Your Ad Here

ACTORS more>> MUSICIANS more>> ATHLETES more>> MISC. more>>

Pics of the Week This week... Models Graduation Mbw Rating: HOT ALERT: Shannon Lucio   Loaded Mbw Rating: HOT ALERT: Nathalie Kelley   Your Ad Here

BIOGRAPHY

Anastacia Newkirk
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Anastacia (Anastacia Lyn Newkirk), born on September 17, 1968 or 1973, is an American pop singer and songwriter.

Anastacia has been highly successful in Europe, Oceania, and South Africa but has not had as much success in her native United States. Despite the lack of American success, she has sold over 25 million albums worldwide.

Anastacia is known for her powerful, raspy voice, and she is a dramatic soprano and is famous for her ability to hit high notes in her chest voice. Her vocal sound and style led Elton John to initially mistake her for an African-American singer. Others found it unusual that a 5'3" woman had such a powerful strong voice, nicknaming her "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 also made headlines when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003.

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.

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. The album was a huge success, reaching the top ten in eight countries in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. It went triple 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. "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.

Anastacia entered record studios in September 2003 to begin recording her next album, working with Glen Ballard, Dallas Austin, and Dave Stewart for release in 2004. On the album, Anastacia also collaborated with P.O.D. lead singer Sonny Sandoval on the socially-conscious track "I Do".

The first single, released in March, was "Left Outside Alone", which saw a change in direction for Anastacia.

Anastacia proved to be a smash hit reaching the top of the album charts in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, Germany, and Italy and number 2 in Portugal and Spain. "Left Outside Alone" proved to be equally successfully reaching number 1 in Australia, Spain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland; number 2 in the Netherlands + Germany, number 3 in the UK and reaching the top 5 on the composite European chart. Strong airplay throughout Europe gave the song a Top 40 Charts world airplay ranking as one of the top five songs played on top 40 radio stations throughout the world in April 2004. Unlike her first two albums, which were released in her homeland of America, Anastacia was not, despite being scheduled for release on three occasions. "Left Outside Alone" was released twice, but failed to pick up heavy airplay. It only gained sporadic Adult Contemporary and Hot AC format airplay. Again, it sparked Rhythmic/Dance format airplay and the dance mix of "Left Outside Alone" peaked at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play. After the original version of "Left Outside Alone" failed to catch on because of lukewarm promotional pushes, especially on radio, the album was postponed and eventually cancelled after the release date of August 30, 2004 past.

Anastacia released three further internationally successful singles; "Sick and Tired" (which gave her another #1 in Spain and another UK Top 5 single), "Welcome to My Truth" (her best-selling hit in Spain), and the ballad "Heavy on My Heart" proceeds from the sale of which went towards her 'Anastacia Fund' (Charitable organisation providing research funding for breast cancer).

During this difficult period, Anastacia stated that the most important factor in her quick recovery was the support received from her massive fanbase. Anastacia has often said that her fans play a very important part in her success and her kind attitude towards signing autographs and accepting to take pictures with fans reinforces her close relationship with her ever-growing fanbase.