Fantasia: Back To Me

It's a shame when an artist's personal woes casts a shadow over their talent.

Unfortunately, it happens all the time: Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson to name a few.

Such is the case for Fantasia. Her third studio album Back to Me hits stores today, only a couple of weeks after she tried to commit suicide in her North Carolina home.

Tongues are wagging about her questionable behavior and her romantic life is so deeply submerged in media scrutiny, no one seems to be talking about her stellar new album and the aptly titled, Chuck Harmony produced first single "Bittersweet," which sits at #8 on the Billboard R&B/ Hip-Hop Songs Chart.

Fantasia has never sounded better or more in her element than she does on this soulful, R&B throwback of self-serving melodies.

We've seen first hand from her candid interview with Oprah to her popular VH1 reality show Fantasia For Real, just how much the season three American Idol winner and Broadway alum has put everyone in her life first and herself last.

It's clear that Me is her baby. Her chance to do her. To put the focus back on the music and give her fans the sound they fell in love with when she first rose to fame in 2004.

On "I'm Doing Me," the piano-driven lead track she speaks: "You know, sometimes, you have to put yourself first. I'm doing me." And her "me first" mantra reverberates through out the entire 13 track set.

She makes it clear that she's more than prepared to wear the pants if her man can't step up to the plate on "Man of the House" and, at the same time, alludes to a more vulnerable side on "Teach Me," an acoustic, passionate, slow tempo ballad with heavy background vocals.

Her signature raspy vocals are right at home on "Collard Greens and Corn Bread," a ballad over an old school beat where she rants about being head over heels in love with a man who's got her believing he's better than her mama's homemade leafy greens and cornmeal baked goods.

"I never put up with BS from anyone/But I take it from you/Ain't that some love/And I never had no one put me through what you do/But as long as it's you/That's some real love."

If anything, Fantasia's current troubles only prove, yet again, just how human she really is.  She won our hearts by being herself: A single mother from North Carolina who dropped out of high school to take care of her daughter.  And then rose to fame by winning the most popular singing competition in the world, releasing a platinum selling debut album, snagging eight Grammy nominations and a multi-million dollar payday as the lead in the Oprah Winfrey produced Broadway musical The Color Purple.

And unlike many of her troubled celebrity counterparts, Fantasia is still going to continue with her album publicity tour where I'm sure she'll be subject to a boatload of questions about her current personal grief; questions she'll either answer candidly or dodge carefully. Either way, she's got my respect for having the guts to show face and answer to her recent actions.

Hopefully, one day, after the dust settles and the agony of this most recent growing pain subsides, will Fantasia finally be able to honor the title of her outstanding new album.