Her powerful voice has forged a race against the current, twice facing cancer with a force that emerges in each of her words and actions. We are talking about Anastacia and her more than 20-year career where she has shown a resilience that has pushed her to publicly engage on issues such as LGTBI rights or the limitation of gun ownership in the United States. The Chicago artist accompanies her words with large acts such as founding an association to help women with breast cancer, or small ones such as establishing her temporary residence in one of the towns in Germany affected by the floods of 2022. “It is very emotional to see how a city comes back to life after a tragedy where they have lost everything”.
It is from that town (whose name he cannot pronounce), near the city of Colonia where his producer resides, from where he answers the phone for La Vanguardia while he finalizes Our Songs, the new album that he will publish this summer and of which for now we have been able to listen to the single Best days, a hymn to optimism behind which a version of the German punk band Die Toten Hosen is hidden. Because his next work is a compilation of versions of songs in German translated into English, an experiment signed by the author of I'm Outta Love who will perform on July 16 at the Alma Jardins Pedralbes festival.
It is not surprising that Anastacia dares with punk themes, but it is surprising that she covers songs by a relatively little-known German group. “My producer, Christian Geller, is the mastermind behind the project”, he was the one who suggested that she choose songs in German to translate into English and sing them with her powerful voice. “At first it scared me,” she explains, but she was convinced when the punk band's own singer, Campino, told her that it was “a great idea, I'd love for you to sing this song”, and they recorded a demo of the song together. “It was Campino who wrote the lyrics and sang on the demo, I loved hearing that voice, a mixture of grunge and English punk”, comments Anastacia, noting that it is the first time that this German artist, named Andreas Frege, accepts that cover your themes.
“When I heard it, I understood what my producer was looking for,” he comments, although he admits that he didn't understand anything the lyrics said, “but I saw that it had a good melody”. The next step was to translate the song with the help of a teacher, a process he carried out with the other songs on the album.
“I'm having a lot of fun in the studio, like I haven't had in a long time”, comments Anastacia, who highlights the connection she has with her producer, “I haven't felt anything like this since I worked with Glen Ballard”. “I feel like I'm making a new album”, she points out, because for her they are more than covers of other songs, “singing them in English they have a completely different life”. It is something that has fascinated the singer from Chicago, "how can you do two such different songs from the same song, it's wild, she had never done it and I find it very interesting."
Our songs is the eighth studio album by this diva known for her voice, her colorful collection of glasses and her connection to the LGTBI community, which she recently showed during her performance at the Las Palmas Carnival, an “incredible” show. “I understand this mixture of the Catholic and the gay because, after all, if you have love for other people it is something compatible”, she explains, acknowledging that “the world changes very quickly, and the old world is scared. The new world is hot, they want what is theirs and they want it now ”she is clear about a dividing line where she has a lot to do with age, the strength of youth.
"I have no problem speaking politically, I'm just saying that I don't want to stay on the wrong side of history, that's why I speak clearly, not because I want to create problems." In this sense, Anastacia declares herself an enemy of war and in favor of love, peace and happiness. “That's how it's always been, I've said it in every song and every concert. We are living in a strange time with a lot of hate but I still believe in love”, something that is reflected in the song Best days, “a happy song”, whose video clip was shot in Lisbon, “close to your land, Spain, you are people happy”.
