Anastacia has sold thirty million records, won a slew of awards, and topped charts around the world, thanks to her instantly recognisable, soulful voice full of power that rips the air, but before her debut single I’m Outta Love hit the charts she was collecting unemployment cheques, having been fired from her receptionist job at a high-end hair salon.
She’d spent almost two decades working as a dancer and singer, never quite breaking through. She thought her spot as a back-up dancer in a Salt-N-Pepa film clip, “with the glasses and my naturally dried defused hair” could be her big break. But it was a spot on MTV talent show The Cut and subsequent record deal that unleashed her onto the world. Club anthem I’m Outta Love went to No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand and climbed charts across Europe, Asia and the US.
In the years that followed she released hit after hit and battled breast cancer twice. Twenty-five years after her breakout release, Anastacia is back in Australia. She’s toured and sprung a surprise performance on an ecstatic audience at a Sydney karaoke battle presented by Billson’s. In between shows, she’s hit Bondi beach, The Bridge Climb and Café Sydney, “Which was Oh my God!”, she says. The star is immediately warm, effusive and full of a high-level happy energy. The Weekly was granted a rapid-fire 10 minutes with the superstar.
Welcome back to Australia, Anastacia.
“Thank you. I really love it. The only reason I haven’t moved here is a lot of my work is in Europe and it’s quite a huge trip but also my brother’s disabled and I don’t know how we could easily get into the system with him. Now that he’s older, it could be something we research it in ten years to eight years we might be able to find a way.”
Congratulations on 25 years of hits. It’s a real achievement to have such a long career in the music industry.
“The number itself even made me feel like: Wow. Almost like I could finally pat myself on the back. I’ve never felt that. I don’t know, you’re doing it for years, but I guess when you hit 25, then 30 and 35, that is when people kind of look at you like: Wow.
“They do look at you like there’s a difference when they see a number like that, and maybe I felt that way when I’ve seen people that have been around and their music has stayed relevant. When they’re songs that still are in the DNA.
“It made me feel very proud and then, when going on tour this year and having so many new people come to see me that have never seen me, the feeling of the audience was so uniquely innocent in its purest form. It was just so delicious to have that feeling on stage.”
It must be amazing to look at 25 years when you went from collecting unemployment cheques to having a chart-topping hit?
“Yeah. Like the other day – collecting an unemployment cheque and then, after recording an album, going overseas. I think I was probably 32 at that stage because I was just 30 in ’98, so by the time I actually really hit getting pictures taken I was 31, 32, but everyone said I was 21 so it was kind of like living with that scary math dream.”
You’d been working as a dancer and back-up singer for so long before breaking through. Do you remember that moment when you realised you were going to make it?
“Because it took so long, I always felt it was probably going to go away even though it was happening. ‘Cos even when I did the Salt-N-Pepa videos … Like, it’s going to happen. It’s going to be the break. I guess I thought that in different times.
“I got the deal but then we’re recording songs, songs came out, but I don’t know, like, are they going to be on the radio? I didn’t know what world travel meant … and I didn’t quite understand how everyone knew my song.
“Everybody has radio girl! To me, [I had] no belief at all that I would have to have what’s called a bodyguard. I would have to have an alias. I didn’t realise that people would stop me in the toilet. Still to this day I’m still as approachable as all can be in the toilet. That’s usually when the women feel the bravest!”
Your debut I’m Outta Love went to No.1. What does having such a huge hit straight away do to you as an artist? Does it give you breathing room or create pressure?
“I didn’t even understand what Sophomore meant. I just was somebody with talent being put in front of places and people and things and I was using my craft which was my voice and my voice being very loud and in your face.
“To me it is very much what I was. My clothes were different. I wore glasses but I wasn’t overkill on you’re going to find me late night, at a club, doing the wrong thing. I was the safe option. I was milk and cookies tour. I was a sparkling drink tour. So, sitting here and being part of Billson’s does make sense to me because it’s the safer option. I say as someone who’s gone through a lot of health stuff.”
You have overcome huge health challenges. You recently said you try to find positive things. What positive things have come into your life because of what you’ve faced with your health?
“I think my whole life has been filled with positive things even if somebody would think it’s negative. I personally know that life is filled with – however you perceive it – something you’re not prepared for. But at the end of the day, you can choose to go through it in a stressful way and overthink it, or you can think, How can I get past this? How can I have something to facilitate getting through it in a kinder way to be able to also be a better person to someone else?
“With health problems comes learning and if you can’t learn from something difficult like a health problem, you’re going to probably have a really hard time in relationships because that means you’re not going to learn in relationships either
“All of these hardships get you through other hardships. I’m sure everyone can remember their first heartbreak. It all depends on how that happened. How do champion other people? That’s why I tried to advocate early detection when it comes to everything in your life.”
Happy birthday for last month. I love the story of how you reclaimed your age at 40, after your record company marketed you as someone much younger. Why was that important to you?
“When I was on the [talent] show [The Cut] I knew you had to be 29 and I told them I was 30. They were like: ‘You’re 21.’ I was like no, no, no, but I’m really going to be 30, and they were like, ‘Eh.’ So, they put me on the show as that age and then when I got the deal …[The record company] said, ‘Girl, we wouldn’t have known. You are so looking younger, we’ll just leave it that way.’
“So, I had to leave it that way and then each year have to deal with it … Everyone kept saying, ‘You look so good, and I was like, but I’m 40. I’d like to tell people I’m 40.’ … I think even now age is still an issue in the way women have to deal with it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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