2. Who is Fantasia Barrino?
Full name is Fantasia Monique
Barrino, but goes by the name
Fantasia.
Fantasia Barrino was born and
raised High Point, North
Carolina to Joseph and Dianne
Barrino.
Fantasia’s singing style was
shaped by the example of
gospel singers like Shirley
Caesar and The Clark Sisters,
and by rhythm & blues singers
such as Aretha Franklin and
Chaka Khan
3. Tragic Moments!
She attended Andrews High School in High Point,
North Carolina
Where she became raped by a classmate. After
she was raped she was left harassed and
embarrassed and drop out of high school.
She became pregnant at age 17 on August 8,
2001, gave birth to her daughter, Zion Quari
Barrino.
4. Miracle’s Do Exist.
Fantasia then moved to neighboring
Greensboro, North Carolina before trying out for
the American Idol Auditions in Atlanta.
Barrino’s audition version of Tina Turner’s “Proud
Mary” made her an early favorite in the
competition.
Her standout performance during the course of
the show was a heartfelt staging of the Porgy
and Bess standard “Summertime” that left her in
tears from "feeling the song" and earned praise
from the judges.
5. Success Begins.
•One of the judges called it the
best performance in the show's
history - and was named the
Emmy Award’s 2004 list of greatest
television moments.
•Simon Cowell remarked that she
was the best contestant to ever
compete in any competition,
including the more than seventy
Idol champions crowned
nationally and internationally
since the show began its first
global incarnations.
6. Just Beginning.
•After winning American Idol,
Fantasia signed to J Records with
19 Entertainment and began work
on her debut album.
•In June 2004, she released her
debut single “I Believe,” which
later debuted at number one on
the Billboard Hot 100.
•This number-one debut made
Fantasia the first artist in history to
achieve this with a first single.
•Her music inspired many people.
7. Becoming Big.
Through the spring and winter of 2005, Fantasia
made many television appearances to promote
her album. She played Aretha Franklin in an
episode of the series American Dreams.
Fantasia performed at the thirty-sixth NAACP
image awards in honor of Illinois Senator Barack
Obama after winning the award for Outstanding
Female Artist.
In May 2005, Fantasia went on her first tour with
her own live band, with soul singers Kem and
Rashaan Pattersoon.
8. The Color Purple.
After appearing on
American Idol and The
Oprah Wifrey Show the
musical received a boost of
over two million in pre-ticket
sales in one week.
Leading up to her first
performance on April 10,
2007 the play garnered a
total of 6.5 million in pre-
ticket sales.
In 2006, Barrino was
nominated for four Grammy
Awards for her debut
album.
In February 2007, Fantasia
appeared and performed
on American Idol, and
announced that she would
be starring in the lead role
of Celie in the Broadway
musical The Color Purple.
9. Life Is Not Always A Fairy Tale.
The New York Post reported
that Barrino missed nearly
fifty performances in the
show, causing the
producers to give back tens
of thousands of dollars in
refunds.
She was ordered to
immediately undergo surgery
which later revealed that she
in fact had a tumor on her
vocal cords. She now reports
that after a successful
surgery, the tumor was
completely removed and she
is now well.
The Color Purple box office
saw a thirty-four-million-
dollar jump in sales since
Barrino started in the show,
a third of the play's 100
million dollar earning since
its debut in 2005.
In the September 2008 issue
of Sister 2 Sister magazine,
Barrino revealed that the
reason for her absences in
The Color Purple was
because of the
development of a cyst on
her vocal cords.
10. Can’t Get Any Better.
In September 2005, Barrino published a
memoir, dictated to a freelance writer, titled
Life Is Not A Fairy Tale. The book became a
New York Times best-seller, reaching number
seven on the list.
In it, she revealed she is functionally illiterate
and was unable to read the text of
contracts she signed or to read to her then
four-year-old daughter.
Fantasia has struggles with her new life style
but always manages to get through it.
