Fantasia Barrino 'I Know Who I Am Now

AFTER A TUMULTUOUS CHILDHOOD AND SETBACKS WITH STARDOM, THE SINGER TAKES ON THE ROLE OF HER LIFETIME IN THE COLOR PURPLE 

- JANINE RUBENSTEIN

Fantasia Barrino had a moment of sheer panic last month. While traveling to promote The Color Purplethe new Oprah Winfrey- and Steven Spielberg-produced film adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical-Barrino, 39, says, she called home and got quite the scare. "My husband picked up, and it sounded like a bunch of screaming. The first thing I thought is that something [bad] had happened, so I immediately hung up to prepare myself. I called back like, 'Babe, you have to tell me what's wrong,' and he's like, 'Tasia, you just got nominated for a Golden Globe!' I literally started crying.

Like, the ugly cry." In the critically acclaimed film based on Alice Walker's 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Barrino stars as Celie, a Black woman in the 1920s South who struggles with vicious abuse, racism and low self-esteem before she finds her voice, power and freedom thanks to the support of other women. "Celie and I have a lot in common when it comes to family situations, losing things, feeling ugly and unseen," says the R&B singer and mother of three, who first played the challenging role on Broadway in 2007.

It's a connection that makes the recognition she's now getting deeply affirming.