Wandering from her boudoir to the lounge of the Hyde Park Hotel, Anastacia Newkirk looks, in her own words, 'pretty damn cute'. Sashaying her Frankie B. low-waisted, two-button jeans over her hips, the 28-year-old pop diva with the voice and mouth that could blow-start a Harley-Davidson at 100 paces fills out her skin-tight black net tank top - '34D, dude, and it's all mine'.

Only the gold-rimmed D&G pink-tinted glasses hide the fact that Anastacia's just got off the sheets and looks a mite bleary. 'Whatever, I'm gorgeous,' she laughs. 'Hey, you know what it's like when you're a superstar and you roll out of bed and you still look bling bling!'

Funny thing is, Anastacia doesn't really feel like a superstar, although she is just about to become one. She's a late achiever, if not a late developer. Two years ago the then unknown Ms Newkirk was sacked from her position as a receptionist in a Beverly Hills beauty salon and couldn't get any work outside of jobbing vocalist at weddings, bar mitzvahs and other people's cheesy hip-hop videos.

Yet last week she blew Pavarotti and Tom Jones off the stage at the big fella's annual Modena opera and pop bash. Next month she will join her friend Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder at Elt's Aids garden party fundraiser when the unlikely trio will sing 'Superstition'.

Anastacia has had her seven years of bad luck and now she's coming to collect. 'I thought my chance had gone,' admits the Chicago-born but Manhattan-raised girl from 57th Street. 'Then I entered a talent competition called The Cut on MTV and came second. Michael Jackson saw me and phoned me up. He wanted to sign me to his MJJ label but Tommy Mottola persuaded me to go with Epic.' Mottola, you may remember, was the man behind Mariah Carey, literally. He went from being her mentor to her husband to her nemesis.

Fortunately, Anastacia already has a boyfriend, the actor Shawn Woods, who can be seen in Dominic Sena's summer blockbuster movie Swordfish, starring John Travolta, Travolta's entire family and Vinnie Jones. Thus far Shawn, a former musician, has struggled but Anastacia is an intensely loyal person.

'That's because my mother Diane, my sole parental figure, was my stable for all my life. My father left when I was a kid and I don't know whether he's dead or alive. I don't worry or care. If he comes out of the woodwork I'll be happy to see him but I owe my parents for my talent. They were great performers. Mum sang on Broadway and dad was a crooner on the Catskills hotel circuit. They had the knack which I've subconsciously inherited.'

Despite her diminutive 5ft 2in status, Newkirk is a nerveless entertainer and interviewee. Having endured a slew of crappy jobs she isn't phased by fame. 'Yeah, like Pav phones me up? Go figure. I take it all in my stride man, because I did not think this would happen,' she says, referring to the multi-million selling success of her debut album Not That Kind and the superbly soulful single 'I'm Outta Love'.

In a pop world dominated by brat teen bitches, Anastacia is actually a proper woman, like Ann Peebles, Chaka Khan and Patti LaBelle before her. 'Yeah I'm raw and I give raw show. I'm not the best singer on offer but I'm soulful with character - I hope. Take what you like and leave the rest. I'm also of the age range to put over some experience; it's no secret that I'm not a teenybopper. But I am an energetic human being.'

As 'ballsy' as she says she is, Anastacia has a rounded, fresh personality - and not just because her favourite method of relaxation is doing the laundry. 'When I took the unemployment cheque I decided I'd go back to school finally and study child psychology. I would have done it too because kids are smart.' She helped raise her own autistic brother, but that isn't why she wanted to work with deprived children in New York.

'Not at all. I come with my spirit real and the only people who I see like that are children. My mother teaches musical theatre to kids and they say things adults won't say. They tell the truth. I hated the music business when they wanted me to sing and act in an uncomfortable way, or when they tried to put me in a girl group. I don't like doing inappropriate things any more.'

Newkirk doesn't even pretend to understand the game she's playing. Neither a musical buff nor a woman with many idols, she describes her rapid rise to fame as 'a fantasy crossed with a fairy tale'. Like Macy Gray before her, she arrived in the nick of time via Europe and not her native America, and is genuinely grateful for the attention lavished upon her on the Continent and in Britain, where she makes her first London appearances next week.

'This lifestyle isn't real. What I did for 20 years before this was more real. I don't swallow it and I won't change my attitude. Dude, this may end tomorrow. So I'm successful blah blah, the record company's happy, my chart positions are good and I'm going like, "Are you guys OK with this? Because if you're OK, then me too." I never looked at this world and said make me a star. All I wanted was a producer and someone to write songs with. I only ever wrote two before the album in my life, then I wrote them all in 12 weeks.'

During the past 18 months, however, Anastacia has grabbed her chance with both hands and worked her shapely butt off. 'I had to do that. I took Europe in my stride, man, but I did not think all this would happen. My expectations were not high. When you've been unemployed and hit the bottom there isn't a problem. I've been there so I wouldn't be devastated if I had to go back. I've done many different things to earn a buck and they weren't all great.'

'Stacia's 'I Will Survive' mantra has endeared her to many people, particularly the gay community, who may also appreciate the fact that she gives off a whiff of drag-queen diva. When I compliment her on her torch vocal qualities, she accepts the remark but adds, 'As long as I'm on the good side of diva. I don't want to be on the flakey side. But my gay following is worldwide, bro'. That market likes females like me, a bit Cher, a bit LaBelle. We don't beat around the bush. But then I don't only cater for a gay audience. When I see the people who bought a ticket for me it's everyone from dentures to diapers. I got 'em all,' she smiles. 'I got a serious age range happenin'.'

If she ever bothers to wake up and pinch herself, Anastacia might wonder what she's been doing singing with Elton at Madison Square Garden, where Robbie Williams came up to her afterwards and said, 'That was fantastic! You sang "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" which is exactly what I've always wanted to do with him.' Or she may pat herself on the back as she takes her 'once-in-a-lifetime offer. I mean I never sang with Pav before. What's going on?'

Next month she will take a short holiday, try and cram the antique furniture she's acquired in Europe into her Californian home, maybe cook Shawn a little Italian food, and then hit America like Stone Cold Steve Austin with another sustained slog.

'I am not a typical career pop star,' she insists. 'But I hope to handle everything that comes my way. I'm "snap snap snap". Like the divas of the world I snap up to down. And when you come and see me I don't want you sitting there with your pad in front of your face, dude. When you come I wanna see your arms wiggling and your ass jiggling.'

The feeling, Anastacia Newkirk, is entirely mutual.