::THE SLICE REPORT WITH MONA AUSTIN

buzzz worthy. . . Fantasia released her fourth studio album, "The Side Affects of You" (RCA) today.  'Tasia (her nickname) said she wanted to make music like Tina Turner and Patti Labelle and for the first time she had full creative control.  She is working with  British producer Harmony Samuels, who knows how to fuse rock and soul to her liking.  Last week she performed the lead single "Lose to Win" on American Idol where her career in music kicked off ten years ago. This recording represents a comeback mentally and musically for the Grammy award winner. On the Steve Harvey Morning Show she said artistically this album is to her and Samuels what "Thriller" was to MJ and Quincy Jones. Scottish singer Emeli Sande penned the title cut. In music and in her personal life, the North Carolina darling was not in a good place three years ago.  Her frustration with the industry and feeling drained by the people who were closest to her was lived o...

Just two weeks after a suicide attempt, Fantasia Barrino appeared in an interview on Good Morning America Tuesday, the day of her latest CD release "Back to Me."  She told Robin Roberts that she was so tired of the drama in her life when she woke up at the hospital she thought after a suicide attempt, "It didn't work.  . . .still here in this hell hole."  It wasn't just the drama of finding out her lover Antaun Cook was still married, but she said it was also the pain, loneliness and frustrations that had accumulated over the 6 years post-American Idol that caused her to swallow a bottle of aspirin.

Fantasia Barrino is hospitalized in Charlotte, NC after a suicide attempt Monday night.  A police report indicates the R&B star, 26, overdosed on a combination of aspirin and a sleeping aid. Fantasia gained fame as the Season 3 winner of "American Idol" and went on to star in the Broadway production of The Color Purple, a biopic, and her very own VH1 reality show, "Fantasia For Real." Brian Dickens the singer's manager alerted authorities that something was wrong at the star's home where her reality show is recorded. When police arrived they found her in a closet. Reports radaronline.com, Joseph Barrino, the singer's father said,  "She is doing fine." While in a statement Dickens said, "Her injuries are not life threatening. She was dehydrated and exhausted at the time," the police report described her injuries as "serious." Fantasia allegedly took the pills after accusations of a sex scandal involving ...