FANTASIA BARRINO

JOANA GONZALEZBLOCK 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.