North Carolina native Fantasia broke on to the scene in 2004 as the season three winner of Fox’s American Idol. Later that year, she released her platinum-selling debut album Free Yourself and became the first artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart to debut at #1 with her first single, “I Believe.” 

Fantasia’s second album, released in 2006, featured the #1 R&B single “When I See U,” and reached gold status. In 2010, Fantasia earned her first Grammy Award for the hit single “Bittersweet,” off her third album Back to Me. Side Effects of You followed in 2013, debuting at #1 on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart and #2 on the Billboard Top 200. 

In addition to being a mainstay in music, Fantasia released her New York Times best-selling memoir, Life Is Not a Fairytale in 2006 and starred as herself in the Lifetime movie of the same name. In 2007, Fantasia landed the coveted role of Celie in Broadway’s The Color Purple for which she won a Theater World Award. Fast forward to 2019, Fantasia’s “Sketchbook” album reached No. 5 on Billboard’s R&B Album Chart. In 2023, she is set to reprise her role on Broadway as Celie in “The Color Purple.”