A nice interview Anastacia gives about her new album, Here Come the Girls and some life experiences. She also talks about The Anastacia Fund. Thanks xrux!
When Lulu, Anastacia and Chaka Khan set out on last year’s Here Come The Girls tour, some observers would have been ‘excited to see it fail’, giggles Anastacia.
Far from failing, the three-divas-for-the-price-of-one offer went down a storm, garnering a slew of rave reviews and generating a party atmosphere in theatres across Britain.
Having three singers performing a bunch of well-known songs, together and individually was a simple, not to say old-fashioned formula. Which makes you wonder why it hadn’t really been done before.
“It’s an easy concept show, it’s just that we came up with it. It’s a very simple recipe,” agrees Anastacia. “It’s good music, fun, people that like to do it on stage, who have a passion for what they do, and the audience takes it to the next place.
“It’s a great idea, and any country and any threesome can do it.”
You may think that this smacks of an exclusively girls’ night out. Not so, says the gale force singer.
“A lot of people bring their husbands, which is really hilarious because they’re completely confused,” says Anastacia. “They thought they were doing it for their wives, and they are the biggest hams in the audience.
They’re ready to party. It’s definitely not a girls’ night out.”
This time round, schedules and availability mean that the third ‘girl’ joining 61-year old Lulu and 42-year-old Anastacia will be Heather Small, aged 45, all pictured right.
As for the set list, Anastacia is not giving much away except to say that it will feature songs spanning the ‘60s to the Noughties and that there is a brand new £1m stage set.
After this tour, perhaps Anastacia can get back to writing songs for her next solo album. There’s certainly some real-life inspiration to go at. She married her English bodyguard Wayne Newton – a Manchester United fan – in 2007, but confirmed in April this year that the pair are to divorce. That’s on top of her well-documented health problems including Crohn’s disease and, in 2003, breast cancer.
“I will definitely be putting another album out,” she says. “I think I’ve taken some quite interesting twists and turns in my personal and my career life, and there’s more material in me to come out.
“The next experience from this chick? We’re probably going to want to buy into this because it’s going to be something.”
Her last album, 2008’s Heavy Rotation, came out at a ‘very terrible time for a lot of people’s careers’, what with a worldwide economic slump.
“Lady Gaga was the only one who survived the slings and arrows of coming out during a depression of music, shall we say,” Anastacia observes.
Home for the Chicago-born singer remains America, but London is a second home, and it is the UK where she has enjoyed perhaps her greatest success.
Anastacia Newkirk got her big break in 1999 through MTV’s The Cut, an early example of the kind of talent show which, with X Factor and American Idol, has come to dominate TV schedules. She was a judge on this year’s Don’t Stop Believing TV talent trek on Five. Anastacia is entirely comfortable with this method of finding the stars of the future.
“Now we have all these different shows that are capable of giving a venue for artists to be discovered. That’s all it does,” she says. “It’s not just a record company any more, it is to involve the world in this journey. It’s the journey on steroids, it really is! But it doesn’t mean those are the only talents out there.
“I think you end up seeing the best of the best succeed. It could be the fourth finalist, it could be the 12th finalist, or it could be the first finalist.”
With a Here Come The Girls tour and the prospect of a new album to write, you wonder if Anastacia will be able to find time for the Anastacia Fund, which she set up to raise awareness of breast cancer in younger women.
“Always,” she says firmly. “That’s a current subject for me every year. It continues to be something I pursue and will continue giving.”
But, having got through it, isn’t the temptation now to try and forget about her brush with cancer?
“There’s no reason that, because I’ve journeyed through it, I can’t hold the hands of those who are going through it too. There’s still the passion and drive to get rid of it, the same way we want to get rid of hunger and Aids.”
» Here Come The Girls, starring Anastacia, Lulu and Heather Small comes to the M.E.N Arena, Manchester, on Monday December 6, 2010.
source: CityLife
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