FANTASIA BARRINO TAYLOR

The performer's incredible story of resilience is still being written.

"HE WHO DWELLS IN THE SHELTER of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty": Psalm 91 is Fantasia Barrino Taylor's daily prayer. Among churchgoing folk, it's called the Psalm of Protection, and it's no surprise this is her touchstone, as Barrino Taylor has had a tumultuous life-"all that stuff," as she alludes to her history of abuse, struggles with literacy, and early motherhood. After winning American Idol at 19, the preacher's kid from High Point, North Carolina, felt the unrelenting weight of stardom, and by age 26 had landed in the hospital for a suicide attempt. That was 13 years agothrough which she has risen from the proverbial ashes, fully spreading her wings.

Talking to Barrino Taylor feels like you're sitting in a pew at a Baptist church, listening to a sermon. As she speaks through her life its trials, its tribulations-I'm crying. She's crying.

If I'm being honest, I'm pretty sure the Holy Spirit was in the room. Maybe that's what led Barrino Taylor to divulge that three angels have revealed themselves to her throughout her life.

The first angel appeared when she was auditioning for American Idol. She and her brother had befriended an older man the first day, talking for hours. "The next day, when we got back, they wasn't letting anybody else in. We go to the other side of the building, and we see him. He says, 'How did it go?" I said, 'It didn't?' He let me in." She never saw him again, although after her win, "that would've been his time to shine," she says, slightly bewildered.