She took the world by storm in the noughties and gained international recognition with a singing career that spans over two decades.
And now pop sensation Anastacia, 56, has opened up on some of the big moments in her personal life on Lulu’s Turning Points podcast – including her first phone call with Michael Jackson, who championed the star.
Lifting the lid on their first interaction, she explained: ‘I actually didn’t have to sing in front of Michael Jackson, he wanted me to sign to his label because he had his own label.
‘He was super kind, and he wanted just my number to my house. So he asked for the number, he wanted to call it.
‘He was super private that way, he’s like ‘I don’t want somebody to connect the call, I want to know that I am calling her house and she’s answering it so we can have a conversation like real people’.
‘And I was like – wow that’s so cool… I wish I would have taped it, I wish I had that knowledge to video tape that moment.’
Anastacia, 56, has opened up on some of the big moments in her personal life on Lulu’s Turning Points podcast – including her first phone call with Michael Jackson
Lifting the lid on their first interaction, she explained: ‘I actually didn’t have to sing in front of Michael Jackson, he wanted me to sign to his label because he had his own label’
She continued: ‘So I made no-one be there as if he would have known that anyone was listening to this phonically like a dork. So here I am alone in my house waiting for the phone to ring.
‘Too honest. The phone’s ringing do I pick up on the first ring – ‘Hello?’ ‘Hello, it’s Michael’ and I said ‘Hey Michael it’s Anastasia’ – he was so sweet, so kind.
‘Someone like me already freaking that people wanted to sign me, somebody like him with his legendary everything… to just be super talented and tell me that I am worthy and that I have what it takes.
‘And the phrase he used which I didn’t understand at the time because I had never travelled outside of two states, he said – ‘you’re the kind of artist the world would understand.’
Elsewhere, Anastacia candidly talked about how she’s battled cancer twice in her lifetime and undergone 16 surgeries.
The pop icon was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, aged 34, and then again a decade later.
She admitted on the podcast: ‘I felt so betrayed by medicine. And when I say that I mean how doctors approach you as a woman is – do you have breast cancer in your family? And I go mum? No, we don’t. Ok great.
‘And they let it go. But when I hear the stats of women with breast cancer, 70% of those women with breast cancer is not genetic so why ask me and then toss it aside when the smaller amount of breast cancer is genetic, and the bigger amount is unknown.
‘Like, that’s the bigger number so shouldn’t we pay attention or give some knowledge. And they’re like – well it’s really hard as doctors because we can’t tell you what not to do.
She said:’He was super kind, and he wanted just my number to my house. So he asked for the number, he wanted to call it’ (seen in 2001)
Elsewhere, Anastacia candidly talked about how she’s battled cancer twice in her lifetime and undergone 16 surgeries
Read More
Famed US pop star Anastacia heading to for her first concert tour in a decade
‘We can’t tell you that it’s food, we can’t tell you that it’s air, we can’t tell you that it’s stress, we can’t tell you that it’s anything particular, it’s probably all of that, but it’s definitely happening at a wider range than it is genetic. So I’m like great, I’m going to talk about it.’
She also spoke about the shocking fact that the world found out she had cancer the same day that she did, the first time around.
‘It was released the day that I found out. It was leaked. So it was leaked and they asked me for a statement and I was like – what do you mean a statement, is that real? Do people give statements? I thought that was a joke,’ the pop star recalled.
Anastacia continued: ‘And I was like – I don’t even understand how to give a statement.
‘So before I was able to tell Elton or tell my friends, or tell anyone that I was positive let alone know if I would die, what stage, what anything, they were going with it, so whatever, whatever I said is in the news I guess or whoever they put together and then it was like chasing it from then on.’
Finally, the singer gave an update on her younger brother Brian, who is two years younger than her but his autism makes him ‘mentally 10 years old’, and how she and her sister Shawn have become his legal guardians.
She told Lulu: ‘We are Brian’s guardians together and my mom is just being a mom, but she’s at that place where we have to be Brian’s guardian because it’s just better that we have him looked after.’
‘If you gave him the diagnosis he has today, he would have been then put in a facility – he would have been considered done. We’re not mad at my mother, we would have wished he’d have been diagnosed sooner.
‘But when we think about the reality of it, if he was placed in a home we might not have been able to have the control and the revelations that we do as sisters.
Finally, the singer gave an update on her younger brother Brian, whose autism makes him permanently young, and how she and her sister Shawn have become his legal guardians
It followes the news that Anastacia is heading Down Under for the time in a decade as part of a world tour celebrating 25 years of her hit debut album, Not That Kind
‘I mean, he could have been sent somewhere and we would have never been able to get to know him… we would never have had the life with him we have now.’
She revealed she has ‘devoted her life’ to Brian because it’s ‘as it should be’.
‘He’s our brother forever,’ she gushed, ‘it doesn’t even matter. He doesn’t ask for anything so it should be for him. He’s our dude, man.’
It followes the news that Anastacia is heading Down Under for the time in a decade as part of a world tour celebrating 25 years of her hit debut album, Not That Kind.
The hitmaker will play shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in September, and advance tickets for the gigs will go on sale from March 28.
Anastacia last toured in 2015 as part of her Resurrection Tour.
The pop superstar, who has sold more than 20 million albums, kicked off her Not That Kind 25th Anniversary Tour in Italy on Monday.
Her first n show for her current world tour will be at Melbourne’s Forum on September 24. The I’m Outta Love songstress will then head to Sydney for two shows.
The first at Rooty Hill’s Coliseum on September 26, followed by a gig at the Enmore Theatre on September 27.
Anastacia will play her final show of the n leg of her tour at Eaton’s Hill Hotel in Brisbane on September 29.
‘l am so excited to be coming to ! This is such a fun tour, celebrating 25 years and l can’t wait to share the show over there with you guys,’ the pop diva said in a statement.
‘It’s a night of true nostalgia. Get ready to sing! Bring on the NTK25 party.’