On the eve of the release of "FULL MOON," her third Atlantic CD - a sure-to-be-mega-selling-platinum disc - Brandy is back with her most heartfelt and mature work to date. She also has a new outlook on life, fortified with a spiritual centeredness that only makes her star shine brighter... This is Brandy 3.0, you might say, the newly music-focused adult Brandy, sleek and streamlined and ready to take on all comers with a dazzling new CD. "FULL MOON" is both a declaration of independence and a full-circle revelation of a woman who once emerged a full-fledged star but is now ready to be recognized as a spiritually and emotionally developed woman. In the years between her last record and this new release, it was important for Brandy to reconcile those sides of her. "A part of yourself is taken from you in the public eye," she says. "And that was one of my problems. I didn't know who I was because so many people had this idea and image of me that wasn't necessarily who I was. But I've experienced some things and I've learned some lessons, good and bad. I'm a woman now." So how does the little girl from McComb, Mississippi, who has spent the last eight years doing it all - selling tens of millions of records; starring in one of the highest-rated TV specials ever (Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella); starring on two sitcoms (Thea and Moesha); acting in movies; representing one of the biggest cosmetics companies in the world - find her way from girlhood to womanhood under the bright and shining glare of the pop culture spotlight? She retreats, looking within herself to find the power and beauty of personal growth. She moves out of her parents house, buys her own, and, to quote one of her own hits, "sits up in her room" to figure out how to make the world work for her rather than feel like she's working for the world. She chooses to be a fully-formed person, rather than just a fully-formed celebrity, ultimately choosing music as her main focus in life. As a result, "FULL MOON" is Brandy's most personal album to date, a statement record from a young diva who is always on the rise, never content to rest on her past successes, even though, she reveals, she wasn't always sure of her self when it came to recording music.
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