In the end Fantasia beat out runner-up Diana DeGarmo by a margin of 2% (1.3 million votes). It is still the highest finale vote in the show's history.
On the finale, over 65 million votes were cast in order to determine the winner on May 26, 2004, up from 24 million in 2003. In the final performance of the season that formed the basis upon which America voted, Barrino offered a second performance of "Summertime" that again drew enormous praise from the judges?including Simon Cowell's remarks that she was the best contestant among the over 70 Idol champions crowned nationally and internationally since the show began its first global incarnations. Other concerns were raised over her as a single mother being a poor role model and charges of rigged voting and busy telephone signals. Guest artist Elton John labeled the outcome "racist". Nevertheless, Barrino's rise to the final two on American Idol was plagued with controversies, including accusations of racism when she and two other well-praised African American female singers in the competition, LaToya London and Jennifer Hudson, all landed in the bottom three of that week's voting. "Summertime," was also labeled by idol judge, Randy Jackson, as the best performance he had ever heard in the show's history. Her standout performance during the course of the show was a heartfelt staging, begun seated, of the Porgy and Bess standard "Summertime" that left her in tears from "feeling the song" and earned raves from the judges, as well as landing her on the Emmy Awards's 2004 list of greatest television moments. Her audition version of John Fogerty/Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" made her an early favorite in the competition. Fantasia Barrino made an immediate impression on American Idol with her stylized, gospel-influenced sound, and her explosive stage presence. Her cousins are R&B singers K-Ci (Cedric Hailey) and Jo-Jo (Joel Hailey) who formed the singing group Jodeci along with the DeGrate brothers in 1990. The incident is not related to her subsequently giving birth to her daughter. Barrino has a young daughter, Zion Quari' Barrino, whom she had as a teenage single mother on August 8, 2001. She dropped out of high school due to a sexual assault that left her feeling embarrassed and harassed. She was a member of The Barrino Family, a group that travelled and performed in The Carolinas and elsewhere in the American South. Barrino began singing in her church at the age of five.