Fantasia Barrino is back on the show that made her a star. More than two decades after the singer won American Idol, she returned to the show with an incredible performance.
Host Ryan Seacrest excitedly introduced this week’s advisor to the stage to perform her new single, “Have Your Way.”
Wearing a stunning silver gown, Barrino reminded viewers exactly why she won the show as a teenager. Surrounded by lights and smoke, Barrino’s powerful vocals took center stage while she was backed by a gospel choir.
Barrino performed much of the track on her knees, making her passion for the track all the more clear. The live audience was impressed to say the least. All three judges and artist-in-residence Jelly Roll were on their feet after Barrino finished her performance.
“The world is going through a lot right now and we need more God, so I allowed him to use me on the biggest stage ever,” Barrino told Seacrest after her performance, before promoting her gospel album and podcast.
Idol‘s April 28 episode was all about “Iconic Idol Moments,” something Barrino herself is familiar with. Barrino received mass praise for her performance of the Porgy and Bess standard “Summertime” in 2004.
At the time, Paula Abdul called it an “Oscar-winning performance.”
“You proved the point with that performance tonight why we are critical of people who just sing well. There was something magical about what you just did,” Simon Cowell said. “Really. It was outstanding.”
At the time when she first sang the track, Barrino told People in 2023, she was “just a little girl from High Point, North Carolina that liked to sing.”
“She didn’t know nothing about the industry. She didn’t know anything about, ‘Maybe you should look this way, dress this way, talk this way, smile for the cameras a certain way,’” she said. “While I was singing for everybody else, I was actually singing my way through and to some things.”
Twenty years later, Barrino released a new version of the song. In a conversation with AFROTECH, Barrino remarked, “For me, going back to ‘Summertime,’ it means a lot because that’s the song that made people change their mind on me.”
Photo by Prince Williams/WireImage
