Fantasia Barrino
Real Name: Fantasia Monique Barrino
Date of Birth: June 30, 1984
Place of birth: High Point, North Carolina
Profession: Singer, actress and author
Fantasia can be considered one of the true ‘rags to riches’ story. Fantasia has been singing since childhood, starting out with singing gospel in church as a child.
She attended T. Wingate Andrews High School in High Point, North Carolina, but left after a rape by a classmate. She was 17 years-old when she became pregnant during a later relationship and gave birth to her daughter, Zion Quari August 8, 2001. She left her boyfriend prior to American Idol because he was physically abusive towards her.
Fantasia’s singing style was shaped by gospel singers and legends such as Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan before appearing on American Idol, where she made an immediate impression with her gospel-influenced sound and her explosive stage presence. Her audition version of Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ made her an early favorite, but her standout performance during the course of the show was her rendition of Porgy and Bess’s standard ‘Summertime’ that left her and audience members in tears. Because of that television moment, she earned a spot on 2004’s Emmy Award’s list of greatest television moments.
Although Fantasia was one of the clear favorites of the show among three well-thought-of and praised black performers, there was ugly controversy throughout the show with accusations of racism, especially when all landed in the bottom three of that week’s voting, Others may have thought Fantasia was not a good role model of American Idol due to her teenage pregnancy and dropping out of high school.
The final American Idol show saw more than sixty-five million votes being cast in order to determine the winner on May 26, 2004 and was the highest finale vote in the show’s history until May 23, 2007, when 17-year-old Jordin Sparks won the title. Fantasia was going up, up and away.
Fantasia participated in the American Idol U.S. tour with other finalists and appeared in the 2004 Christmas special, Kelly, Ruben and Fantasia: Home for the Holidays.
She released her debut single June, 2004 ‘I Believe, which later debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. This made Fantasia the first artist in history to achieve this with a first single. It was the number one single for 11 weeks, which gave it the longest consecutive stay on top of that chart for an American Idol contestant. The CD went on to become the top selling single of 2004 in the U.S., and has since been certified double platinum. Barrino also won three Billboard Awards for the single. In 2006, she was nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Barrino is also an author penning her memoirs (which she dictated to a free-lance writer,) ‘Life is not a Fairy Tale’ and played herself in a Lifetime Television film based on her autobiography August 19, 2006. The movie attracted 19 million viewers throughout its debut weekend and was the second most viewed program of all time. Barrino is starring in the Broadway Musical the Color Purple.
