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

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