Anthony Ramos Has a Wild Story About Auditioning for The Voice with a John Legend Song
What is it they say about one door closing and another one opening?
Season 25 of The Voice is nearing its thrilling finale, but it’s not over just yet. In the season’s 14th episode Team Reba and Team Chance Artists went through the Playoffs gauntlet for a chance to move on to the Live Shows. The Playoffs are a high-stakes environment designed to deliver incredible musical performances and push the Artists to their fullest potential. It’s the sort of situation in which even good performers slip and end up going home.
That’s something even the Coaches recognize, and they’ve brought in some extra help to give their teams the best possible chance. Just before rehearsals, Reba McEntire spent some time talking with her team's Mentor, darling of screen and stage, Anthony Ramos, who relayed his own personal experience of auditioning for The Voice.
Before Hamilton and Hollywood, Anthony Ramos auditioned for The Voice
“They’ve got such tough skin. I know I wouldn’t have gotten picked at all,” McEntire said, waiting for the first of her performers to arrive. Little did she know that Ramos had some personal insight into just how difficult getting onto The Voice can be.
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“Yeah, me neither. I mean, I auditioned for this show...and sang 'Green Light' by John Legend, who is one of my favorite Artists of all time,” Ramos responded. “The producer goes, ‘I want you to work on your breathing for a year and come back’ and my dreams were just crushed.”
“Green Light” was the first single from Legend’s third album Evolver. The song features supporting verses from André 3000 and represented some new musical terrain for Legend at the time. Unlike Legend’s previous work, “Green Light” introduced funk and electro elements that made the song a favored dance track. The song went platinum and was Legend’s most successful song until the release of his 2013 hit “All of Me.”
While that nameless producer may have turned Ramos away, he couldn’t be kept from the stage for long. The award-winning actor and musician got his musical start singing Motown tracks at middle school assemblies with a group of classmates. He later attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, graduating in 2009. Five years later, Ramos auditioned for the dual roles of Philip Hamilton and John Laurens in Lin Manuel-Miranda’s hit Broadway musical, Hamilton.
After helping to make early American history accessible to a generation, Ramos snatched up the lead role of Usnavi de la Vega in the screen adaptation of Manuel-Miranda’s In the Heights. He’s made appearances in A Star is Born (2018), The Bad Guys, and Trolls World Tour. We’ll see Ramos next in Universal’s highly anticipated disaster sequel Twisters. Between now and then, he’ll be helping Team Reba on Season 25 of The Voice.
"Having auditioned for the show and now being a mentor, it's been a journey up to this point. So, I hope I have something I can say that's helpful,” Ramos said.
