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Fantasia Monique Barrino (born June 30, 1984), or simply Fantasia, is a popular American soul Grammy-nominated singer who rose to fame as the winner of the third season of the television series American Idol in 2004. Her debut album Free Yourself was a commercial success garnering four Grammy nominations. Fantasia was also named the
Early life Born and raised in High Point, North Carolina, to an African American mother and an Afro-Trinidadian father, Fantasia began singing in her church at the age of five as a member of a singing group with her parents and siblings. The Barrino Family travelled and performed in The Carolinas and elsewhere in the American South and recorded the CD Miracles for a local label. Fantasia's singing style was shaped by the example of gospel singers like Shirley Caesar and The Clark Sisters. R&B legends such as Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, and Chaka Khan also left a strong impact on young Fantasia. After a sexual assault that left her feeling embarrassed and harassed Fantasia dropped out of high school. In a later relationship Fantasia became pregnant. At age 17, on August 8, 2001, Fantasia gave birth to Zion Quari' Barrino. Fantasia and her boyfriend tried to make life as a family work, but the rocky relationship did not last. Fantasia was left as an unemployed single teenage mother. Fantasia's grandfather, Curtis Barrino, was a gospel singer in the 1950's and early 1960's with a group called the Emanuel Harmonizers. Fantasia's uncles Perry, Nate and Julius Barrino formed the Barrino Brothers in the early seventies. The group recorded two albums for the Invictus label, a Motown offshoot that also gave Parliament their first break. Fantasia's father is the youngest Barrino brother. Joe Barrino sang in a gospel group called Little Cedric and the Hailey Singers. Fantasia's cousins are Cedric and Joel Hailey, better known as R&B singers K-Ci and JoJo who along with the DeGrate brothers formed singing group Jodeci in 1990. Fantasia's brothers Ricco and JoJo formed the group Infinite 3 and became driving forces behind the Othaz Records label in Greensboro, NC. In July 2006 Othaz Records signed a distribution deal with Universal Music Group. Ricco Barrino is a backup singer in Fantasia's touring band. American Idol
I Believe Now billed as just Fantasia, she released her first single in June 2004 on the RCA record label. The single included "I Believe" – cowritten by former Idol contestant Tamyra Gray (who also sang backup on it) – which Fantasia performed on the finale of Idol, the Aretha Franklin hit "Chain of Fools" (released before on an American Idol compilation), and her signature version of "Summertime". The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number one, the first artist to do so with her first record. * On the sales chart, the single spent 11 consecutive weeks at number one (10 weeks in Canada), giving it the longest consecutive stay at Free Yourself Fantasia released an album, Free Yourself, in November 2004. It debuted at Celebrity Support Aretha Franklin: On an episode of Live with Regis & Kelly, Fantasia revealed that Aretha Franklin returned her call and left a message on her answering machine saying "This is Aretha, I'm calling for my child." (Fantasia had called her previously and addressed her cordially as 'mama'.) Stevie Wonder: Fantasia performed to honor Stevie Wonder at the 2005 "An Evening of Stars" event held by the United Negro College Fund. He applauded her performances cheerfully and yelled that he loved her. Elton John: Fantasia performed to honor Elton John at the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors. John shut his eyes during Fantasia's short performance of his song "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", then saluted her afterwards. John also made it clear after his appearance on A.I in 2004 that he felt it was unfair that Fantasia was amongst those competitors who appeared in the bottom group of performers. Jamie Foxx: Jamie foxx was interviewed with Fantasia and Clive Davis at Clive's Pre-Grammy party 2005 and said he would do a duet with Fantasia. Weeks later at the NAACP awards, he stood during Fantasia's standing ovation, wildly clapping and cheering Fantasia. Jamie also performed a sexy impromptu duet with Fantasia at the Clive Davis Pre-Grammy party February 2006. In June 2006, Jamie and Fantasia performed another duet as well as an intimate infamous kiss at the 2006 BET awards. 2005-Present Through 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, singing "Respect", guest voiced on The Simpsons episode "A Star is Torn", and guest starred as herself in a cameo role on the sitcom All Of Us. Fantasia appeared three times as a musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 25, 2005, Fantasia performed at the 36th NAACP Image Awards in honor of Illinois Senator Barack Obama after winning the award for Outstanding Female Artist. In May and June 2005 Fantasia went on her first tour with her own live band, supporting soul singers Kem and Rahsaan Patterson. She also appeared as a headliner at several music festivals including the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival and the Reggae Sumfest in Jamaica. In October 2005, Fantasia received good notices as an opening act for Kanye West's Touch the Sky Tour. * In the late summer of 2005, Fantasia collaborated with Lyfe Jennings on his single "Hypothetically". Life is Not a Fairy Tale
2006 Grammy Awards In 2006, Fantasia was nominated for three Grammy Awards, making her the first Idol to receive that many nominations. Fantasia performed with several well-known artists including Aerosmith, Joss Stone, John Legend, Maroon 5 and Ciara in an all-star tribute to Sly and the Family Stone during the Grammy Awards. Sophomore Album Fantasia's self-titled sophomore album will be released Tuesday, December 12 2006. In interviews in the Summer of 2006 Fantasia has said the first single off of her next album is to hit airwaves in September. She has also stated that her sophomore effort will be much different from Free Yourself and will have a "young girl, old soul" effect. Work on the album continued in late July 2006. In Summer 2006, Fantasia discontinued work with 19 Management and fired all of her advisors from the American Idol company.* This could mean that Fantasia is distancing herself from the American Idol image. Fantasia has moved on from American Idol and their management team (19 Entertainment) to find a new home with the R&B and Hip Hop heavy weight Violator Management. Missy Elliott will return as one of the writers on her second album. Ne-Yo, Kanye West, Sean Garrett, Tweet, Tank, Cee-Lo Green, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Big Boi of Outkast, Diane Warren and Maroon 5's Adam Levine have also been confirmed as contributors. Production duo Midi Mafia, best known for their 50 Cent hit '21 Questions', claims to have contributed five tracks to the project. One highly anticipated track is Fantasia's duet with Aretha Franklin. 'It's going to be an event record,' according to producer Harvey Mason Jr. 'They're both going at it back and forth. It's great.' * Fantasia's management company, Violator, posted 4 songs from Fantasia's upcoming album on her official myspace page. The songs are "Hood Boy", "When I See U", "I Nominate U", and a new track titled "Not The Way That I Do" which was produced by Kwame. Also, recently, Fantasia has posted new blogs on her myspace page to keep fans updated on what she's doing. "Hood Boy" featuring Big Boi has been confirmed as the first single off of Fantasia's new album. The song was produced by upcoming production team Tone Mason and written by Johntà Austin. The video will be shot in the next 2 weeks. Also, Fantasia's official website is being revamped for the new album. The cover of Fantasia's new album has appeared on Amazon. Upcoming Projects & More Barrino played herself in a Lifetime Television movie based on her autobiography Life Is Not A Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story. The movie was directed by Debbie Allen and debuted on the women’s cable network on Saturday, August 19, 2006 at 9:00pm ET/PT. The movie was highly successful receiving 19 million viewers throughout its debut weekend. This made it the most viewed basic cable program on television. Life Is Not A Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story has also become Lifetime's second most viewed program of all time.* Fantasia appeared on soul legend & Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Sam Moore's new album Overnight Sensational on a remake of the Diane Warren penned hit "Blame It On The Rain." Fantasia also appears along with Faith Evans and Lil Mo on Coko of SWV's new gospel album Grateful on a remake of The Clark Sisters classic "Endow Me." She is also featured on the Happy Feet soundtrack where she duets with Patti LaBelle and Yolanda Adams on a remake of Stevie Wonder's "I Wish." Another collaboration she will appear on is the new album of rapper Baby Boy Da Prince on a song entitled "They Don't Know." Fantasia will also be featured on Aretha Franklin's new album A Woman Falling Out Of Love (due out January 2007) on a duet with Franklin entitled "Let Me Put You Up On Game." In the same month Fantasia will be featured on the nationally televised UNCF's An Evening Of Stars: Tribute To Aretha Franklin where she is scheduled to perform "Baby, I Love You" and Rock Steady".* Fantasia has stated she may go on tour with Jamie Foxx. Wins Nominations Albums Singles Guest Contributions Filmography See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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