Cantrell says she always knew she was going to take center stage, noting "I was singing before I could even talk." As a little girl, she and her five siblings would tour with her mom, a former jazz singer. Cantrell fondly remembers watching her mom from the side of the stage. "She couldn't find a babysitter, so she would take us with her. I knew that's what I wanted to do." With her goal in mind, this Rhode Island native began to map out her race to stardom by performing at talent shows and auditioning for gigs. Her big break came in Atlanta, where RedZone Entertainment's Tab and C. "Tricky" Stewart signed her after listening to her demo. Soon after, Cantrell was halfway to living out her dream, singing back up for such established acts as Puffy and Faith Evans, who many say looks as if she could be Cantrell's twin.
While she was hard at work trying to make things happen, Cantrell was also enduring severe depression, in part due to an unhealthy relationship that became source material for her Arista Records debut album, So Blu. Cantrell's lament of a love gone bad in "So Blu" plays like a therapeutic episode of "The Real World."
There's the back-on-top track "I'll Find A Way," where Cantrell vows to make it through the storm. On "The One," Cantrell sings about the attributes that she wants in a lover, and the inevitable "Till I'm Gone" finds her commitment-phobic man begging for one more chance after Blu decides to call it quits.
"He knows this album is about him," Cantrell says of her former love. "No, he hasn't heard it yet, but he will. He'll probably be in the record store buying it ... 'cause I'm not gonna give him a free copy," she says, laughing. "I've given him enough go-free passes!" With the past behind her, Blu is in no hurry to step back in a relationship. Perhaps her next album will be dedicated to living the single life and loving it.
