Anastacia

Raised in New York City, Anastacia grew up surrounded by show-business relatives, with a father who performed as a vocalist and a mother who acted in Broadway musicals. Although Crohn’s disease was identified in her at age thirteen, she built a dancing career that included appearances on Club MTV as well as in Salt-N-Pepa videos such as “Everybody Get Up” and “Twist and Shout.” Her profile rose sharply in 1999 when she reached the finals of MTV’s talent series The Cut, prompting several labels to take notice. She joined the Daylight imprint of Sony Music’s Epic Records and cut her first full-length project, Not That Kind, issued worldwide in 2000.

The album achieved widespread commercial impact, landing inside the Top Ten across eight European and Asian markets while moving more than two million units. In the United States the single “I’m Outta Love” gained traction as a dance-floor favorite, prompting a reworked domestic edition of Not That Kind that arrived in March 2001. Momentum continued into the following year: she joined Mary J. Blige, Cher, Shakira and additional artists for VH1’s fifth Divas Live concert in May 2002. Her first proper American album, Freak of Nature, followed one month later. A self-titled set appeared in 2004 and reached number one in twelve European territories. The following year brought the retrospective compilation Pieces of a Dream: Best Of.

After launching her own clothing line in 2006, Anastacia stepped back into recording in 2007; Heavy Rotation, her fourth studio album, surfaced in 2008. Another hiatus preceded 2012’s It’s a Man’s World. During the intervening period she toured with LuLu on the Here Come the Girls trek in 2009 and staged her own headline dates in 2010. The 2012 release found her emphasizing raw vocal power over rock-tinged pop arrangements, among them a cover of Foo Fighters’ “Best of You.” A second bout with breast cancer forced cancellation of the planned European tour, yet Resurrection, her sixth studio album, reached stores in 2014 once she had recovered. It entered the Top Ten in five European countries; Sony then issued the Ultimate Collection in 2015. A live album drawn from B-sides and rarities recorded during the Ultimate Collection Tour appeared in late 2016.

After ending her association with Sony, Anastacia delivered her seventh studio album, Evolution, in 2017 through Four Eyez Productions under license to Polydor/Universal.