If you’ve ever heard even one note from Fantasia Barrino‘s mouth, you know that the American Idol season three winner and The Color Purple star is a force to be reckoned with. That explains why in her essay celebrating Fantasia for TIME magazine’s 2024 list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World Golden Globe-winning actress (and fellow 100 honoree) Taraji P. Henson nearly runs out of superlatives for her Color Purple co-star.
“There was just something about Fantasia Barrino when I first saw her on American Idol. It was her spirit, her soul. She left it all on that stage when she sang. I thought, Who is this girl? I voted for her again and again,” wrote Henson, one of four TIME 100 cover stars alongside Dua Lipa, Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Yulia Navalnaya, widow of anti-Putin crusader Alexey Navalny.
“When I met her years later, I learned that she’s a Cancer — sweet and sensitive but with a quiet strength. You can feel it in her presence, and you can hear it in her powerful voice,” Henson added. “When she sings, she transcends. It’s like she goes somewhere else and you just have to go with her.”
Oscar nominee Henson called Fantasia “living testimony” that we are all going through our own personal “storms,” saying that after the tempest has tamed the sun comes out and “whatever comes next for her will be so beautiful. She deserves everything. I see such big things for Fantasia – the sky’s the limit. Well, beyond the sky for her. It’s her time.”
This year’s list features a number of other singers (cover star Dua Lipa honored by punk godmother Patti Smith), 21 Savage (by Burna Boy), Jack Antonoff (by Maren Morris), Kylie Minogue (by Coldplay’s Chris Martin), Leslie Odom Jr. (by Kate Hudson), Burna Boy (Angélique Kidjo) and James McBride (by Ethan Hawke).
Check out this year’s full list here.