Fantasia picks Danny Gokey to win Americal Idol

'American Idol' contestant Danny Gokey counts Fantasia as one of his big fans.

Credit: AP Photo/FOX, Frank Micelotta

WASHINGTON (AP) — Being an "American Idol" winner herself, Fantasia knows one when she hears one, and Danny Gokey is her pick to win this season.

Fantasia says she's been voting for Gokey, the 28-year-old from Milwaukee, whose wife Sophia died of a congenital heart defect only seven months before he made the final 13.

Fantasia says she loves singers who can "take a song that's not theirs, but make it their own." And Gokey moves her every time she hears him sing.

A winner in 2004, she votes regularly and says she gets upset if her favorite doesn't make it.

And she has some do's and don'ts for contestants. She says don't "be mouthy to Simon. We just have to learn to take the blows." The best thing a contestant can do, she says, is to be him or herself.

Fantasia was in Washington to announce that she will tour in the stage version of "The Color Purple," in which she starred on Broadway. She'll revive the role of Celia, who she played for nine months on Broadway to rave reviews. The tour opens June 30 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Copyright (2009) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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