Fantasia Barrino

I Believe / Chain of Fools / Summertime

5+ for Fantasia - 3+ for arrangements and Chain of Fools

Review Score:

(10/10)
I'm a 53 year old mother who just loved the three "soul sisters" on AI3. LaToya was my favorite because she was graceful, her voice silky and her delivery very professional. However, once Jennifer and LaToya were ejected from the show, I had no problem rooting for Fantasia. I thought that her performance of "Summertime" was the single best moment on the 2003-2004 season. Unfortunately, the CD arrangement of this tune is just a bit hurried and the song loses its traditional sultry sound. Fantasia vocalizes well however, and it is still a very good track. "Chain of Fools" is another story. Not a great song to begin with, the Queen of Soul was able to turn it into a somewhat listenable tune, but Fantasia just does an OK job. On the other hand, Fantasia's performance of "I Believe" is worth the price of the entire CD. It is so inspiring. I get goosebumps every time I listen to it because I can feel the soul that Fantasia injects into this performance. She is truly singing from the heart. This was a perfect song for her to record considering the difficulties that she has to deal with in her life. I'm sure that winning this competition was one of the greatest moments of Fantasia's life and she gets that point across in "I Believe".
I wish that Fantasia's detractors would just leave her be and go write the praises of the vocally inferior American Idol female singers that they seem to prefer. Why do these kids need to bash Fantasia? Personally, I don't understand why people have to be so cruel.
In summary I want to state that in my opinion, this girl is the real thing. BTW, I own over 2000 CDs but Fantasia's is the first CD SINGLE I have ever bought. That's how much I enjoy her singing. I hope she will have plenty of good material in her full length CD, if and when it is released. Hopefully it will be worth purchasing.
Finally, I gave the CD a rating of 5 stars to counter the 1 star reviews of the teeny bopper Fantasia bashers. So sue me! :)

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