Anastacia

About

Raised in New York City, Anastacia came from an entertainment oriented family: her father was a singer and her mother an actress in musical theater on Broadway. 

Despite being diagnosed with the chronic intestinal illness, Crohn's disease, at age 13, she developed a career as a dancer, appearing on Club MTV and in music videos such as Salt-N-Pepa’s Everybody Get Up and Twist and Shout. 

In 1999, she was a finalist on the MTV talent contest show The Cut, which attracted the interest of record labels. She signed to the Daylight custom label of Sony Music's Epic Records and recorded her debut album, Not That Kind, which was released internationally in 2000. 

The result was massive success: the album reached the top 10 in eight European and Far East countries, selling over 2-million copies. At home, the single I'm Outta Love became a dance hit, paving the way for the release of a revised version of Not That Kind in the US in 2001. 

Having taken time off from the music business to recover from breast cancer, this multi-platinum artist decided to make her come back at the 2003 Cape Town event. She sang with U2 and Queen, and also contributed to the song Amandla, recording the song and providing some of the lyrics.