Fantasia Barrino - November 11, 2004

Here are some of the highlights from the Interview.

Raul: Now you’re playing the Queen of Soul. You’re so similar in your inflections and your tones. I mean, how does if feel to play Aretha?

Fantasia Barrino: It’s a challenge. Cause Aretha is… she’s a challenge to come by.

Raul: She’s powerful.

Fantasia Barrino: I know! So, I don’t know though. I love her, she’s my idol. Everything about her I love. As a little kid I was sick and she’d sing and I’d be like, she’s woozing me – she’s giving me chills. The thing about it, she loves music, she’s very passionate about it. There’s just something about the old school music too. It just has that joy to it.

Raul: And it’s not dated. It’s sounds fresh, still now.

Fantasia Barrino: I love Aretha. And when she comes out on the stage even now like when I watch her performances she comes out she’s so calm and collected and when she opens her mouth. It’s like ahhh… how can she stand that still and blow like that.

Raul: Have you met her yet?

Fantasia Barrino: I’ve not met her, but she called for me and I called her on the telephone to talk to her. She’s, I guess star struck really like… A lot of people come up to me and say How Does It Feel To Be A Star? And I’m like, I don’t feel like. Ya know. I don’t know when I meet those people I get star struck. So hopefully I get to meet with her, sit down and talk to her. I want to do something with her so hopefully we can do that. I hope so.

Raul: American Dreams is such a unique show. Have you watched it before?

Fantasia Barrino: I had watched a couple of performances. Brandy which is one of my favorites, I seen her play Gladys Knight and ya know Gladys Knight is one of my favorites too. Actually when I watched it I was like, I want to play Aretha on there. And look what happened. Watch the words that you speak cause it will, it happened. I was pretty excited about it. It’s just like a fun show. I’ve had a smile on my face since five o’clock this morning, and I don’t like to smile at five o’clock in the morning. I woke up and was like I’m gonna play Aretha Franklin today.