I'm Outta Love

The only Anastacia song you're likely to know

When I was researching the last post, I ran across Gary Barlow’s Crooner Sessions, which was a project where he did duets over Zoom with his musical pals. He brought Anastacia on to do this song (you can see it at the end of the post) and her energy was so strong and she was having so much fun it reminded me how much fun this song is and how much I love her voice.

I was first introduced to her when Elton John brought her onstage with him at his Madison Square Garden in 2000, later to appear on his One Night Only concert vid. I was struck by two things - her stage presence (with glasses!) and that although she appeared to be around my age (she is), Elton introduced her as a young artist. I loved seeing a woman in her 30s getting a shot.¹

Shortly after that I heard this song, her first single, which had been released in 1999. It did well internationally but sadly not in her native US.² In the intervening years she’s developed a big following in Europe, the UK and Australia. She’s also had 2 bouts with breast cancer³, a hernia, and lives with Crohn’s disease. She’s won a humanitarian award for her work in raising breat cancer awareness in younger women. Honestly, she’s pretty amazing.

The song is a dance banger about a woman who’s done with her relationship with her distant lover and wants out. Anastacia wanted a Sly and the Family Stone sound for the album while the exec who signed her wanted a song for her big voice that was like I Will Survive with a bit more heft. So he drafted Sam Watters from Color Me Badd to write something for her and produce the single along with Louis Biancaniello. A few days later Watters came back with the demo for this song for Anastacia to hear and she liked it enough that the three of them developed the song.

The video is directed by Nigel Dick, who directed many iconic videos of the 80s⁴ and 90s from both sides of the Atlantic. It’s filmed in the Art Deco gem Park Plaza Hotel in LA.⁵ In the vid, we see her mostly performing but is framed by her walking down a hallway and chatting with her band. At the end a rando dude who has been eying her interrupts her post-show confab and gives her his number.⁶ She walks away, tearing it up as she goes. Like a boss.

There’s also an alternative video done to a Hex Hector remix. He had been remixing all the R&B stars of the 90s. This video gets rid of the dude and features dancers, new angles, and some just plain cool effects to fit the remix.⁷

Here’s the duet with Gary Barlow. She’s having a ball and completely overshadows him, even though she lets him sing the main part of the song. Her ad libs are an utter delight.

Enjoy your song of the day!

1. She worked as a backup singer for over a decade before finally getting discovered on a precursor to American Idol called The Cut, hosted by Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes on MTV.

2. She was born in Chicago. The song did a quick blip on the Billboard top 100, although it did much better on the dance charts (a 12-inch promo was first sent to club DJs) and just missed the top 10 in Canada.

3. 2001 and 2013. Considering she was riding really high after her debut album, that first time really stung. And after the second time her voice changed - something I can relate to. She ended up looking for a new sound that suited her new voice.

4. The most iconic being the video for the original Band Aid song Do They Know It’s Christmas.

5. You may recognize it from Guns &Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle vid.

6. Why do guys do this? You come out of nowhere and expect us to be interested because you think we’re hot and you’re all that? Seriously, dude. You’re really not.

7. I know this post is vid heavy but this vid is so different from the original I wanted to have both.