Anastacia: ‘Everyone’s been saying my name wrong for 22 years’

The US pop star said that she’s been too polite to correct the mistake

American pop-star Anastacia says that everyone has been pronouncing her name wrong for the past 22 years.

The singer claims that it’s mostly people in the UK and Europe – where she’s ironically found most of her success – who pronounce her name wrong, but she’s been too polite to correct anyone.

According to the pop star, in the UK, Anastacia is usually referred to as “Anastay-zia” - however it’s correctly pronounced “Anastay-jzha” (sounding like the French “j” used in Jean or Jacques).

In Europe she says there are even more variations, with “Anastar-zee-a” and “Anastar-see-a” often used instead.

Anastacia blames broadcast media for the mispronunciation, but says that after over 20 years of the mistake, she’s had to let it go.

“If the news has been saying it a certain way, I think people just go with what they hear,” the singer told the podcast Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did.

“I guess I could have been very adamant about keeping the news the same, but you can’t keep control of every country.”

“I don’t want to correct them, because all of a sudden then the wall’s up,” she added.

The singer said that she felt that correcting people was a “kind of a snub”.

“It’s a troubled life we lead with our high-class problems in our world with our fancy names,” the singer joked.

Anastacia – who begins a UK and European tour next month – rose to fame in 2000 after the release of her debut hit, “I’m Outta Love”.

You can hear the full chat with Anastacia on Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did.