By Blair R. Fischer

Playboy.com: You were discovered on a show similar to Star Search, correct?

Anastacia: It was called The Cut. It's like an MTV version of Star Search. That's how I describe it, and the only thing I can say is this whole year and a half has been the biggest fairy tale story. Before I did The Cut, I was on unemployment. I stopped singing. I was discouraged. It was everything. I got fired from a job for the first time.

PB: What job was that?

A: It was a facial salon in Beverly Hills, and I was a receptionist and got fired 'cause I was just a little bit too loud and wild. Ya know, you come to get a facial and I'm like, "Hi, how are ya?!"

PB: Were you making too many personal calls or something?

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WHO IS SHE?:

Anastacia Newkirk, 27, is Aretha Franklin reincarnated -- well, she could be if Ms. Franklin had passed on. Only thing is, Anastacia -- for marketing reasons, Newkirk falls into the same bin as Madonna's Ciccone and Roseanne's Barr -- is Wonder bread-white. Her soulful, tiramisu-rich voice is a match for Motown's finest divas, and her debut album, Not That Kind, out now, is a wondrous marriage of her expressive vocals and silky smooth R&B grooves.

WHAT HAS SHE DONE?:

Until now, Anastacia's dance card's been relatively open. The blonde chanteuse spent time as a dancer on Club MTV and appeared in music videos for Salt-n-Pepa before getting her watershed moment on a TV talent show called The Cut, where she was among ten finalists and, soon after, the beneficiary of a record company feeding frenzy.

WHY DO WE CARE?:

She's got the look. Flouting stereotypes that sultry singers should conceal their weaknesses, Anastacia shuns contact lenses for oft-ridiculed specs. "I'm a low-maintenance kind of chick," she explains. "I can just put glasses on and not worry about the squishy stuff you put in your eyes." It works.