'Idol 3' winner Fantasia Barrino wows 'em at Aretha Franklin tribute 

Reality TV World - Sep 09 3:35 PM

"American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino was getting raves Saturday for her performance at the taping of a tribute to Aretha Franklin in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Daily News described Fantasia's take on Aretha's classics "Rock Steady" and "Baby, I Love You" as being of "tore the roof" off quality.

Fantasia was among a gaggle of stars, including Natalie Cole, Ruben Studdard and Bebe Winans who covered Franklin's hits as part of a benefit for the United Negro College Fund.

Fantasia Helps Single Mums With Beauty Salon Business 

Former AMERICAN IDOL winner FANTASIA BARRINO is opening a chain of beauty salons aimed at raising cash for needy single mums. The BELIEVE singer, who is a single mum, will hand over proceeds from her new venture to a charity that benefits struggling families.

(8/28/06 - CONCORD, NC) - Fantasia Barrino is hoping to use hair spray and shampoo to help other single moms get on their feet. 

Barrrino and Carolina Panthers safety Mike Minter are partners in a project to open a chain of beauty salons that will fund a home to help single mothers. The first shop will open in Concord, North Carolina, this fall under the name Imaj Salon and Spa. Minter's sister, Rosalind Beaty, is the driving force behind the project.

She says she hopes to open franchises that will channel profits into a non-profit residential home for single mothers.

Biopic About Idol Contestant Pulls Huge Ratings 

A biopic about former American Idol contestant Fantasia Barrino was watched by 6.6 million viewers on the Lifetime Television cable channel in its debut last week and by an additional 12.4 million by the time reruns played out during the week. The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life Is Not a Fairy Tale, ranked second for the week with a 5.0 cable rating, behind the 5.6 rating for TNT's The Closer.

 Fantasia Barrino stars in film on her tough life, 'Idol' climb 

Right this very minute there are tens of thousands of hopeful young singers auditioning in front of bedroom mirrors who believe they could be the next "American Idol." They are believers because they've seen other people come from nowhere to win fame and fortune on that TV show — people like Fantasia Barrino, a young woman who was down and out until she climbed "Idol's" ladder to stardom in 2004 to become Season Three's winner.

She has sold millions of CDs, has a mantel full of awards and has an autobiography in bookstores. Tomorrow night she adds "actress" to her resume when she stars as herself in "The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life Is Not a Fairy Tale" at 9 p.m. on Lifetime, with repeats Sunday at 8 p.m. and Monday night at 9.

The movie is based on her memoir, which she hopes will inspire others.

Of course, like teenage boys who dream of playing in the NFL or the NBA, most dreamers who watch won't go as far or as fast as she did. She has another message for them in the film when she says the biggest mistake she ever made was dropping out of school.

The movie opens after she's well on her way to becoming a finalist on "American Idol" and gets a visit from two of the show's staffers in her dressing room. It's a key scene in the film, and in her life story, and it touched off a controversy.

A producer and a PR agent ask Barrino if she has heard the Internet chatter about her not being a role model because she was a school dropout and a single mother. They say they have gotten a lot of calls and e-mails about it.

"We wanted to bring it to your attention and see what you wanted to do," one of them says. "Are you feeling pressure?" the other one asks. "The choice is up to you. You can quit -- no shame," she is told.

Never happened, say "American Idol" executives.

"Under no circumstances was she ever approached to be talked out of taking part in the show," executive producer Ken Warwick told the New York Post. "We knew she had a baby right from day one, and she was strongly tipped to win the competition because she was so good."

Warwick went on to emphasize that nothing about quitting "was even remotely suggested to her … it's a complete fabrication."

Barrino and Lifetime declined to comment, according to several media sources.

Several shows have been embarrassed in the past few years when it was disclosed that contestants had skeletons in their closets. Entrants are now carefully screened, but in this case, Barrino had not done anything illegal or dishonest, and her life was literally an open book, as we see in this biography.

In the film, she doesn't immediately answer the producers' suggestion that she quietly drop out but turns instead and looks into her dressing room mirror. She doesn't like the image from the past she sees there. It's flashback time.

We start with an account of a 5-year-old High Point, N.C., girl who sang with her musically inclined family at her grandmother's church and was a big hit.

As she grows up, the last thing her mother (Viola Davis) and her grandmother (Loretta Devine) want for her is for her to become a single teenage mom, as they did. But that's just what happens after she's conned by a boyfriend who tells her she's pretty.

It's her Achilles' heel. She's always wanted to be pretty and has been teased by girls in school who say she isn't.

When she calls her boyfriend to tell him she's pregnant, he claims he's not the father -- and says he's watching a game and can't be bothered.

Her life pretty much goes downhill from there. She quits school despite a teacher's insistence that she can learn. She winds up stealing milk and diapers for the baby and tries to make ends meet with odd jobs.

Then a friend shows her an ad for "American Idol" auditions in Atlanta and urges her to try out. For a moment she's that 5-year-old girl who believes in herself again, and she decides to go for it.

Back in the dressing room, she rejects the producer's suggestion to quit, saying she's given up on herself too many times in life and won't do it again.

In the end she beats out 70,000 others and gets the winning share of a record 65 million votes on the show.

It's hard to know what the truth is about the alleged suggestion that she withdraw -- but it's a good thing for "American Idol" that she didn't.

Jamia Simone Nash plays the young Fantasia Barrino, who was a big hit singing with her family. 

Fantasia Barrino hopes her Lifetime movie, based on her memoir, will inspire others. She says her biggest mistake was quitting school.

* * Awards * *

2004 Billboard Top selling single of the year, "I Believe"

2004 Billboard Top selling R&B/Hip-Hop single of the year, "I Believe"

2005 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Female Artist

2005 Billboard-American Urban Radio Networks Top R&B/hip-hop single (sales), "I Believe"

2005 American Music Awards- Favorite Soul/R&B Album- Nominated

2005 American Music Awards- Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist- Nominated

2006 Grammy Awards- Best Female R&B Vocal Performance- Nominated ("Free Yourself")

2006 Grammy Awards- Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance- Nominated ("Summertime")

2006 Grammy Awards- Best R&B Song- Nominated ("Free Yourself")

2006 Grammy Awards- Best R&B Album- Nominated (Free Yourself)

* * Discography * *

Albums

Free Yourself (2004, J Records) US: #8 (Top 200) #2 (R&B & Hip-Hop) 1.8 million copies sold in the US (Platinum)

Singles

* * Fantasia Links* *

* * Fantasia Barrino Articles and Interviews * *

• Exerpt: Fantasia Barrino’s “Life Is Not A Fairy Tale” (ABCNews.go.com: Sept. 30, 2005)

• Fantasia Barrino Can’t Read (TheSuperficial.com: Oct.3, 2005)

• Fantaisa Barrino Declared  New “American Idol” (ManilaTimes.com: May 28, 2004)

• Fantasia Barrino On Her Future:  “I’m Still Gonna Be Barefoot” (MTV.com: June 2, 2004)

• The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life Is Not a Fairytale (Press Release: PopStarsPlus.com: Aug. 10, 2006)

• Fantastic Fantasia Barrino (CBSNews.com: June 2, 2004)

• “Idol”-izing Fantasia (Joal Ryan: Eonline.com: May 26, 2004)

* * Fantasia Barrino Pictures * *

(photos, photographs, gallery)

AmericanIdolFantasiaBarrino.com | AOL.com | Celebrity-Mania.com | EW.com

Fantasia Barrino Photo Gallery |  Google.com | PopStarsPlus.com | StarPulse.com
StarsWeLove.com | SuperiorPics.com | TeenMusic.com | TV.com | WireImage.com

* * Fantasia Barrino Links Pages * *

Celebrity-Link.com | Clago.com | SirLinksAlot.com | WomenCelebs.com

* * Fantasia Barrino Quotations * *

BrainyQuote.com | ThinkExist.com