Fantasia Recalls Her Journey Through THE COLOR PURPLE

Like many others, Fantasia Barrino had dreams of starring on Broadway as a little girl.  However, when the dream became a reality, it was a tough journey that she did not see coming. The 2004 American Idol winner recalls the toughest parts of that journey to the Los Angeles Times as she prepares to take her final bow as Miss Celie in The Color Purple at the Pantages Theatre on February 28.  

She was first approached about The Color Purple in 2006 for the Broadway stage. She was 22 years old when she first played the character on Broadway in 2007.  She had no training for musical theater and "approached the role emotionally and instinctively, much in the way, she says, she leads her life."

Fantasia tells the LA Times of the end of her Broadway run: "Toward the end of ‘The Color Purple,' I was getting very sick and didn't know it... I would be dead, dead tired and very weak and sometimes dehydrated and no one knew what was going on. I would sweat a lot. Eventually, I went to the best doctor in L.A. and I had two tumors on top of each other down my throat, which were cutting off my breathing. I was busting blood vessels, which was why I tasted blood all the time. So now you have this thing of Fantasia missing 50 shows and it was more like a handful. I don't think they'd ask me to come back if I missed that many shows."

She improved after her 2008 surgery and decided to take on the role of Miss Celie once again for The Color Purple tour around the country, and will end her role in the show at the end of this month, at which time Fantasia predicts she will cry like a baby. 

To read the full article in the Los Angeles Times, click here.

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.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.