily 10 on E!.

Later in the month AOL News reported West and Milian were spotted together once again at a New York Hotel, saying Singer-actress Christina Milian spotted looking nervous as she left the Hotel Gansevoort in New York's Soho district as she ran into actor Eric West. The two made headlines when Milian posted a MySpace blog saying she "[have] no idea who Eric West is" despite having co-hosted an event for Elton John's AIDS foundation in August 2005, and being photographed with West at the last New York Fashion Week. My mole said she kept apologizing to West during the chance encounter...^[46]

Eric was a model during New York Fashion Week, February 2007.^[47] In July West presented the Best Hip Hop Artist award at 2007 Urban Music Awards with Jeannie Ortega and Catherine McQueen.

West continued to stay busy in 2007 making appearances at events at Calvin Klein's 25th Anniversary of Calvin Klein Underwear Party where he was spotted with Hilary Swank, Fergie and LL Cool J according to E!, New York Fashion Week and The Hunting Party.^{[48][49][50][51][52][53][54]}

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Films

• 2005 - Lords of Dogtown

[edit] Television

• MTV Wannabe - Guest, 2001
• VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards - Model, 2001
• The Oprah Winfrey Show - Guest, 24 November 1997

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• TBA
  • Released: TBA 2008^[32]
  • Chart Peak: n/a
  • RIAA certification: n/a
  • Singles:
  • Worldwide sales: n/a

[edit] Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		US	CAN	AUS	Tokio Hot 100
1996	"End of the World" Album: H20 Released: 1996 Formats: CD single					6
2002	"Can You Help Me?" Album: Released: 2002 Formats: CD single,	94		6	37
2008	TBA Album: TBA Released: TBA Formats: Digital Download

[edit] Notes

• US chart position is based on Mediabase's Mainstream Pop Radio chart.
• Australian chart position is based on Australian Digital Download Pop chart.

[edit] Awards & nominations

Year	Award
2001	My VH-1 Award nomination for Best Legal Download[55]
2005	The Reign Award Elton John Award for Outstanding Achievement (shared with Mariah Carey and Christina Milian)[56]

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] Databases

• All Music Guide: Eric West
• Billboard.com: Eric West
• Variety.com: Eric West

[edit] Photo databases

• WireImage:Eric West
• GettyImages:Eric West

[edit] See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• LA Denim Atelier

[edit] External links

• Eric West at the Internet Movie Database
• Eric West at TV.com
• MySpace.com Eric West @ MySpace.com
• ManPaper.com Eric West @ ManPaper.com
• Eric West PrNewsNow.com