Anastacia

Biography of Anastacia

Anastacia Lyn Newkirk was born on September 17, 1968 in Chicago. She is an American singer and songwriter.

Anastacia's mother is Broadway actress Diane Hurley, her father is singer Robert Newkirk. She has an older sister and a younger brother. After her parents divorced, she moved to New York City with her mother and siblings, where she first attended the Professional Children's School in Manhattan.

Due to Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, she had to deal with limitations from a young age. Despite this, she developed a great interest in dance as a teenager. She received engagements as a dancer as early as 1988 for the music videos for Salt 'n' Pepa's Everybody Get Up and Twist and Shout and later for Club MTV. She began training as a hairdresser while also working as a studio singer for artists such as Jamie Foxx and Omar Sosa.

Anastacia was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2003, which was treated with surgery in February 2003 and radiation. In April 2007, she married her bodyguard Wayne Newton in Mexico. In April 2010 it was announced that she had filed for divorce from Newton. She hid her real age until the end of August 2008 by telling the media that she was born in 1973. In February 2013, she canceled her planned European tour after being diagnosed with breast cancer again. She has since announced that she had undergone a bilateral mastectomy to prevent recurrence.

In 1998, Anastacia took part in the MTV singing competition The Cut and made it to the finals. Although she didn't win the trophy, her performance made such a strong impression that major labels also wanted to sign her. She chose Daylight Records, a sub-label of SonyMusic's Epic Records. At the beginning of her career, she stood out with a style that set her apart from the pop culture mainstream. As a glasses wearer, she avoided contact lenses and wore various tinted and non-tinted glasses. Since her cancer, she has mostly appeared in public without glasses.

Her first studio album, Not That Kind, was released in 2000. Not least thanks to the top ten hit I'm Outta Love, the album climbed to number one in the album charts in Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland and sold more than five million copies worldwide.

The second album, Freak of Nature, followed in November 2001. With seven million copies sold, it surpassed the success of the debut album.

After a break of more than a year due to illness, she returned to the music business in 2004 with the album Anastacia, simply named after her.

After a long break, their new album Heavy Rotation was released in 2008. The stylistic change compared to the predecessors caused a divided response among the fans.

In November 2012, Anastacia released a cover album It's a Man's World. She covered rock classics by Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses and the Foo Fighters.

In April 2014, she released Stupid Little Things, the first single from her upcoming studio album Resurrection, which was released in May 2014.

In 2003, after her breast cancer surgery, she founded the Anastacia Fund. It is part of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation established by Estée Lauder in 1993. She says she started the foundation to encourage other women and to help with early cancer detection. She regularly collects money for the organization, for example the proceeds from the fourth release of her album Anastacia, Heavy on My Heart, went there.

At the end of 2005 she brought out a charity collection under the name Make a Difference at the fashion house s.Oliver. The proceeds went to an aid organization supporting earthquake victims in Pakistan. In December 2006, she released three more T-shirts, with proceeds going to the Anastacia Fund. In August 2006 her first fashion line came onto the market under the name Anastacia by s.Oliver, which she designed to a large extent and which was marketed for four years. The distribution of her perfume series Anastacia Resurrection was discontinued in 2008.