Fantasia Monique Barrino-Taylor (born June 30, 1984), also known mononymously as Fantasia, is an American singer and actress. She rose to prominence in 2004 with her performance of the Porgy and Bess standard "Summertime" during the third season of American Idol, becoming that season's winner. Following her victory, Barrino became the second artist after Lauryn Hill to have their first commercial single debut atop the Billboard Hot 100 with her 2004 song, "I Believe". It went on to become the best-selling single in the United States that year.
Barrino's debut album, Free Yourself (2004), received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and was nominated in three categories at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards. Her eponymous second album (2006) spawned the single "When I See U", which peaked within the Billboard Hot 100's top 40. Her third and fourth albums, Back to Me (2010) and Side Effects of You (2013), both peaked at number two on the Billboard 200.
Barrino released her New York Times best-selling autobiography Life Is Not a Fairy Tale (2005), which was adapted into a 2006 television film starring her. She portrayed Celie Johnson in the Broadway musical The Color Purple from 2007 to 2008, which earned her a Theatre World Award for Best Debut Performance. She reprised her role in the 2023 film adaptation, for which she earned nominations for a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actress and won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture.
She has earned over a dozen top ten hits on the Adult R&B Airplay chart, with Billboard ranking her among the top female artists of the 21st century. Her accolades include two Billboard Music Awards and a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her single "Bittersweet", along with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2024, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people.
Barrino was born to Diane and Joseph Barrino and raised in High Point, North Carolina. She began singing at the age of five. R&B duo K-Ci & JoJo are her first cousins. Her uncles, The Barrino Brothers, were a 1970s R&B band.
She attended Andrews High School in High Point, North Carolina. Feeling embarrassed and harassed after she was raped by a classmate, she dropped out of high school. She became pregnant at 16, and on August 8, 2001, she gave birth to a daughter with her ex-boyfriend Brandel Shouse.
2004–2005: American Idol and Free Yourself
Barrino's show was a staging of the Porgy and Bess standard "Summertime" that left her in tears from "feeling the song" and earned praise from the judges and was named amongst the AOL's 2004 list of greatest television moments.
For the final performance of the season, Barrino offered a second performance of "Summertime" that again drew praise from the judges; 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. On the finale, over 65 million votes were cast to determine the winner on May 26, 2004, up from 24 million in 2003. Barrino defeated runner-up Diana DeGarmo by 1.3 million votes. At age 19, she was the youngest American Idol winner until May 23, 2007, when then 17-year-old Jordin Sparks won the title.
Barrino participated in the U.S. tour with the other American Idol finalists, and appeared in the 2004 Christmas special, Kelly, Ruben and Fantasia: Home for the Holidays as well.
Barrino's brother auditioned for the eighth season of American Idol but failed to make it to the Hollywood round.
^Note 1: When Ryan Seacrest announced the results in the particular night, Barrino was in the bottom two, but declared safe when LaToya London was eliminated.
After winning American Idol, Barrino 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 Barrino the first artist in history to achieve this with a first single. On the sales chart, the single spent eleven consecutive weeks at number one, giving it the longest consecutive stay on top of that chart for an American Idol contestant. The CD single, "I Believe", went on to become the top selling single of 2004 in the U.S., and has since been certified double platinum by the CRIA. She also won three Billboard Music Awards for the single.
Barrino released her debut studio album, Free Yourself, in November 2004. It debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200, selling 240,000 copies in its first week. To date, it has sold over two million copies worldwide, and was certified Platinum in the U.S. The singles "Truth Is" and "Free Yourself" became R&B hits, reaching number two and number three respectively on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, while the controversial "Baby Mama"—which critics accused of romanticizing single motherhood—reached the top twenty. Barrino did even better on the Billboard Hot Adult R&B Airplay, where she was the first artist of any kind to simultaneously hold the top two spots of the top three, and "Truth Is" spent 14 weeks at the number one position. Barrino was named the number-one artist of the Adult Urban Contemporary format for 2005 according to the December 13, 2005, issue of Billboard magazine.
Through the spring and winter of 2005, Barrino 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. She appeared three times as a musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 25, 2005, Barrino 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, Barrino went on her first tour with her own live band, with soul singers Kem and Rashaan 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, she received good notices as an opening act for Kanye West's Touch the Sky Tour.
2006–2007: Fantasia, acting debut and Broadway
In 2006, Barrino was nominated for three Grammy Awards for her debut album. Though she did not win any awards, she performed at the 48th annual telecast with several 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 Award show. In August 2006, Barrino played herself in a Lifetime Television film based on her autobiography Life Is Not a Fairy Tale. The film was directed by Debbie Allen and debuted on August 19, 2006. The movie received nineteen million viewers throughout its debut weekend. The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life is Not a Fairy Tale has also become the network's second most viewed program of all time. In 2006, Barrino released her second album Fantasia, that featured the single "When I See U", which topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for eight weeks.
Barrino had many musical collaborations during the fall of 2006 including a remake of The Clark Sisters' "Endow Me" which featured Faith Evans, Lil' Mo, and Coko of SWV; a remake of Stevie Wonder's 1976 song "I Wish" with Patti LaBelle and Yolanda Adams for the soundtrack to the 2006 animated film Happy Feet; and most notably her duet with Aretha Franklin "Put You Up on Game", which was recorded at that time and later released in 2007.