Anastacia

Born to a club-singing father and Broadway actress mother, Anastacia’s interest in singing and dancing began at an early age. Despite being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at age 13, Anastacia didn’t let this affect her ambitions and became a professional dancer by her teens, with appearances on MTV’s “Club MTV” and two music videos for Salt-n-Pepa including “Get Up Everybody (Get Up)” (1988) and “Twist and Shout” (1989).

She followed these appearances with vocal contributions on pop-star Tiffany’s album “New Inside” in 1990, Jamie Foxx’s debut “Peep This” and Paula Abdul’s third studio album “Head over Heel” (1995). Two years later in 2010 with the encouragement of manager Lisa Braude, Anastacia joined the MTV talent show “The Cut”. While the singer didn’t win the contest, she turned the heads of revered artists like Elton John and Michael Jackson and ended up signing with Daylight Records in March 1999.

Anastacia released her debut album “Not That Kind” internationally in 2000, which became an instant hit. The album reached the Top Ten in eight countries in Europe and Asia, selling over two million copies worldwide and produced the dance hit “I’m Outta Love”. Yet to make her U.S. debut Anastacia released “Freak of Nature” in June 2002 followed by her self-titled album in 2004 and the compilation “Pieces of a Dream: Best Of” in 2004.

Her next album “Heavy Rotation” released in 2008 which despite featuring producers Ne-Yo, The Heavyweights and Lester Mendez, failed to perform as well as its predecessors. The sound moves away from the notable pop rock towards something a little more ‘urban’, a sound direction Anastacia regrets allowing her record label pushing her in the direction of. The singer then successfully sold out 24 shows with fellow singers Chaka Khan and Lulu, who together also opened the 2009 Royal Variety Performance.

Anastacia has subsequently released “It’s a Man’s World” in 2012 a cover album of rock songs by male artists, and “Resurrection” in 2014. The latter proved to be a resurgence for the singer with another Top Ten UK album, “Resurrection”was met with both critical and commercial success.