Anastacia Lyn Newkirk was born in Chicago on 17 September 1968.
Anastacia and her two siblings were raised solely by their mother, Diane Hurley after their parents divorced when she was five. In her early life, she had several small jobs while trying to break into the music industry.
Her initial interest was professional dancing; she even danced back-up for several music videos, including Salt-N-Pepa’s Everybody Get Up and Twist and Shout. Her big break in singing came when she appeared on The Cut, an MTV casting show in 1998. She didn’t win the competition, but record labels were lining up to sign her after she had made the finals.
She chose to sign a deal with Sony Music and in 2000 she released her first studio album. In 2003, Anastacia was diagnosed with breast cancer; but despite the stress and devastation, she continued to work and even filmed the music video for Love is a Crime three days after her diagnosis. She underwent surgery and radiation treatment to treat her cancer, and six weeks later she was performing alongside Elton John at his Oscar party.
In 2013, she became the second woman ever to be presented with the Humanitarian Award at the GQ Men of the Year Awards. This award was in honour of her charitable efforts towards breast cancer awareness that she had been involved in for a decade.
During her career, Anastacia has released seven albums, been nominated for 55 awards, and won 42 of them.
Among those born on this day are Mia Talerico (Good Luck Charlie actress) and Alfie Deyes (YouTube vlogger).
