Fashion icon Fantasia continues to promote her new album, Back to Me, with an appearance on George Lopez’s talk show, Lopez Tonight.

The singer seemed to be in significantly better spirits than when we last saw her, cracking a number of jokes with Lopez as she discussed her suicide, personal dramas and new music. After her sassy chat, Fanny stepped up on stage to do what she does best with a rockin’ performance of her new single “Man of the House”. It’s the second single to be lifted from her just released third album Back to Me, which is projected to debut within the top three of the Billboard 200 next week.

Check out Fanny’s wild performance and fun interview below.

Late last month, HitsDoubleDaily were speculating whether or not Katy Perry’s sophomore album, Teenage Dream, would be able to match the first-week sales of Eminem’s mammoth seller Recovery (754k). As it turns out, the HDD couldn’t have been more wrong, because according to their official predictions today, based off first-day sales, Katy’s Dream is set to only shift around 200k — just enough to land at #1.

It’s a disappointing number for the singer, who recently just came off the back of a triple-Platinum hit in “California Gurls”, which topped the charts for six-consecutive weeks. The single is still No. 3 on the Hot 100, while her follow-up and title track “Teenage Dream” is No. 5, giving her two top five hits during her album release week.

Behind Katy is the controversial Fantasia, who has been predicted to sell anywhere between 120-130k (via HDD) to 150-175k (via Billboard) of her third studio album, Back to Me. It’s a nice figure for the former American Idol star, who barely scraped into the top twenty with her self-titled sophomore album back in 2006, and currently only has a top ten R&B hit (#79 Hot 100) with “Bittersweet” going into the sales week.

Hopefully Katy can follow in the footsteps of her friend and fellow singles Queen Rihanna, who initially under-performed with her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, but eventually came out of the era as one of the most successful pop albums of the past few years due to a string of massive hits which kept it flying off shelves for over two years.

Singer slash reality TV star, Fantasia, has premiered the music video for her brand new single “Bittersweet”, the first from her upcoming third album ‘Back to Me’.

Visually, the Lenny Bass-directed video doesn’t disappoint, and marks a fine return for the American Idol winner. The whole clip has a dark and moody sophistication to it, while Fantasia herself is a complete class act.

After all the struggles that Fantasia has had over the past few years, “Bittersweet” almost symbolizes the singer holding her head up high, carrying herself with some dignity, and doing what she does best – sing.

The song has already reached the top twenty on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and while it hasn’t done much as far as the Hot 100 goes, I can see growing on urban radio and becoming a sizable R&B hit.

Look out for Fanny’s new album ‘Back to Me‘, to hit stores on August 10.

American Idol winner Fantasia today released the official artwork for her upcoming third studio album ‘Back to Me’.

The album will contain contributions from Ne-Yo, Cee-Lo, Jim Jonsin, Rico Love and several more of urban music’s finest. The lead single “Bittersweet” is currently climbing the R&B charts and reached a new peak of #20 last week. The music video is expected to premiere soon, followed by the album’s release on July 27.

You can also expect Fanny to return to TV screens in season 2 of her hit VH1 reality show ‘Fantasia for Real’. Monica has given all R&B divas hope that they can come back strong after a flop album, so 2010 really could be Fantasia’s year to return to the top.

A preview of the pic appeared online a few days ago, but now we have the first HQ promo pic from Fantasia’s upcoming third album, shot by celeb photog Derek Blanks.

Fanny’s third album drops July 13 and will feature production from Claude Kelly, Chuck Harmony, The Stereotypes, Missy Elliott, Los Da Mystro and many more. The first single is the midtempo R&B ballad “Bittersweet”, which you can check out here.

Besides getting on with her music career Fanny has also signed up for a second season of her hit reality show Fantasia For Real which will return to screens later this year.

Apparently Fantasia has a new single titled “Bittersweet”, which is now being billed as her ‘first’ official single after her foray into crossover pop “Even Angels” somehow managed to literally not chart anywhere, despite being launched with a performance on Oprah and coming off the back of a successful reality show.

Lord only knows why Fanny flopped so badly with a solid song and good promotion, but it could have something to do with her attempt at a poppier sound that her fans weren’t used to. If that was the case then she’s moving in the right direction with “Bittersweet”, which a is a little more old school R&B than “Even Angels” but still has a pop-soul edge and a sound that’ll work well on radio.

And if things don’t work out then Fanny always has her hit VH1 reality show Fantasia For Real to fall back on, which was just renewed for a second season.

American Idol winner and VH1 reality TV star Fantasia Barrino will release her third album soon (supposedly in March, but I predict a pushback), and now four new songs from the singer have hit the web.

The tracks don’t sound 100% finished but they’re a good indication of what could possibly be in store for her next album. “On & On” and “Never” are both feel-good R&B midtempos similar to Fanny’s first single “Even Angels”, whilst “Control Freak” shows off a raunchy side of the American Idol winner that we haven’t seen before.

My favorite however is “Bounce Back” which really packs a punch thanks to it’s funky production and sassy, confident attitude from Fanny.

They’re all very radio-friendly, but that was to be expected after hearing “Even Angels”, which by the way has yet to chart despite being released at the beginning of the month.

Anyways check the songs out below and let me know what you think.

On & On | Bounce Back | Never | Control Freak

Fantasia solidified her return today when she performed her new single “Even Angels” live on Oprah.

With Fanny having been out of the game for so long it was easy to forget just how good and versatile her voice is, so I’m glad that she had a huge platform like Oprah to let everybody know that she’s back and she means business.

It’s been four years since Fantasia was on the music scene, but now she’s back with a new single “Even Angels” and a brand new album in the works.

The song echoes Stargate’s production a little bit with it’s radio-friendly Pop/R&B sound, but it was actually produced by The Stereotypes who are best known for Danity Kane’s hit “Damaged”.

“Even Angels” is a great midtempo jam that should appeal to Fanny’s core urban audience, but it also has a lot of crossover potential so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it tearing up the pop charts. It’s also refreshing to hear Fanny trying different things with her voice and reigning things in a little instead of going all out with the belting that she’s best known for.

Fantasia will be performing the new single on Oprah this week which should really get “Even Angels” off to a strong start.

Nice to have you back Fanny!

After some personal and professional struggles American Idol winner Fantasia is more than ready to make her mark on the industry again with a brand new album set to drop later this year.

“This year… [2010] is my year. It’s been three years too long. Music is my everything, so I have put my heart, my soul, and all of my time into this album. I’m just ready to go on tour.”

Fanny’s third album also looks like it’s shaping up to be a very personal one, with the singer revealing that she’s recorded a track titled “Overload” about the immense pressure that she’s been under.

“I remember going into the studio that night after I was getting so many phone calls. Mom was calling me about different people showing up. Sheriffs, lawsuits, and they said this, and they said that. My family needed this — I went in and I did ‘Overload.’”

It’s great to see that Fanny has sorted her life out and returned to doing what she does best, which is her music. Expect collaborations with Tricky Stewart, Jim Jonsin, Rico Love, Missy Elliot, John Legend and many more when Fantasia’s album hits stores later this year.

[Source: ABC News via Neon Limelight]

[Preview Fantasia's new single "Move on Me"]

Billboard have bestowed some more goodies upon us today by announcing the official production lineup for Fantasia’s upcoming third album.

Joining Fanny on the new album will be Los Da Mystro and Rico Love, Tricky Stewart, Novel, Jim Jonsin and Claude Kelly. Also lending a hand will be artists Missy Elliot, John Legend and Cee-Lo.

The album currently has a tentative release date of March, and is expected to do well thanks to the success of the singers new VH1 reality show Fantasia For Real which drew in a 2.3 million views for it’s premiere, which is a huge number for VH1.

After a lot of drama Fantasia’s career finally seems to be looking up, and I couldn’t be happier for her. I can’t wait to see what she’s done with Novel and my man John Legend!

American Idol winner Fantasia has announced that she will release her new single in January, followed by her third album in March.

The single release is believed to be coinciding with Fanty’s new VH1 reality show, which will document her struggles as a single mother and recording artist.

I loved Fantastia’s sophomore album (Hood Boy is my anthem) so I’m pretty pumped for this. I hope she throws in a little gospel flavour!

Expect production from Raphael Saadiq, Midi Mafia, Missy Elliott, Rock City, Eric Hudson, and Rich King was was responsible for Brandy’s jam “1st & Love”.