Fantasia Artistfacts

June 30, 1984
Fantasia (last name: Barrino) won the third season of American Idol in 2004 when the show was immensely popular. With that springboard, her first single, "I Believe," debuted a #1, the first time an Idol winner debuted at the top spot. The previous year's winner, Ruben Studdard, debuted at #2 with first single, bested by runner-up Clay Aiken's "This Is The Night."
Fantasia was born and raised in High Point, North Carolina in a family that was big into music, but not education. She dropped out of school in ninth grade and was functionally illiterate when she auditioned for American Idol.
Barrino went through some tough times after her American Idol win. She got in a legal dispute with her father and ran into financial difficulties. In 2010 she woke up in a hospital after overdosing on sleep aids and aspirin. A nurse there brought in a stack of magazines with stories about Barrino, many detailing how she overcame obstacles. The nurse told her to keep fighting, and Fantasia took the message to heart. She took steps to take better care of herself and in 2015, married the businessman Kendall Taylor, who she describes as her "soulmate."
On American Idol, Fantasia beat out Jennifer Hudson, who somehow finished seventh. In the final she beat Diana DeGarmo after both performed "I Believe."
Her three kids were each born 10 years apart. Daughter Zion was born in 2001 when Fantasia was 17. Her son Dallas was born in 2011, and daughter Keziah in 2021.
In her 2005 autobiography, Fantasia revealed that she had been molested when she was about 7 years old, a trauma that resurfaced in 2007 when she played Celie, a character who was also abused, in the Broadway production of The Color Purple. Barrino went through therapy to work through these issues.
She played herself in a 2006 Lifetime movie called Life Is Not a Fairy Tale: The Fantasia Barrino Story.
In 2023, Barrino played Celie in the second film adaptation of The Color Purple, based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker. The first film version, in 1985, starred Whoopi Goldberg in that role, which had a big impact on Barrino. "I was shocked and amazed to see a Black woman, full figure, broad nose, big lips, natural hair, going through some of the things that I could relate to," she told People.

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