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American Idol champion Fantasia Barrino ran away with her thrilling third season win and has gone on to give her fans two solid, soulful R&B albums to date. The young diva is blessed with a classic, powerful voice that would make her idols Gladys Knight and Patti Labelle proud. Fantasia started her musical journey singing gospel hymns with her family. The Barrinos would tour the churches of the South and Fantasia has always credited her strong faith with helping her overcome difficult times and keeping her grounded now that she's found fame. Fantasia was sexually assaulted in high school and she dropped out soon after the incident. She says she felt irrationally embaressed and ashamed and has since spoken candidly about the incident in hopes that she can save other girls from the same ordeal. However, the aspiring gospel phenom was related to smooth R&B duo K-CI & JoJo and her uncles had diverse gospel scene connections-once she decided music was the way to go, her family connections were purely encouraging. For her American Idol debut, Fantasia killed Tina Turner's "Proud Marry" and, during the performance, her gospel roots were readily apparent. However, it was her steamy rendition of the hot Porgy & Bess classic "Summertime" the caught viewers attention-her vocal phrasing put her own interpretation on the classic tune. Indeed, it was a second interpretation of "Summertime" that won Fantasia the praise of Simon Cowell and secured her 1.3 million victory margin. Fantasia's debut LP I Believe lived up to the hype and the title track, "I Believe" went triple platinum.

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