Much like her powerhouse singing voice, Anastacia resonates through the phone line when we're introduced for this interview.
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"Gooooddd mooorrrnnningg," she good-naturedly booms.
"It's bright and early in the morning - I got up for you, babe."
The reason we're chatting is the first Australian tour by the international pop star and her full band. Renowned for a voice that belies her diminutive stature, Anastacia has sold 30 million albums and will perform at WIN Entertainment Centre on Friday.
She has also attracted much attention for poor health, including Crohn's disease, and her battle with breast cancer — a more aggressive form in 2013 resulted in her having to undergo a double mastectomy.
Now touring in support of latest album Resurrection, the resilient singer gave us the lowdown.
Q: What can you tell us about your live show?
A: Well, in different tours and different shows I've done, depending on the venues you're in and this kind of thing, you design your show accordingly. And being that this is called Resurrection, I really did feel that what I had gone through in the past five years - changing record companies, divorce, cancer - so many different, amazing things happened that weren't necessarily something to be like, 'yay'. I definitely had to go through a lot of changes, and this album projects the resurrection of the changes I've been through, kind of finding myself again.
Finding a better me, a newer me, one with loads of excitement to want to tour, to want to get back in the mire of it being hard, but for some reason, I'm finding it extremely fun and easy, and that is really what Resurrection is.
Q: What was the key message you wanted to project with the Resurrection album?
A: Before I even wrote a word on the album, the name Resurrection was kind of looming over my head. So I guess what I had already been through, and the diagnosis of my second cancer, sort of just understanding all of this, it was kind of an epiphany of, "wow, I think this album's going to be the big one". This is going to be the one; maybe not to other people, but to me. And that's the way I feel. I do feel that what I have learned as a writer, from even doing my covers album that I decided to do, to try to get in touch with the inner artist of myself.
Many different things that I went through as an artist, I think I pulled all the best of it and tried to put it to good use, and write for my voice, instead of write with so many backgrounds around my voice. Really write like more of a rocker, and some of my songs if you notice don't have a lot of huge backgrounds. I could take a lot of wonderful knowledge from doing a Foo Fighters song, and doing an AC/DC song in my covers album, because it's not about all the backgrounds that are singing with you. It's about the killer voice that is actually penetrating the guitars.
Q: You mentioned the AC/DC cover - surely it must be mandatory to perform that one live in Australia?
A: Right, tell me about it. He [Brian Johnson] is such an incredible singer; I don't think people give rock music the homage and the respect that those voices actually . . . As screamy as some people think they are, god-darn, they can blow. You can actually understand the words when I sing it.
ANASTACIA: Resurrection Tour, Friday, May 1, WIN Entertainment Centre. Tickets: ticketmaster.com.au