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| Personal file: Name: Anastacia Newkirk dob: 17 september, 1973 Born in : New York Hometown : Chicago Hair: Blonde Eyes: Brown Tattoos: "Ankh" (egyptian symbol of eternal life) and above her back is written "forever" it says: "forever eternal life" |
| Anastacia's Biography Anastacia Newkirk (her real name) was born in Chicago and was raised by her mother in New York City following her parents� divorce. At age 14, she moved back to the West Side of Manhattan. �I come from a very artistic family,� says the artist. �My father was a singer on the Catskills hotel and East Coast night-club circuits. My mother is an actress who worked in musical theatre and on Broadway. It wasn�t as though I�ve wanted to be a singer all my life, but I grew up in an atmosphere of artistic expression and encouragement.� Anastacia graduated from the Professional Children�s School in Manhattan where, she recalls, �I was just about the only student not working already." She sang along with her mother's Barbra Streisand and Elton John records; and with her older sister, became a regular at the New York dance club 1018. It was her first introduction to house music and �freestyle.� �At the time I didn�t even know what it was,� Anastacia admits, �but emotionally I felt very attached to this very rhythmic music. The way I sing today is the way I dance: very freestyle, just going wherever the music is taking me.� She became a familiar figure on �Club MTV� and danced in several hit videos, including Salt-N-Pepa�s �Everybody Get Up� and �Twist And Shout.� One night, "this producer approached me in the club and asked me if I was a singer. And from that point on, there were different producers involved in what I would call �trying to find my break.�� But in 1998, at the urging of new manager Lisa Braud�, Anastacia entered MTV's version of "Star Search" called �The Cut.� This competition saw 160 contestants whittled down to just ten finalists before an eclectic panel of judges including Pete Rock, David Foster, and Faith Evans. With her high-energy original song �Not That Kind,� Anastacia emerged as one of those finalists (though not the winner). But it was the break for which she had worked so long and hard. "I don�t feel like, gee, it took forever to get to this point. This was exactly when it was supposed to happen.� |
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