Fantasia Receives 2 American Music Awards' Nominations

Fantasia Receives 2 American Music Awards' Nominations

Fall tour with Kanye West kicks off October 11th in Miami

"Life Is Not A Fairy Tale" - Fantasia's life story - due in stores on September 30th from publishing giant Simon & Schuster

NEW YORK, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Fantasia has a jam packed Fall! Fantasia scored two American Music Awards Nominations at today's press conference, "Favorite Female Artist (Soul/Rhythm & Blues)" and "Favorite Album (Soul/Rhythm & Blues)," for her debut FREE YOURSELF. The 33rd annual American Music Awards ceremony will be held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday, November 22nd and will be broadcast on the ABC television network.

Fantasia's debut album, FREE YOURSELF, which has sold over 1.6 million copies, has received many accolades since its release in November 2004 including:

* BET Awards 2005 -- 2 nominations: "Best New Artist" and "Best Female R&B
Artist."
* NAACP Image Awards 2005 -- 2 nominations: "Outstanding New Artist" and
"Outstanding Female Artist" (won).
* Billboard R&B & Hip Hop Awards 2005 -- 3 Nominations: Top R&B/Hip-Hop
Artist-Female; Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artist-New; Top R&B/Hip-Hop Single --
Sales For "I Believe" (Won).
* Soul Train "Lady of Soul" Awards 2005 -- 4 Nominations: Best R&B/Soul
Single -Solo; Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist; Best R&B/Soul or Rap Song
of the Year for "Truth Is"; Best R&B/Soul Album, Solo for FREE YOURSELF.

In the month and half of release in 2004, Fantasia was honored with "I Believe," being named the Top-Selling R&B/Hip-Hop Single of the Year and Top-Selling Single of the Year at the December 2004 Billboard Music Awards. Fantasia also made Billboard history with "I Believe" by becoming the first artist in the history of Billboard's Hot 100 chart to debut at Number 1 with her first solo record. Fantasia made Billboard History again on May 28, 2005 when she became the first female artist to have three of the top five songs on the Adult R&B Chart. The following week she became the first artist to have two of the top three songs on that chart "Truth Is" at #2 and "Free Yourself" at #3. Since the inception of the Adult R&B list in 1994 in Billboard Radio Monitor, no artist -- female, male, duo or group -- has ever been represented in two of the top three titles.

Fantasia is also gearing up to go on her second tour in support of FREE YOURSELF, as she hits the road with the incomparable, Kanye West. The tour begins in Miami, FL at the University of Miami, Convocation Center and wraps, December 11th in Vancouver at the GM Palace. (See dates below.)

This Fall Fireside, a division of Simon & Schuster, will release Fantasia's entree into the publishing world with her inspirational memoir, "Life Is Not A Fairy Tale," due in stores on September 30th.

FANTASIA OPENS FOR KANYE WEST'S "TOUCH THE SKY" TOUR

(The tour order of performance is Keyshia Cole, Common, Fantasia, then Kanye)

tue 11-Oct Miami, FL Convocation Center: Un. Of Miami
wed 12-Oct Tampa, FL USF: Sundome
thu 13-Oct Gainsville, FL O'Connell Center: Un. Of FL.
sat 15-Oct Greenville, SC Bi-Lo Center
sun 16-Oct Knoxville, TN Thompson-Boling Arena
tue 18-Oct Columbia, MO Mizzou Arena
wed 19-Oct Champaign, IL Assembly Hall
fri 21-Oct Buffalo, NY Alumni Arena
sat 22-Oct Detroit, MI Fox Theatre
sun 23-Oct Detroit, MI/Columbus, OH Fox Theatre/Schottenstein Center
wed 26-Oct Kingston, RI Ryan Center: UN. Of Rhode Island
fri 28-Oct University Park, PA Bryce Jordan Center: Penn State
sat 29-Oct Cleveland, OH CSU Convocation Center
sun 30-Oct Fairfax, VA Patriot Center
mon 31-Oct Amherst, MA Mullins Center
wed 2-Nov New York, NY MSG Theatre
thu 3-Nov New York, NY MSG Theatre
fri 4-Nov Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena
sat 5-Nov Hampton, VA Coliseum
sun 6-Nov Philadelphia, PA Liacouris Center
tue 8-Nov Pittsburgh, PA AJ Palumbo Center/Peterson Evnt
wed 9-Nov Toronto, ON ACC
fri 11-Nov E. Lansing, MI Breslin Center: MI State Un.
sat 12-Nov Chicago, IL Rosemont Theater
sun 13-Nov Dekalb, IL/ Minneapolis, MN NIU Convocation Center/Excel
Center
mon 14-Nov Northwestern University Welsh Ryan Arena
tue 15-Nov Carbondale, IL SIU Arena
thu 17-Nov Atlanta, GA Gwinnett Center
fri 18-Nov Greensboro, NC Coliseum
sat 19-Nov Statesboro, GA GSU
sun 20-Nov Birmingham, AL BJCC
tue 22-Nov Oklahoma City, OK Ford Center
wed 23-Nov Memphis, TN Mid-South Coliseum
fri 25-Nov Houston, TX Reliant Arena
sat 26-Nov Dallas, TX Nokia Live
sun 27-Nov Kansas City, MO Kemper Arena
tue 29-Nov Denver, CO Magness--Lecture Hall
thu 1-Dec Phoenix, AZ Dodge Theatre
fri 2-Dec San Diego, CA Cox Arena/RIMAC
sat 3-Dec Los Angeles, CA Universal Amph
sun 4-Dec Los Angeles, CA Universal Amph
tue 6-Dec San Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
wed 7-Dec Las Vegas, NV M. Bay--Aladdin
fri 9-Dec Portland, OR Memorial Coliseum
sat 10-Dec Seattle, WA Everett Event Center
sun 11-Dec Vancouver GM Place

***FOR TICKET INFO VISIT http://www.ticketmaster.com/ ***

Source: J Records/19 Recordings

CONTACT: Liz Morentin, +1-310-449-2636, Liz.morentin@sonybmg.com, of
J/Arista Records

-------
Profile: intent