Melanie Fiona's Next Album Will Have More Rock, Hip-Hop Influence

As young as it is, 2010 has been a great year for Melanie Fiona. “It Kills Me,” the second single from her debut album, The Bridge, sits atop Billboard’s R&B/Hip-hop chart for the seventh week in a row. In January she earned an Outstanding New Artist nomination for the 41st NAACP Image Awards, where she’ll also perform next week. And she’ll be the opening act on Alicia Keys’ “Element of Freedom” tour, which kicks off in two weeks in Montreal, Quebec.

With all this going on, it’s hard to believe she’s already thinking about her sophomore set.

“I want to match and surpass what people have seen from this album,” the 26-year-old songstress tells VIBE. “When you first come out, people are trying to figure out and accept who you are. But then once they get an idea of who you are, they want to see that. I want people to see growth and to enjoy the second album even more.”

Fiona adds that she’s proud of the attention The Bridge garnered and that she’s looking to “broader direction.”

The album will feature a fresh sound from her but won’t be too much of a departure. “It’s still going to have a lot of the soul influence," she says. “I kind of want to explore a rock, more hip-hop kind of side. That’s going to be fun, creating something new.”

Fiona hopes to release her sophomore album this fall. –Brad Wete