Fantasia's Free Yourself: Finally. . .A Good American Idol Album!

Face it. Fantasia Barrino didn't need American Idol to become a star. American Idol needed Fantasia Barrino. After crowning 2 winners, Kelly Clarkson & Ruben Studdard, and seeing the both of them release decent but genre-generic debut albums (1 of which rectified herself on her sophomore release), the show once credited with finding the next big things was starting to be viewed as less of a talent competition and more of a karaoke contest. 

But Fantasia Barrino changed all of that. The sweet yet sassy, down-to-earth, southern church gal from Alabama, armed with nothing but her big lips and THAT voice, set a new standard for the competition on that show and proved that she was the real deal. She had it all; good looks (c'mon - not the prettiest girl but far from ugly), stage presence, charisma, star power, and THAT voice and she simply commanded your attention every time she opened her mouth. 

Her narrowly beating out the chipper Diana DeGarmo for the title wasn't so much a shock as it was an affirmation that pure talent still can succeed in a fabricated society that thrives upon style over substance. But recorded in a rush period of 3 months, Fantasia's debut, Free Yourself, still had many wondering if she was going to avoid the AI curse and deliver a 1,2 knockout debut of an album or if she was going to generalize herself and her music and be content with riding on the coattails of generic music.