by Fantasia
Mama also taught me how to pray. Prayer was instilled in me just like the principles of right and wrong. It was just something that we did,often. And I always remember that she would say, “Although, you don’t see the results right away, keep the faith. Faith will give you peace beyond understanding.” Mama said that God was the man who is behind the scenes to keep us going. After those initial talks about God, I still have Him with me behind the scenes, on the stage, and in my heart at all times. One of the things that I love about my mother is that she continues to be a prayin’ mom. I love that her prayers keep a shield over all her kids. But I never knew until I grew up how much praying to God Mama had to do to survive the many hardships her family had gone through. She prayed through her mother’s pain, then her own, and finally her children’s. She is always on her knees prayin’ for us. And I believe in my heart that God answers prayers.
Grandma Addie always said, “Have hope and faith and things will work out.” My mother believes it too. “Just hold on” is what my mother used to tell me, and “Believe in yourself,” regardless of the circumstances. She would say, “Believe that things will always get better.” That is what she used to tell me as she looked in the refrigerator and there was nothing to eat except for grits for the third day in a row. I remember my mother going with a friend to get the government-supplied free groceries. She would come home with cheese, powered milk, and peanut butter. My mother used to take the cheese that came in a long cardboard box and make the following dinners: cheese and eggs, cheese and grits, rice and cheese, and cheese sandwiches. Because she was serving it with a smile at the same time, she was a living example of the power of “holdin’ on.” I know now that faith was the only thing that kept my family going through the hardest times. I also know that without hope and faith in troubled times, there would be no reason to go on. When we were eating cheese and grits, or worse, every day, we might have given up without our faith to sustain us. I believe that God has a plan for each of us and we must keep our faith strong so that we are still here to see what He has in store.
Mama used to tell me to always maintain my inner strength, which is what Addie taught her. When I was a small girl and wondering how I would make it through the hardships of low self-esteem in a world that believes in beauty above all else, even above God, my mother would say, “You are stronger than you know. You can make it.” My mother believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. And all those days that I cried and she just kept telling me about my gift, she was right. But Mama needed her inner strength when she thought I had thrown away my gift by getting pregnant. I floundered but found mine when I finally accepted that B. was wrong for me and used that strength to turn away from him. All of the women in my family have tremendous inner strength, and all of that strength has been tested many times over and we’re still here. It is my inner strength that made it possible for me to go to theAmerican Idol auditions—not wearing the right clothes and just holding my gift in my pocket. Mama said I could make it, and I did.
One of my grandmother’s favorite sayings is “God’s forgiveness is the key to freedom.” My mother is the most forgiving woman I know. She has tried to teach this lesson to me, but it’s been a difficult one to learn. It still amazes me as I watch my mother still being civil to my father and living under the same roof and still calling him her husband. Mama is a living testimony of forgiveness. There were so many years that she didn’t smile or laugh for months at a time because her marriage was so hard. My mother once told me about her own marriage, “I got married because it was my decision. It was a disgrace to have children and no husband. I know; I did it too young. I guess I was sixteen when I was pregnant with Rico, and it was not quite a year when Joseph was born. I got married and tried to grow up a little too fast. I should have waited and gotten a degree and gone back to school or something. I made the decision and decided if it didn’t last but a week, I could say I was married.”
My mother forgave herself for the choices that she made and therefore never demanded that I get married when I got pregnant. She once wrote me a letter that said, “Fantasia, I didn’t want to push you to go back to school, but I didn’t want to rush you into marriage either. Too young, I had to be a mother and wife. And I didn’t want that for you. I wanted you to believe that you could have a second chance. I wanted you to do something that you woulddecide to do. I was embarrassed because I got pregnant a second time and my mother told me that was a disgrace. I got married because of my upbringing, but I don’t want you to marry for that reason. I want you to forgive yourself and move on with your life.” I love my mother because she is in the process of forgiving herself. Now I can see that Grandma Addie was right: forgiveness is the key to freedom, and in our own way both Mama and I are finally free.
Although we are mother and daughter and friends and tell each other most things, there are a few things that we have never said to each other or shared with the world. Because our connection is so strong, we have hopes and dreams for each other that are really for ourselves, because we are from the same root. What I wish for my mother is that she is always a blessed woman and that the pain and disappointment that her marriage has caused can slowly be washed away from her. I hope that she will always have nice things around her that make her happy. I also wish that my mother could see that there are good and trustworthy people in the world. My mother has been through so many things; her heart has hardened in some ways. She doesn’t go out. She doesn’t have any friends who she trusts. She has had friends steal from her, lie to her, and try to date her husband. My dream is to show my mother the wonderful people who I have met. I wish that I could introduce her to all of the Idols who were all from different places and were my friends. They were there for me. I want to show her that there are people in the world that you can trust. But most of all I wish Mama happiness, so that the smile that she used to have when Aunt Rayda was alive will return to her after all these years of grieving her loss.
My mother’s wish for me was that I would break our family’s generational curse. When I got pregnant, it was a mistake she had seen too many times in our family and that is not what she wanted for me. My grandmother still has hopes that I will finish high school, which is what she wanted for all three of her daughters. My aunts accomplished that goal and so did my grandmother—my mother and I did not. My mother wanted better for me and she knew I was really talented and loved people and she had big dreams for me. But she knows that I need to have an education to really be able to take care of myself and my daughter. She doesn’t want me to focus on the negatives, like the fact that I can’t read very well. She wants me to know that I’m not dumb; I’ve just had some extra challenges in my life that have made me stronger. And I finally believe her. She wanted me to be everything that she didn’t become and I’m working on it. She’s got big dreams for me now—she wants to see me go to the Grammys because she never did. Next year,I will.
My mother says that I have matured a lot over the last few years. She is proud. She says that I matured after Zion was born. She also says that I matured afterAmerican Idol because I never lost myself with all the things that were goin’ on and all the ways I could have fallen into the “Hollywood” trap of drinking and partying—just showing out. She knew the pressure that I was under and was a little worried about whether I could handle it all. But I continue to try and make her proud. Mama says thatAmerican Idol brought a lot of discipline to my life and brought me far enough to have goals and dreams, when before, I had none. She is also proud that I never forget where I came from. She always tells me to keep it real with myself and other people. She wants me to remain grateful for what I have and never forget that I can lose it as quickly as it came.
The torch has now been passed to me to raise my little girl like the women in my life have raised theirs, but hopefully without all of the drama and pain that lack of money causes. I feel scared because I don’t think I’m in any way equal to the women that my mother and grandmother are.
I will teach Zion to forgive. But I hope she will not have to forgive a man for hurting her or stealing from her or leaving her alone with a baby. I hope that she will someday be able to forgive her daddy for abandoning her. I will tell her about disappointments in life and how we set certain expectations for the people we love and sometimes they don’t do what we want them to do.
Zion will know about respecting others, because she will grow up in a world filled with music and cultures and people from all parts of the world. I will teach her to love and respect all people, but she will also learn from me how to respect herself. My hope for Zion is that she won’t be a desperate woman. My prayer is that Zion will build herself up inside, so that there won’t be any holes in her heart, needin’ a man to fill. I will teach her to fill herself with God.
The last thing that I will teach Zion is to have inner strength. I want her to have the kind of strength that Addie and Mama had, and that I have had at times. All of us have had the strength to keep going no matter what happened to us. No matter how cruel life can be, I want Zion to be a survivor.
My mother was excited that I wanted to write a chapter about her. She wanted the chapter to be in my own words like the rest of the book, but she was dyin’ to get in somewhere. So, I told her, Mama, you can put in your moments of faith. Her moments got us to this moment.
DIANE’S MOMENT OF
FAITH:WHAT SHE LEARNED
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
PROVERBS22:6
My prayer was always that this poverty be broken for my family. I believe that God used Fantasia to break the generational barrier of poverty.
When you have children they all have their own personalities. Your children may not be what you want them to be, because they have their own personalities.
God’s favor goes further than money.
Fantasia still wants to go to Wal-Mart every time she’s at home. She calls it Wally World. And when she’s there, she never hesitates to stop to take pictures or sign autographs. She feels like she has been given such an enormous gift to be in this position, so if they want a picture they deserve it. She feels like she owes the world.
When it came to church, Fantasia was unique in that she didn’t just sing, she sang with an anointing. She would go into a crazy praise and everyone would be looking at her, wondering what was wrong with her. I often said it came from the womb. Fantasia would take on worship that would take people to a whole ’nother level in spirit.
8.ItAin’t About
theBling
When I wonIdol,it was like a dream come true—but there were strings attached that I hadn’t even thought about. The dream part was that there were 65 million people who decided that I was the best singer in the competition and voted for me. That part was wonderful. But the newfound money part has not been easy for me. Now I know you’re thinkin’ that should be the easiest part of winning, but the truth is that I struggle with the enormous change in this area of my life. I struggle with it every single day.
My mother used to say to us about the poor financial decisions we made, “Y’all make bad decisions. You don’t plan for things; you just do things without a plan and then you are nowhere.” Then Mama would shake her head regretfully and say, “That’s what usually happens to people who come from nothin’ and suddenly have more money than they thought they could.” Today my mother says that she is sorry for us all because we never saw anyone who had real money and now we don’t know how to act when we do have money.
As you know, my family struggled every step of the way. It was a struggle to get Christmas gifts every year and that was even in the years when my parents had jobs. Some years, Christmas gifts were not even talked about. Some years, my family struggled so much that singin’ was the only gift we got.
Singin’ was all we knew. We were always trying to catch a hustle by performing anywhere we could. When you have had a life like that, money is always a short-lived reward for just being somewhere and giving a song. There was never enough money to accumulate or save. When you got it, you spent it and that’s just the way it was. When we would perform, the money we got was just enough to pay for that evening’s dinner or the gas to get back home. We weren’t even livin’ paycheck to paycheck like some folks; we were livin’ dollar to dollar.
And all those years we still took our music seriously because we felt that getting money just to sing was a blessing. The singing made us feel like we were ten feet tall. The cash was just gravy. Sadly, all that has changed for me now. Now that money and material things have entered my life, I don’t feel as rich just being near the music as I did before. Now I feel like, even though I have so much more than I ever thought I would, it’s not enough. Makin’ music is no longer just an honor. Now I feel like the music is work and I deserve to be paid for my work. I see now that having more money makes you need and need more and more money. The more you have the more you think you need. I have gained some money, but I think I lost something valuable—I have forgotten how to be happy with what I have.
My whole family is strugglin’ with money just as we always were, but in a different way. We’re struggling to understand real money—not just “gas money,” not just “dinner money,” butreal money that is enough to accumulate and save and invest. None of us have ever had it like that and that is why we are so confused about how to be with this new wealth of ours. We have been in need of things for so long that it’s hard to change our way of thinking, especially when it seems we can get what we want so easily.
Diamonds, luxury cars, and too many clothes are so tempting to me. All I can think of is all those years I didn’t have nice clothes to wear. All I can think of is all those years that I felt so ugly and poor and not dressed well enough. All I can think of is those girls with new clothes on the first day of school every year and my shame of my summer-worn clothes from last year. But I get scared of shopping too much, because I would never stop if I started. I feel like I could spend everything I had on clothes just to wash away those childhood memories. I think the reason my family is now spending so much money is because they are trying to buy their way out of their past.
When I’m thinkin’ clear, I know I don’t want to be broke. I don’t want to be just another “famous girl” tryin’ to forget the past so hard that I act a fool and waste all that I have on material goods. After all the past is what brought me and my family to this point. I am just sayin’ a prayer that God will guide me. I also ask God that He touch the hearts of my family and let them see the possibilities of saving and investing and not be blinded by the bling.
Having money has always been a subject that makes people uncomfortable. Like the rap song says, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”That is the truth. When you have always had nothin’, you don’t expect as much. Your expectations are as simple as your current lifestyle. If your only concern is having enough to eat and payin’ your rent and you don’t own anything, your only goal is just to make it day to day, or week to week, or month to month. That’s not an easy life, but it’s a pretty simple one, and it’s one that most people I know live every day.
The hip-hop bling-bling culture is based on livin’ the millionaire life or at least lookin’ like you live the millionaire life. And with all these hip-hop and pop songs talking about “millions” in every verse, everyone seems to always be thinking about getting as much money as they can. How much money you get is the first thing people t
hink about with fame and celebrity. I hate to break the news, but just because a person has fame and celebrity, you can’t assume they are anywhere close to having a million dollars. I bet you’re assuming that I have millions, but, trust me, that ain’t the truth.
First of all, as a winner onAmerican Idol, I can tell you that everyone is interested about what the winner wins. The winner of the show does get a million-dollar record deal, but does not get a million dollars in cash as some people think. Most people don’t understand the actual numbers behind the music business at all. You must be wondering why there is a whole chapter about money. Because what I have realized is that news of my winning automatically leads people to thinkin’ about money. I hate the thought that money might make us who we are, but the sad news is that, all too often in this world, it seems that it does.
What makes me laugh about it is that the Barrino Family never had money. All we had was music, good singing voices, and an anointing from God. Mama used to say, “Money is the root of all evil.” I’m beginning to think she may be right. Don’t get me wrong; I’m grateful for many of the things that this newfound money has brought me. But I also feel guilty getting caught up in this money thing, when I never meant to. It’s like a tidal wave. Maybe that’s why so many of us never wanted to do much in High Point. With success comes money, and that can be scary when you come from where I do. Everyone in the ghetto talks about wantin’ money and gettin’ money and makin’ money, but if they ever were to make some real money they wouldn’t know how to manage it and then they would still end up with nothing, but it would be twice as hard to go back to not having any money.
Why is it that when we have money we feel like we can have more things? That makes us feel like we’re better than people who don’t have money or who have fewer things. People put too much power in money for it to be such a fleeting thing. Money don’t last. You can have money one day and lose it the next. You can lose it in a card game or a stupid bet or you can lose it in a slot machine with just one pull of a lever. That is the evil of money. Why are we not as equally obsessed with God, who is lasting and almighty? Why has money replaced God as the most important thing? I’m blessed by what God has given me and my family, but this money thing continues to worry me.