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Creativity Quote by Fantasia Barrino

"I'm very soulful. I grew up singing in church. When I sing a song, I like to feel what I'm singing"

About this Quote

Fantasia Barrino isn’t pitching “soulful” as a genre tag here; she’s staking a claim to legitimacy in a pop ecosystem that often rewards polish over presence. “I grew up singing in church” is doing heavy cultural work: it’s shorthand for vocal training, yes, but also for a particular tradition where singing is communal, embodied, and judged in real time by a room that knows the difference between technique and testimony. Church isn’t just where you learn runs; it’s where you learn risk.

The second sentence tightens the thesis into an ethic. “When I sing a song, I like to feel what I’m singing” reads simple, almost obvious, but it’s a quiet rebuke to the assembly-line performance model: hit the notes, sell the fantasy, move on. Fantasia’s “feel” signals a preference for interpretation over imitation, for lived experience over a perfectly sanded surface. It’s also an assertion of authorship even when she didn’t write the material. If she can feel it, she can own it.

Context matters: Barrino emerged from the early-2000s talent-show machine, a pipeline notorious for manufacturing personalities. By foregrounding church and feeling, she reframes her voice as something older and harder to counterfeit than a TV narrative. The subtext is: you can package me, but you can’t fabricate where this sound comes from.

Quote Details

TopicMusic
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Barrino, Fantasia. (2026, January 16). I'm very soulful. I grew up singing in church. When I sing a song, I like to feel what I'm singing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-very-soulful-i-grew-up-singing-in-church-when-119456/

Chicago Style
Barrino, Fantasia. "I'm very soulful. I grew up singing in church. When I sing a song, I like to feel what I'm singing." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-very-soulful-i-grew-up-singing-in-church-when-119456/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm very soulful. I grew up singing in church. When I sing a song, I like to feel what I'm singing." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-very-soulful-i-grew-up-singing-in-church-when-119456/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2026.

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Fantasia Barrino on Soulful Singing
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About the Author

Fantasia Barrino

Fantasia Barrino (born June 30, 1984) is a Musician from USA.

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