Fantasia Barrino Issues Stark Warning to Young ‘American Idol’ Singer in the Middle of Concert

Fantasia Barrino shared some words of advice about post-American Idol life with another young contestant.

The Season 3 winner paused a concert last month to speak directly to American Idol Season 23 contestant Gabby Samone, urging her to stay true to herself as she warned her that the music industry can be both “a gift and a curse.”

“In this game of music industry, it can sometimes be a gift and a curse. It’s bitter,” Barrino said. “Sing that song… You my dear, you’re going to go far.”

Barrino went on to ask Samone, who was ultimately eliminated from the ABC competition in the May 11 episode, to “never get caught up in the game of No. 1s, how many albums you sell, because that is when you will lose sight. But if you know now that you are a winner, because God gave you the gift no one can touch.”

“So don’t worry about how many albums you sell, just put the music out. And don’t sign over that gift that you have to nobody,” she continued. “Control your own stuff, because in this industry, it’s just a game of prostitution, and they will use your gift, and you will go home and you will have nothing.”

Barrino was just 19 when she wowed judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, and Randy Jackson with her renditions of “Killing Me Softly” by the Fugees and “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner during her American Idol Season 3 audition in 2004. She went on to sweep the competition, advancing through to the Hollywood rounds and eventually the Top 3 before being crowned the season winner.

At the time she took the crown, Barrino was “just a little girl from High Point, North Carolina that liked to sing,” she later told PEOPLE.

“She didn’t know nothing about the industry. She didn’t know anything about, ‘Maybe you should look this way, dress this way, talk this way, smile for the cameras a certain way,’” she continued. “While I was singing for everybody else, I was actually singing my way through and to some things.”

In the years that followed her American Idol win, Barrino experienced a number of personal struggles, including financial difficulties and being sued by her father. In 2010, she survived an overdose on aspirin and a sleep aid. The Grammy winner said her post-Idol years weren’t “easy. I lost a lot. I lost everything,” adding that much of her struggles stemmed from being “very, very green” when it came to navigating the music industry.

“You have to become a businesswoman and you link up with great business partners, but it doesn’t have a lot to do with love. It took me a long time to figure that out,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about contracts. I didn’t know anything about checking your money and making sure every day your stuff was where it was supposed to be. I just trusted and believed everybody that came into my life.”

Despite those early struggles, Barrino said those low points were “necessary. I’m grateful for it… If I did not go through that, I wouldn’t be the woman that I am today.”