Fantasia�s Faith
HIGH POINT -- Mercy Outreach Church of Deliverance bills itself as "the church with a vision." The slogan appears on the sign that greets drivers on Meadowbrook Drive, a stretch of country asphalt in Trinity, about two miles south of High Point.
But the sign draws the eye with the name beneath those words: Fantasia "BoBo" Barrino. Television viewers across the nation are on a first-name basis with the 19-year-old singer whose big, brassy singing chops have taken her to the finals of "American Idol."
"It was prophesied about this church that one of us would go out and be known in the whole nation," deacon Ray Collins, Barrino's grandfather, said in an impromptu Bible study before Sunday's service. "God sent Fantasia to be that spokesperson."
Barrino is the granddaughter of pastor Addie Collins, who founded the church a little over five years ago in the basement of her house at 1058 Montlieu Ave. in High Point, and the daughter of co-pastor Diane Barrino.
As the church's praise team leader and choir director, Barrino is a powerful presence at Mercy Outreach, even when she's 2,500 miles away in Los Angeles. It's easy to place her emotional style and larger-than-life aplomb within the walls of this "shouting church," led by pastors who stoke a holy fire and members who don't mind laying their burdens down.
Her "anointing" spirit, as her grandmother calls it, began at church, where Barrino has been singing since she was 5. At Mercy Outreach, the blues-tinged gospel with jazzy improvisation is a joyful and essential part of worship. Barrino created the "BoBo," that hopping dance step she does on "American Idol," at Mercy Outreach and taught it to praise team members.
"The judges asked her about the dance she was doing, and she told them it was the BoBo," her grandfather said. "The judges started calling her that."
The church has about 150 members, but the Sunday before the show's finale, only about 50 arrived for worship. Plenty of room remained in the pews.
"It's because so many people went out to L.A. to support Fantasia," said her cousin Kadejia Washington, 18, who raises her strong soprano in the church choir and praise team.
Washington, along with Tammy White and Barrino's cousin Nikima Allen, led the praise team Sunday. Even without Barrino and Sherri Archie, who also traveled to Los Angeles, they ably ushered in the spirit with their rendition of "Lord Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary."
As the music poured forth, the Rev. Margaret Kenan danced so hard she sank to the pulpit's purple-carpeted floor. An usher hurriedly covered the moaning woman with a white sheet. A second pastor, the Rev. Terrell Kenan, put down his microphone in midsentence and ran toward the back of the church, loping in time to the music. Then the Rev. Jesse Fernandez prayed for the Lord to bestow favor upon Fantasia and her family.
"FAAAAvuh God!" he shouted in a high-pitched voice, head tilted upward and eyes tightly closed, with both arms outstretched to the heavens. "FAAAAAAvuh!"
The shimmering sound of a lone tambourine seemed to come from everywhere. The dancing, moaning and praying pastors were joined by most of the people in the front pews, their spirited dancing accompanied by gospel music that oozed with soul.
The Rev. L.J. Tisdale preached a sermon titled "Against All Odds." It wasn't about Fantasia, but the theme was suited to Barrino's Cinderella story.
Before "American Idol," Barrino's story mirrored the lives of many teen mothers. She dropped out of High Point Andrews in the ninth grade to give birth to her daughter, Zion, now 2. Barrino had been a good student at Montlieu Elementary School, across the street from her family home. At Welborn Middle School, she made all-county chorus. After Zion was born, Barrino worked at her grandmother's day-care center and lived with her grandmother and other family members in the one-story, red-brick home on Montlieu Avenue. She and Zion's father split up. Barrino and her daughter briefly lived in Greensboro, but she moved back to her grandmother's. "She was struggling," said Ray Collins, her grandfather. But even then, her music was important. "She would sing at weddings or any other kind of gig she could get," said Washington, a rising sophomore at Barber-Scotia College in Concord. Barrino would take whatever money the person gave her. Times were tough, but she did not have to rely on government assistance. "The family helped her out," Washington said. Last fall, Barrino, who turns 20 on June 30, intended to enroll at a community college to get her GED. Then the "American Idol" competition rolled around. "Now she's doing home-schooling," Collins said. "She takes her books everywhere."
HER singing can move people to tears, and her personal history, too, has been no less of a sob story.
Made pregnant by ex-boyfriend Brandel Shouse when she was 16, Fantasia Barrino was forced to drop out of high school. She also endured physical abuse from Shouse, who later pleaded guilty to charges of 'choking Fantasia with both hands and punching her about the face and head'.
Idol judge Randy Jackson has called her a 'young Aretha (Franklin)'. Fellow judge Simon Cowell, with his brutally high standards, thinks she is 'the real thing', and considers her singing to be in a 'different league'. Paula Abdul was driven to tears by her impassioned rendition of Barbra Streisand's "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life".
As to why words and music have both come easy for Barrino, who grew up singing in her church choir, look no further than her family's musical pedigree.
Her parents have produced a record, and almost everyone on both sides of her family sings either gospel or pop music.
Her cousins are R&B duo K-Ci and JoJo (Cedric and Joel Hailey), who released the 1998 hit single, All My Life. And Barrino would not have come this far without her family, who got her back on her feet after she left school.
'It's been hard,' says her mother Diane, a pastor. 'What you see coming out now is a lot of fight.' And fought back Barrino has, against detractors of her voice or appearance.
'My lips are big, but my talent is bigger,' she declared at an Idol audition in February. Unfortunately, talk like this has also led to the view that she is arrogant, which might explain her bottom three showing on two episodes of the show despite sterling performances. But she has more than her fair share of admirers who appreciate the flavour she adds to the contest.
The 500,000 residents of Guilford County in North Carolina have officially declared May 6, 2004, Fantasia Barrino Day.
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