Anastacia

Anastacia (born Anastacia Lyn Newkirk on September 17, 1973) is an American singer and songwriter.

She has been highly successful in Europe, Oceania, Asia and South Africa but has not had as much success in her native United States. Despite the lack of American success, she has sold in excess of 30 million albums worldwide.

She is world renowned for her powerful, edgy, soulful voice and is a dramatic contralto, famous for her ability to hit high notes in her chest voice. Her small stature (160 cm or 5'3") has also led to her being nicknamed "the little lady with the big voice". She is also known for her trademark glasses (often darkly tinted), but she had surgery to correct her vision permanently in August 2005.

She made headlines when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. In 2007, she married her bodyguard of three years, Wayne Newton, in Mexico.

Career

Early life

Anastacia was born in Chicago, Illinois into a showbiz family: her father Robert Newkirk was a club-singer and her mother Diane Hurley an actress in Broadway musical theatre. After her father left the Newkirk family, they moved to New York City when she was a teenager. Then she enrolled at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan.

Anastacia soon became interested in dance despite being diagnosed with Crohn's disease when she was thirteen years old. She first gained prominence stealing the show from D.L. Hughley while he was hosting BET's Comic View, singing Oleta Adams' "Get Here" in 1992. During the early 1990s, she appeared regularly on Club MTV and in a couple of videos for rappers Salt-N-Pepa. In 1999, she attracted the interest of record labels after making the finals of MTV talent show The Cut. Anastacia signed a contract with Daylight Records, a custom label of Sony BMG's Epic Records in March 1999. The Cut was hosted by Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of R&B and hip-hop group TLC. A then-unknown Anastacia finished in second place, but impressed Lopes and the show's three judges so much that she scored herself a record deal anyway.

Not That Kind

Anastacia in her "Not That Kind" video.Her debut album Not That Kind was released in 2000. Anastacia wrote 75% of it and because of her voice the album leaned towards R&B and Soul. The album was a huge success, reaching the top ten in eight countries in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. It went quadruple platinum in Australia spurred by the success of her debut smash "I'm Outta Love" which was the most popular single of the year in that country for 2000."I'm Outta Love" topped the charts in Australia, peaked at #2 in France and also reached number 6 in both, the UK and Germany. In The US, it was only a minor radio hit. The second single "Not That Kind" reached number 11 in the UK and was a big hit all over Europe and the rest of the world. "Cowboys & Kisses" was released as the third single off the album, charting in the top 40 in some European countries. As the last single, the only promotional meant single "Made for Lovin' You" charted in the UK (27) and France (72).

While "I'm Outta Love" was a Top 10 song on the Hot Dance Club Play, "Not That Kind" did not chart high on the Billboard Hot 100, and she was poorly promoted in the U.S. due to her busy schedule outside North America.

Freak Of Nature

Screenshot from "One Day in Your Life" (2002)Her second album, 2001's Freak of Nature achieved respectable sales although it did not match the level of international success of Not That Kind. The album title derives from a nickname her mother called her. The first single released was "Paid My Dues". The second single, "One Day in Your Life", reached number 11 in the UK and the top 10 in many European countries. The next single "Why'd You Lie to Me" reached the top 30 in the UK. "You'll Never Be Alone", the 4th single, reached #28 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S. When the album was finally released in the United States in May 2002, she dedicated the album to Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, who had died in a car wreck the month before. Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes was partly responsible for Anastacia's success, since Lisa hosted MTV's The Cut where Anastacia got her first break. Soon after she released a double disc edition featuring two bonus hits, remixes for three of the tracks on the album and two live tracks taken from a Japan gig that was performed on the 13 September 2002.

Anastacia joined Shakira, Cher, Dixie Chicks and Celine Dion for VH1's Divas Live in 2002 and she also contributed the song "Love Is a Crime" to the Chicago soundtrack. The song peaked at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and enjoyed moderate airplay on Rhythmic/Dance format. Anastacia was selected to sing the theme from 2002 FIFA World Cup: "Boom".