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Anastacia |
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Anastacia is a rare talent: A songwriter, a producer and a dancer. But the fact that her angelic good looks, charm and 5'3" frame is capable of singing the way that she does has fascinated and delighted fans around the world during her short, relatively new career. So, it should come as no surprise that even her mother has referred to her as a "freak of nature." Enter Freak of Nature, Anastacia's appropriately titled second full-length recording for Epic Records.
Anastacia burst onto the music scene in 1999 with her debut album, Not That Kind, and wowed audiences and critics alike, with her powerful vocal range. She promptly conquered Europe and secured her place as an International superstar with gold, platinum and multi-platinum sales status in more than a dozen countries with overall album sales exceeding 5 million copies. Add to that an exuberant personality, a fierce sense of individuality and personal style, a vocal prowess that defies categorization and a long list of awards, including Best New International Artist at the 2001 World Music Awards and a nomination for Best New Artist at the 2001 MTV Europe Music Awards and you've got yourself an artist who is proud of who she is.
"I am a freak of nature," says Anastacia. "I've always gotten looks of shock depending on how you look at it because I gather the way that I look doesn't match the way I sound. So this album is basically about those types of people -- freaks. I guess you could say that I'm telling their story as well as mine."
"It was a very liberating record to make," she continues. "I've always liked the idea that some of my favorite artists have been "freaks," or non-conformists, and that gave me courage, a constant reminder in the studio to make the record the way that I wanted."
Freak of Nature was recorded in two months at Sony Music Studios in New York City. It reunited Anastacia with Grammy Award-winning producer Rick Wake (Diana Ross, Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey), Sam Watters of Color Me Badd and Louis Biancaniello, all of whom worked with Anastacia on her debut album. Wake produced seven of the twelve tracks on this new album, including the title track "Freak of Nature," "I Dreamed You," "Paid My Dues," "Over Due Goodbye," "How Come The World Won't Stop," "Why'd You Lie To Me" and "Secrets" while Watters and Biancaniello produced and co-wrote "You'll Never Be Alone," "Don't Stop" "One Day In Your Life" and "Dontcha Wanna." Anastacia also collaborated for the fist time with writer Billy Mann on the uplifting "Overdue Good-bye," "How Come The World Won't Stop" and "Freak of Nature." In addition she collaborated with writers Greg Lawson and Damon Sharpe, who co-wrote "Paid My Dues" and "Why'd You Lie To Me."
Anastacia co-wrote a total of twelve songs on Freak of Nature, which gives the listener a birds-eye view of just what makes this talent tick. From "Paid My Dues", which tells of her arduous route to becoming a professional recording artist, to "Secrets," written nearly seven years ago about the importance of encouraging kids to express their thoughts and emotions so that they don't become problematic later in life -- an obvious reference to a disease that Anastacia has battled since the age of 13 -- Crohn's disease.
"For those with Crohn's, holding in our emotions or masking her unhappiness fuels the symptoms," says Anastacia. "What is seen as a curse for some, is a gift for me, because it has helped me to discover who I really am as a person. The disease has given me a clear window to my own emotions, which causes me to live each moment and to understand exactly how I'm behaving in a particular situation." It is just that attitude toward life's hard knocks that has propelled Anastacia onto the world stage. And she couldn't feel more at home there.
