Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Season 3 Idol winner Fantasia released a new single this week.

The song is called “Love To Win” and it’s part of a move away from a pure R&B-soul sound to more of a rock-soul sound, the singer says.

“I grew up on good music. Not only R&B music. But Elton John, Aerosmith, Queen, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald. So I feel like I don’t want to be boxed in anymore in one type of music,” she told HipHollywood.com back at the 2012 Soul Train Awards in November.

Fantasia repeated that desire in an interview on the Steve Harvey Radio Show earlier this week, noting that Tina Turner and James Brown were soul singers who had success with rock-soul type music.

She also thinks having just one producer on her upcoming album will help present a more cohesive sound.

That album, by the way, is supposed to be called “The Side Effect of You” and is set for a March 13 release.

As for the single, she said she loved “Lose to Win” the first time she heard it.

That’s partly because when she heard the lyrics it “wasn’t just about a relationship” to her.

“It was about my whole career,” Fantasia said. “It’s been 10 years for me. There’s been ups. There’s been downs. There’s been people to walk away. So the message was strong to me.”

I’ve embedded the song below. It hit iTunes Tuesday, but has yet to crack the site’s Top 200 singles chart.

Don’t count Fantasia out though. Her last album, “Back to Me” (2010), included the song “Bittersweet.” It earned her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal performance.

Fantasia also found herself embroiled in controversy earlier this month when she sent out the following message via Instagram: “I rise ABOVE IT ALL!! THE WORLD IS GONE MAD, KIDS, THE GOVERMENT, THE church house … Everybody Trying!!!!!!! Its a lot that going on that the Bible speaks about we should Not be doing. Weed legal in some place. Gay Marriage Legal. BUT YET I’M JUDGED!!! I’m not doing Nothing for you …. My Life!!!”

For understandable reasons, some people translated that as an anti-gay rant.

In the Steve Harvey interview, Fantasia said that wasn’t her intent.

“The gay community has supported me from day one,” she said. “I don’t judge anyone. That was my message. People need to stop judging people and just live their life. I support gay marriage … Everybody just needs to live their life, move on and do their own thing and stop trying to be in everybody else’s business.”

For the full interview, head here. For the HipHollywood.com clip, head to Fantasia’s website.

Now, here’s the new single.