Fantasia

Fantasia Bio

Fantasia Monique Barrino (June 30, 1984), popularly known as just Fantasia, is a Grammy award winning singer who is known for her win on the 3rd season of American Idol in 2004. The North Carolina native won over American Idol fans with her finale performance of Porgy and Bess’ hit, ‘Summertime’. In the same year, following her win and her signing with J Records, Fantasia debuted her first single, ‘I Believe’, while working on her first studio album. ‘I Believe’ peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was said that she was the first contestant from American Idol to hit number 1 with a debut single. ‘I Believe’ went on to be certified by CRIA as double platinum. By the end of the year, Fantasia released her debut studio album, ‘Free Yourself’ which was also certified platinum by CRIA. Singles from the album, such as ‘Truth Is’ and ‘Free Yourself’ held the top two positions on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Fantasia’s powerhouse vocals were leading the charts in 2004 and throughout 2005, she spent most of the year performing live to promote her album. She was featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and performed at the 36th NAACP Image Awards honouring Senator Barack Obama. In the same year, she went on her first tour with Kem and Rashaan Peterson and was the opening act to Kanye West’s Touch The Sky tour. In 2005, she received 3 Grammy Nominations and presently, has 12 Grammy nominations all together. Her follow up album, ‘Fantasia’, was released in 2007 featuring production by Missy Elliot, Babyface and Swizz Beatz among many others. ‘Fantasia’ was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album at the 50th Grammy Awards. It was not until her third album, ‘Back to Me’ with her single, ‘Bittersweet’, off the album that won her her first Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, while the album was nominated for Best R&B Album. On top of her commercial success, Fantasia featured in a film about her life, ‘The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life Is Not A Fairytale’ and performed on Broadway for the musical hit The Color Purple in 2007. Fantasia’s fourth album followed in 2013 titled ‘Side Effects of You’, followed by her fifth album, ‘The Definition of…’ in 2016. Fantasia’s career has been very prosperous and currently is still making music at 36. Her 2007 single ‘When I See U’ has 64 million plays on Spotify.