Fantasia Barrino has been through a lot in the years following her 2004 victory on “American Idol.”
Her first album, “Free Yourself,” went platinum, she starred in a Lifetime movie based on her best-selling memoir “Life Is Not a Fairy Tale” — where she admitted to being functionally illiterate — then segued to a starring role on Broadway in “The Color Purple.”
But Barrino’s second album, “Fantasia,” was somewhat of a disappointment on the charts — and, in 2008, Fantasia almost lost her North Carolina mansion when creditors came knocking on her door. Still only 25, Barrino is now starring in “Fantasia For Real,” a new reality show premiering Jan. 11. The show tracks Barrino as she records her third album and interacts with the family members who live with her — all of whom she supports financially.
Q: Is this show a way for you to get back in touch with your fans?
A: 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.
Q: Were your financial problems a matter of getting bad advice?
A: When I talked about my management and acccountants and lawyers —all these people, I put my trust and life into their hands — they said they loved me and had my back. When I started doing ‘The Color Purple,’ people thought, ‘Oh, she must have this, she must have that,’ and that’s when all the lawsuits started coming out of the woodwork.
When you start dealing with big bucks, people say, ‘Hey, we’ll make up a case; we’ll figure something out,’ so I had all these different lawsuits coming at me that made no sense. I had some accountants I was with when I first started who did me wrong . . . they let my taxes go bad and didn’t pay my taxes . . . and I left them. And they decided they felt I owed them some money.
My lawyer said to me, ‘You go do what you do and I’ll take care of it.’ Well, he never took care of it and never showed up in court and the judge ended up granting [in favor of] the accountants who were coming after me . . . they came after my home and put it up for auction. It was so embarrassing; I have my whole family in my home and people started showing up at the doorbell and the news stations started coming by. It was just bogus to me.
I remember going into the living room and sitting down with my family and saying, ‘I prayed for this home. I asked God for the house I’m in now and I said I’m gonna put this all in God’s hands. The next day we settled and they left me alone. It was never that I didn’t have the money to pay my bills.
I think the thing that hurt me most is that the people who said they had my back and said they loved me all let me down.
Q: You’re supporting six people. Did you ever envision that happening — and does it bother you?
A: What happened was, I couldn’t rely on anybody else. I began to look around the house and there was nobody I could ask for help — I was the only one doing everything, and that’s when my eyes began to open. I said, ‘OK, wait, I’m enabling them all, and who’s gonna help me if I get sick and can’t sing for a while?’ And that did happen. I had to have two tumors removed from my vocal chords and I was off for six weeks . . . and I had nobody to lean on.
That’s when I decided to say to my family, ‘Hey, all of us are talented. Just don’t sit back wait on me to do everything because I may get sick one day and be waiting on you.’
Q: The tabloids were reporting your new love is Antwaun Cook. Are we going to see him in the show?
A: Let me tell you this: I am fully committed to my career right now. When I have a love, I think all of you guys will know. My life has always been an open book and it usually comes from my mouth. I don’t hold back on anything. So when I do start dating, you’ll here it from my mouth.