Anastacia

Real name: Anastacia Lyn Newkirk

Nickname: Stacey

Birthday: 17 September, 1973

Birth city: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Height: 5' 3 (160 cm)

Anastacia (born Anastacia Newkirk, September 17, 1973) is an American pop singer who has sold ten million records since the release of her first album Not That Kind in 2000.

Early Years
Anastacia was born in Chicago, Illinois into a showbiz family: her father was a singer and her mother an actress in Broadway musical theatre. Her family relocated to New York City when she was a teenager and she enrolled at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan.
Anastacia soon became interested in dance despite being diagnosed with the intestinal disease Crohn's Disease. During the early '90's, 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 Music's Epic Records in March 1999.

Paid Her Dues: Career Success
Her debut album Not That Kind was released in 2000 and 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 first single "I'm Outta Love" which was the most popular single of the year in that country for 2000. While "I'm Outta Love" was a top ten song on the US dance charts, Not That Kind only reached the lower parts of the Billboard 200, since the single never managed to cross over to the American pop charts.
Her second album, 2002's Freak Of Nature achieved respectable sales although not matching the level of international success of Not That Kind. However, her sophomore effort did best its predecessor in her home country. Its debut single, "One Day In Your Life", though not a smash hit, just barely made the top 40 and was also a hit on the club charts and at rhythmic radio. Anastacia also joined Shakira, Cher and Mary J. Blige for VH1's Divas Live in 2002. Anastacia also contributed a song "Love Is A Crime" to the Chicago soundtrack.
In January 2003, Anastacia discovered she had breast cancer while preparing for breast reduction surgery due to orthopedic reasons. She immediately successfully completed a course of treatment. Anastacia subsequently established a fund through the Breast Cancer Research Fund to promote awareness of breast cancer amongst younger women. Anastacia entered record studios in September 2003 to record the Anastacia album with Glen Ballard, Dallas Austin, and Dave Stewart for release in 2004. The first single, released in March 2004, was "Left Outside Alone". On the album, Anastacia also went for a more rock sound with the track "I Do", which featured Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D..
Anastacia proved to be a smash hit reaching the top of the album charts in the UK, Australia, Germany, and Italy and number 2 in Spain. The "Left Outside Alone" single proved to be equally successfully reaching number 1 in Italy, Austria and Switzerland; and top 5 in the UK, Ausralia and on the composite European chart. Strong airplay throughout Europe caused the song to achieve 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. However, the Anastacia album and "Left Outside Alone" had not been released in the US as at the end of April 2004.

Discography
Not That Kind (2000), Freak Of Nature (2001), Anastacia [non-U.S.A.] (2004) (source: wikipedia.com)