Photos: Universal Music

„When you feel you are the only one who feels this terrible then always remember that there are people out there that can relate“

You seem to be an expert in falling down and getting up again and so on. It also often occurs in your music.
Anastacia: Yeah, that´s my motto. It´s the only thing I kind of know how to write about which is what I go through in life and how I get through it. I think often when people talk about me they talk about my positive outlook on it or my “get up and dust yourself off” philosophy. No matter what gets thrown in my way, I try to find the light within the dark. It´s not easy. I am not saying for everyone it should be an easy process but music helps a lot of people get through that and writing it helped me. What I have noticed is that my songs have helped me get through by fans listening to it – they have found a way to find their own journey to get past their situation.
You never really know how people will take your honest writing. There are a lot of people out there that think the same way I think. I kind of felt like I wasn’t alone – that´s another song I wrote: “You`ll never be alone”. When you feel you are the only one who feels this terrible then always remember that there are people out there that can relate, even if they may not be exactly going through what you are going through.

So it is your therapy to write?
Anastacia: It became that. I didn´t know I was a writer. I kind of fell into singing because I was dancing in a club with rhythm, and the producer asked me: “Do you sing?” I was like: “Oh my God, is he picking me up?!”. You know it was that kind of thing. And then I started singing but I as didn´t sound like anyone on the radio, I didn´t think I had a gift that the people wanted to hear because I didn´t sound like Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey or Celine (Dion, the editor). I didn´t have that quality, so I didn´t think I could make it, but I got an opportunity, I got on a record label and they liked me for everything I was: my glasses, my sort of rocky vibe, my strange voice that didn´t match my look. From that point on they let me write more and more for each album and they realized that I had interesting stories to tell. When I worked with producers, I had messages that really seemed to capture people and get their attention because the way I am is the way I write.

„I just don´t lose faith because that´s when you loose it all“

Is Anastacia fearless now?
Anastacia: You know I am not scared of death. I have a lot of hope for our world even though it´s in turmoil right now – even my own country – but I never lost faith. I just don´t lose faith because that´s when you loose it all. If you lose faith in what you are trying to achieve in the world, what do you have to look forward to?

Did you have a role model or is it your character?
Anastacia: I think it´s my character. My mum tells me when I was a kid and my sister being older she had dolls, and I would like to play with her dolls. I thought hers were better, so sometimes I would twist their arms and break them and then my mum would tell me: “This is your new doll and your sister gets a new doll. Your doll may have only one arm but you will have to deal with it. You can´t use your sister´s stuff.” But I didn´t think that was terrible, as I ended up playing hospital. That´s why my mum says I always turn things into something I could work with. That´s just who I was as a person and that only personified bigger when I became an adult when I realized I can be louder and people would hear me and my message would go out there. So after cancer when I found out so much about the illness and the reality of it I felt like I needed to tell women the truth and not the fantasy from the fifties. Seventy percent of women that get cancer – it is not genetic, it is often environmental or stress related. Doctors won´t tell you that because that is not a clinical diagnosis. So let´s talk about cancer. Cancer is a scary word, but there are three letters in front of that word and that are CAN. That´s who I am. I can´t even stop being that person. It´s everything that I am. I think like that, I am like that, but I have my down days and they get me back up again. It´s just a rollercoaster. We are all on it. Some people stay down further and longer than I happen to. I just don’t stay down that long.

„Some people cannot last through their pain and their pain is deeper and different“

And some people would even consider to jump from a bridge?
Anastacia: Right. Some people cannot last through their pain and their pain is deeper and different. I don´t shame them and I don´t finger on them and say: “Shame on you” or “not good”. We are all different. When I called myself a “freak of nature” it was because my voice was different than anybody else’s. And I did wear glasses. All the other girls were in short skirts and looking like girls when I was the kind of woman that should have been in the Stones or hanging out with Stevie Nicks, but it was just who I was, but I was different. And my mum always told me even if you are different and people want to call you different and use bad words like freak you can turn those words into sexy words. So my freaks are my freaks. They love being called freaks because they are different, they are cool just like (Lady) Gaga´s monsters when they kind of don´t fit in. I also give them the word “Fanally” because of their unconditional love and support and the stuff they gave me. Apart from my friends and family, the fans helped me too. Therefore I would like to embrace them.

“Pick yourself up, honey. It`s not a great day, but bring some friends over and make the best of it.”

When you were 12 you got Chrohn’s (disease). Do you still suffer from it?
Anastacia: Yes, I will forever. Some days are better than others. I am not on medicine now but during tours, during promo and my life doing music I have been on and off medicine but I don´t talk about it because it takes away the focus from my work. But I support it and I engage it and I will go and talk to people about it. It is something you never get rid of, so instead of talking about getting rid of it, I think it is more important to focus on keeping your heart and brain together in balance. The more you keep these centered, the easier it is for you to deal with what is happening when you are not feeling good. That´s what I always focus on, that´s why my songs are like: “Pick yourself up, honey. It`s not a great day, but bring some friends over and make the best of it.” You have to have people who understand you.

To think positive may also be part of the US mentality.
Anastacia: It could be for what I know. I started travelling when I was 30, when I got my record deal so the beauty of travelling over to all of these countries is what I have gained from it: the knowledge, the wordly sense, the gorgeousness of culture. I wouldn´t have got that just in America. So my sister and I are very grateful for the opportunity that we can work together and watch all of this exist and try to be a voice within it to help people. I am not necessarily a Trump supporter. I talk about it but I don´t overtalk about it. We have better things to talk about apart from him, but I do make sure that my fans understand: “Please don´t hate me because I am American but because there are a lot of us who didn´t like him and the majority of us didn´t want him there”.

Interview: Simone Zettier

The Interview took place before a concert in Warendorf/Germany 2017