Fantasia Monique Barrino was born on the 30th of June 1984 and has risen to be a star of R&B and soul music worldwide, often simply known as ‘Fantasia’. She was born and raised in North Carolina where she had a difficult childhood, including being raped at high school in ninth grade and then falling pregnant at age 16 from which she gave birth to a healthy girl, Zion. Her rise to fame came from an audition for the 2004 version of American Idol, where her soul-style singing gripped both the nation and the judges. She went on to subsequently win the contest and signed up a record deal. Since then her singles have been sold worldwide. For the final, she received 1.3 million votes on top of second place, giving her a large majority and leaving the audience in no doubt as to who had won. At the time she was then the youngest winner of the show.

Back in 2006, Fantasia released her memoirs in the form of an autobiography – a must read for all her fans. Unfortunately, her father sued her for $10m for libel against him in the book. This seems to highlight her hard childhood.

Over her career she has been nominated for a total of eight Grammys, four of which were for her debut album. Although she didn’t win any of the four for her album, she still performed at that year’s Grammy awards with some of the all time popular musical artists, including Maroon 5, Joss Stone, Aerosmith and Ciara.