“Give it one more year” – the life changing impact of good advice

Global star Anastacia is celebrating more than 25 years in the music industry. She says when she looks back on her career, it was advice given to her by her first manager that led to a pivotal moment in her life.

‘My manager at the time believed in me and didn’t want me to give up. He wanted me to give it one more year,’ Anastacia explains. She says she had been considering her future as a performer, far from confident that she would secure a record deal.

She says: ‘I was 29 and it was like, you know, this is never going to happen, it’s just passed… and then the TV show came up, and it was a whole different world.’

The TV show was The Cut, an MTV talent show. Anastacia appeared as a contestant in 1998 and became one of the 10 finalists. Although she didn’t win, her appearances catapulted Anastacia into the spotlight. And she has never looked back.

Speaking about her career, how she’s grown and what she’s learned, Anastacia also believes that life experience can be a great ‘advice giver’.

She says: ‘Sometimes you have to go through things, to walk away with the things that go, I’m going to take that, or I’m not going to take that.’

Anastacia says she is grateful for the advice she received early in her career from two legends of the music world, Celine Dion and Luciano Pavarotti.

‘These two people gave me phenomenal advice on different levels,’ she says.    

Anastacia explains that early in her career she could be doing 40 press interviews a day, and she always sang live because she felt under pressure to prove the quality of her voice. But she says Celine Dion told her she didn’t have to do that anymore, that I could ‘blow things out’. In response, Anastacia says: ‘I didn’t even know I could do that.’

Meanwhile Pavarotti gave Anastacia great advice about her voice and to continue singing in her natural way.

‘I said, I’ve never taken a singing lesson… he said, then don’t think about it, everything you’re doing is natural.’

She adds: ‘The industry was scary to me. Those little moments started giving me power to go, okay, and start to have an inner voice on what I was or who I was.’

It was this empowered attitude that led Anastacia to share her breast cancer diagnosis with fans, and the world, in 2003. She says: ‘A lot of women feel 
very vulnerable. But there was such a survivor in me that wanted to go, if I'm going out, then we are having a discussion with the world. I speak about it a lot, because it does matter.’

Fans often tell Anastacia that a particular song feels like the advice they needed at a certain time – ‘that makes a beautiful difference to me.’

Rick Astley says he is appreciative of the advice he received from Pete Waterman early in his career. He describes him as an honest person, who is ‘matter of fact’ about things, which helped him.

Rick was thrust into the spotlight in the mid-1980s after being discovered by Waterman playing with his band in pubs and clubs.

Rick says of Pete Waterman that ‘he was very direct, but it kind of needs that. You can’t be wishy-washy. Not in pop music. You’ve got to stick your neck out’.

When it comes to the words of wisdom Rick would pass on to those following in his footsteps, he says: ‘Make decisions purely on the music, and because you want to do it.’

Another important piece of advice is getting a manager you trust. Rick says that where you’ve had some success you want to keep hold of it, and that means having the right people around you.

He adds: ‘Do it with a bit of love. The money side of it will come after. Do it because you want to do it.’