Stories Of Us (Tarasia)

You Are More Than Beautiful (1)

Fantasia

The lights are beaming on my face like the sun. I'm moving around on stage like an angel and I can feel every single lyric of the song. The beats get louder in my ears, and all I can do is dig deeper into myself. I hear the background vocalists behind me singing their parts and I pull out any remaining bit of my energy to put in this song. My vision becomes clear after a while when I see the guitarist come up in front of me to do a solo. I wait a few counts before returning to my part. I sing the final notes of my song before coming down from my high.

Cause forever just ain't long enough...

The instruments come to a stopping point, and so does my mind. I immediately miss the feeling. Every time I'm on stage, I can feel everything in the world happening at once, but also nothing at all. I let go of myself and focus on the music and the feeling. The feeling that I bring to audiences, the feeling that I bring to myself. I look around behind me to see the adoring faces of my fellow musicians on stage. I smile to myself and walk over to the side of the stage to give my mic over to one of the stage managers, Lincoln. "That was beautiful everyone, breathtaking. The energy, the power, the background, amazing job everyone. That was a really good run, and we have about 10 more minutes. If you all would like to go over entrances and exits, or run the song again. Anything you all need," he said, taking my earpiece and turning the mic off and fitting it back in its case.

I look around to everyone on stage to see if they have anything they want to work on. Everyone's response is the same, "we're good, thank you." I responded to him. "Alright, well thank you Miss Barrino, if there's anything else you need before tomorrow night, just let anyone know."

"Awesome, well thank you all so much I appreciate you all," I start, giving Lincoln a hug. "Tomorrow is a huge day guys, get some good food and a good night's rest, bye everyone." I finish, walking off stage to head back to the dressing room. I can't wait for tomorrow. When I found out that I was nominated for 5 Billboard Music awards, I was ecstatic. I don't make music to win awards, but it sure as hell does feel good to be nominated for them. Every hour spent in the studio, every tear that fell when I couldn't feel my song, every night I spent wide awake brainstorming new pieces, it really pays off. No matter if I win or lose, it will never take away from the fact that it was a massive honor to be nominated at all.

There are garment bags and shoes all over the dressing room. A sparkly red dress is hanging off the arm of the couch, my Chanel bags are in a pile in the corner of the room, and my heels are in different places on shelves. I haven't been doing an amazing job of keeping all of my things in one place, because I can never decide on my outfit right away. I have been in this dressing room for about 4 days now, and it has looked the same since I got here.

I walk further into the room near my vanity set up. I flick on the light switch next to the mirror, and something immediately catches my eye. A beautiful bouquet of red roses sits on the table. I see a little red cutout sitting in front of the bunch. I read the note in front of the flowers to see who they are from.

Hello gorgeous, there was a quick change in schedule for tomorrow.
I'm your new introducer. Hope to see you soon!
-Taraji

Oh, okay then. The person who was meant to introduce me before did send me a message about a possible change this morning, but it didn't bother me too much. It's just an introduction, it doesn't really bother my performance. But being introduced by Miss Taraji P. Henson, I never thought that would happen. Usually music artists would host or introduce other artists, so I am slightly confused. But it will be an absolute honor to come on stage right after her.