No More Tears For Piccolo Girl on Tonight Show Appearance
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NEW YORK, March 24 (UPI) — It wasn’t exactly one shining moment for Roxanne Chalifoux’s rapid rise to fame (or infamy) on Saturday, when she was caught by a live CBS Sports camera playing her piccolo through tears — clearly upset amid the stinging aftermath of Villanova’s stunning loss to North Carolina State in the NCAA Tournament.
After her top-seeded Wildcats lost a 71-68 stunner to the Wolfpack in the tournament’s third round in Pittsburgh, her band played on — as most do — despite many of them feeling anything but perky. CBS Sports, always on the lookout for emotional images from the tournament, locked on the image of Chalifoux’s tear-streaked face as she plowed through Villanova’s fight song.
Her image caught fire immediately all over the Internet and became the latest in a long line of images enshrined as a meme. Monday, her tears were replaced with smiles as she cashed in the chance of a lifetime.
Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, perhaps more web-conscious than other personalities, didn’t waste time inviting her to appear on his show in New York City to play with his house band, Roots.
“Villanova suffered a heart-breaking loss to N.C. State. I’m sure a lot of other Villanova fans are feeling the same way. But what I love is you just kept playing your piccolo,” Fallon said at the start of Monday’s broadcast, during his introduction of Chalifoux. “You had to do your job … It’s inspiring. It’s cool, what you did there.”
“It’s absolutely mind-blowing,” Chalifoux said when asked by Fallon what she thought of such a quick rise to recognition. “All I thought I did was cry on national television.”
“In the very beginning, I was looking up at the JumboTron and I saw myself on it. All I could think about was my dad was at the game, and I didn’t want him to see me crying. But then it turned into, like, everyone saw me cry,” she said, followed by a chorus of laughter.
“I mean everyone, in the whole entire world,” said a hysterically laughing Fallon. “Did you see all the memes out there?”
Fallon then presented a gift basket to Chalifoux, and lowered the boom on a big surprise.
“We heard that you love Taylor Swift, and so we called Taylor Swift … and she is giving you two tickets to her world tour,” Fallon said to a visibly moved Chalifoux.
The Villanova biology student has been a hot commodity in the U.S. media since Saturday. She was interviewed by WIP radio in Philadelphia, where she said her tears were partially due to the fact she is a senior and will no longer be able to play with the university pep band, Yahoo! News reported.
Chalifoux told WIP radio that she plans to next attend optometry school and become an eye doctor.
It may be worth noting, also, that Chalifoux may show up on CBS yet again — during the network’s traditional sign-off to the tournament, a musical montage called “One Shining Moment.”
