Fantasia Barrino Biography
Fantasia Barrino famously known as “Fantasia” is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and author. She came to the spotlight as the winner of the third season of the American Idol in 2004. she released her debut single, “I Believe,” which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Barrino released her debut single, “I Believe,” which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequently, she released her debut album, Free Yourself, which went on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA and earned Barrino three Grammy nominations in 2006.
Fantasia 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.
Fantasia Barrino Age
She was born on June 30, 1984. She is currently 35 years old as of 2019.
Fantasia Barrino Height
Fantasia stands at an average height of 5 feet and 5 inches.
Fantasia Barrino 2019
Barrino is in the middle of touring arenas and theaters across the country, but when I get her on the phone she’s unwinding at home in North Carolina.
“I saw we had three days off in the schedule, and I said oh yeah, I’m gonna go home, go in my kitchen, cook for my kids,” says Barrino, a mother of two, initially sounding exhausted from weeks of giving it her all on stage. “It’s weird when I’m tired, I get my energy back by coming home and being a mom. I never want my kids to grow up and say, my mom was very talented, she did some great things, but she was never there.”
Although She released the holiday collection Christmas After Midnight on Rock Soul in 2017, Sketchbook is her first full-scale release of original songs as an independent artist. Taking a gamble on both the business side and the creative side has worked out well: The album has topped Billboard’s R&B Albums chart for two weeks, and the lead single “Enough” peaked at #2 on the Adult R&B chart, her biggest radio hit in six years.
If American Idol was a performing boot camp that required Barrino to sing several genres of music, she’s only proven to be even more adventurous in the past 15 years: She sang jazz with the National Symphony Orchestra and opera with Andrea Bocelli, and she starred in the Broadway musical of The Color Purple.
But as a major label artist, she rarely got to explore her full range as a musician on her albums. “Don’t get me wrong, I have great relationships at everyone over at RCA,” she says. “They just tried to lock me into this R&B genre. There’s nothing wrong with that because I’m a soul and I will forever be soul, but there were so many parts of me musically that the world did not know about.”
As much as Barrino speaks of Sketchbook and the tour in support of it with pride, she also states, a little elliptically, that she won’t be doing anything else like this again in the future. “This is my last tour,” she says. “There’s something different that I must do, that I won’t talk about now.”
Sketchbook, like her past albums, closes with a gospel song, and if I had to guess, I would say she might be on the verge of an Al Green-like turn from secular soul to full-time worship music. But all Barrino will say for now is that she’s committed to making this final run of shows special. “I’m gonna take it out with a bang.”
Fantasia Barrino Career
Life was not always easy for Barrino but In an effort to start fresh, she packed her bags and moved to neighboring Greensboro. She then auditioned for “American Idol” in Atlanta. Surviving eliminations after landing on the bottom three twice, she was eventually crowned the winner in a finale that drew the highest finale vote in the show’s history until 2007 when Jordin Spark won the title.
In 2004, Fantasia released her debut single, “I Believe”, which entered at the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequently, she released her debut album, “Free Yourself”, which went on to be certified Platinum by the RIAA and garnered her four Grammy nominations in 2006. She performed at the live telecast with Aerosmith, Joss Stone, John Legend, Maroon 5 and Ciara in an all-star tribute to Sly and the Family Stone.
While preparing for her sophomore set, Fantasia expanded her career into the acting world. In August 2006, she played herself in a Lifetime Television film “Life Is Not a Fairy Tale” based on her autobiography. It got an overwhelmingly good response and became Lifetime’s second most viewed program of all time back then. She later went to Broadway, taking the lead role on “The Color Purple” and received rave reviews for it.
In 2006, she released her second album, “Fantasia”, which featured the number-one R&B hit “When I See U”. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA and received three Grammy nominations in 2008. Two years later, “Back to Me” was released as her third effort. It was followed by her first-ever solo concert tour in the fall of 2010.
Unfortunately, her personal life was not as smooth as her career. In a divorce filing, she’s accused of having a year-long affair with a married man Antwaun Cook, but she vehemently denied it insisting that they dated after Cook split from his wife. Amid the alleged scandal, she was hospitalized due to overdosing on aspirin and unknown sleep aid, which she later confirmed as a suicide attempt.
A year later, she announced her second pregnancy but did not reveal who the father was. She gave birth to a baby boy in December 2011. After her second child was born, she was hard at work finishing her next studio installment. “Side Effects of You” came out in 2013 as her fourth studio album. Featuring BIG K.R.I.T, Kelly Rowland and Missy Elliott, it soared to No. 2 on Hot 200.
Fantasia Barrino Husband
Fantasia had a troubled childhood and an estranged relationship with her father. She did not complete high school and considered herself illiterate when it came to signing documents. She had a number of affairs that led her to an abortion. She also went through a failed suicide attempt.
She finally got hold of herself by devoting her life to music. She gave birth to her second child, Dallas Xavier Barrino, on December 13, 2011. She began dating businessman Kendall Taylor in 2013 and married him in July 2015, after which she had a more stable lifestyle.
Fantasia Barrino Net Worth
From her career Fantasia has managed to accumulate a net worth of 5 million dollars as of 2019.
Fantasia Barrino When I See You
She recorded “When I See You” for her second album “Fantasia” in 2006. Upon release, it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and spent a year on the chart, one of only fourteen songs in history to achieve that feat. It was eventually ranked eighth on the chart’s decade-end ranking. In December 2007, “When I See U” earned two Grammy Award nominations for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. It lost in both categories to Alicia Keys’ “No One” at the 50th Grammy Awards ceremony.
Fantasia Barrino Popular Songs
- Bad Girl
- Free Yourself
- Got Me Waiting
- Baby Mama
- Ain’t Gon’ Beg You
- Believer
- PTSD
- Enough
- Falling in Love Tonight
- When I See U
- Collard Greens & Cornbread
- I’m Doin’ Me
Fantasia Barrino Albums
- Free Yourself
- Fantasia
- Back To Me
- Side Effects of You
- The Definition Of…
- Christmas After Midnight
- Sketchbook
Fantasia Barrino Instagram
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