Fantasia has unleashed a live version of her beloved 2006 single, “When I See U.”
The audio is from Fantasia’s performance at the 2024 TIME 100 Gala, held in April at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Adam Blackstone and Dennis Reed produced the stirring rendition. Blackstone plays the synth bass and aux keys, while Reed is on the keys and background vocals.
“When I See U (Live From Time 100 Gala)” also includes background vocals from Charnel Allen, Karen Poole, Maryann Kimble, Shayla Jenise, Sheria Croutch, and Dennis Reed. Additional band members include Brian Frasier Moore (live drums), Landon Jordan (guitar), and Melvin Jones (horns).
TIME100: The World’s Most Influential People aired on Sunday, May 12, on ABC and on Hulu on May 13. Fantasia also performed her hits “Free Yourself,” the title track of her 2004 album, and “Lose to Win” from 2013’s Side Effects of You.
“When I See U” was released in 2007 as the second single from Fantasia’s self-titled sophomore album.
“When I See U,” produced by Midi Mafia and Mzmeri, spent eight weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song spent over a year (58 weeks) on the chart.
“When I See You” was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 50th Grammy Awards; its parent album, Fantasia, scored a nod for Best Contemporary R&B Album.
Even though “When I See You” was released nearly a decade before the launch of the streaming era, the song has garnered over 248 million streams on Spotify. It’s Fantasia’s most-streamed song on that platform.
In other Fantasia news, the Grammy winner recently launched Rock Soul Productions, an entertainment company, with Yvonne McNair. According to Deadline, Rock Soul Productions is a full-service company that focuses on management, production and entertainment ventures.
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The name of the company can be traced back to Fantasia’s 2016 album, The Definition Of…, in which she described the album’s sound as “rock soul.”
“People say to me, ‘What’s rock soul?’ I tell them rock soul is every genre of music, and that’s what I wanted to do on this album,” Fantasia told Rated R&B in a 2016 interview.
“When you love music, you love it all. When rock soul came to me, it was that lane of me doing everything. You can invite me to your jazz concert if you’d like, I got a little something for you. You can invite me to your country concert, I got little something for you. You should be able to step into any arena and be able to adapt to whatever is going on. I know I can because I grew up on it.”
In the same interview, Fantasia mentioned her goal of creating a label called Rock Soul. In 2019, Fantasia released her album Sketchbook via Rock Soul/BMG. The live version of “When I See U” is also under Rock Soul Productions.
Stream Fantasia’s “When I See U (Live From Time 100 Gala)” below.
