Fantasia Barrino Talks Documentary 'Fantasia For Real' With New York Post

Six years after she was crowned the winner on AMERICAN IDOL, Fantasia Barrino is inviting cameras into her life once again for a VH1 Documentary called 'Fantasia For Real'. In an interview with the New York Post, Barrino discusses her reasons for agreeing to the documentary, and also opens up about her recent financial setbacks.

Barrino tells the New York Post that the upcoming VH1 documentary, which airs Monday, January 11 at 10PM ET on VH1, will enable her to re-connect to her fan base, "This show is going to do a lot of things I felt needed to be done. I never stepped out of the spotlight, but I haven't had an album in two years. I guess the main reason I wanted to do the show is because things began going downhill for me in 2008 - the foreclosure, illiteracy, all types of things coming out - and I felt like people were sitting back and watching all these things go downhill. So, when I got brand-new management and brand-new accountants and lawyers - people I felt were a godsend for me - I wanted people to sit back and watch me as I rebuild my dynasty."

To read the rest of the interview in the New York Post, click here.

Since her victory on AMERICAN IDOL, Barrino has kept busy. She published a bestselling memoir titled 'Life is Not a Fairy Tale' in which she addresses, amongst other challenges, her functional illiteracy and her ordeal as a victim of sexual assault while she was in her teens. Barrino also starred in a Lifetime movie about her life, and in 2007, she made her Broadway debut as 'Celie' in THE COLOR PURPLE for which she received critical acclaim.

Fantasia made her Broadway debut in THE COLOR PURPLE on April 10, 2007. She won the 2007 Theater World Award and received across the board rave reviews, with Clive Barnes of The New York Post exclaiming "Four cheers for Fantasia! There is some elemental quality to Fantasia that is either greatness or something close to it. I feel a lot in the theater but usually I don't cry. With this performance, I found tears running down my cheeks. If you haven't seen THE COLOR PURPLE, see it now; if you have seen it, see it again. Something extraordinary is happening at the Broadway theatre that is not to be missed." The Daily News' Joe Dziemianowicz shouts out "Fantasia is a hit in THE COLOR PURPLE. Her performance is a must-see. Fantasia gives such a powerful performance it's almost too beautiful for words!"

As a 19-year old single mother, Fantasia began her path to international stardom when she became the winner of FOX's hugely successful audience-driven singing competition in May 2004. Now 23, Barrino has garnered critical acclaim for the release of both her debut album, Free Yourself, which marked her becoming the first artist in Billboard Hot 100 chart history to debut at #1 with her debut single "I Believe," and her second album, FANTASIA, released by J Records on December 12, 2006. To date, she has gathered more than 20 award nominations including Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, Vibe Awards, Soul Train Awards and Soul Train "Lady of Soul" Awards, Billboard Music Awards and R&B & Hip Hop Awards, BET Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and Teen Choice Awards.

No stranger to acting, Fantasia also broke records of a different kind after authoring a New York Times best-selling autobiography Life Is Not A Fairy Tale (Simon & Schuster, September 2005) and starring in The Fantasia Barrino Story: Life is Not a Fairytale, the Debbie Allen-directed Lifetime original movie adaptation of her truthful, outspoken, and ultimately healing memoir in August 2006. For her performance, she was nominated for a 2007 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. The biopic, also nominated as Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for the 2007 NAACP Image Awards, ranks as the channel's second most watched movie and has been seen by 19 million viewers.

With her Broadway debut as Celie, the heart and soul of THE COLOR PURPLE, she added the distinction of being the first ever American Idol winner to star in a Broadway show.

 

 

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