Learn Italian: Lei ha lavorato da cantante per cinque anni. - She worked as a singer for five years.

While come can mean 'as' or 'like' for comparisons, da is the specific preposition used to mean 'in the capacity of' or 'in the role of'. It is the standard way to talk about working a certain job or being in a certain life stage, like da studente (as a student).

Why isn't there an article before cantante?

When da is used to indicate a profession, role, or stage of life, it connects directly to the noun without an article. So you say da cantante rather than dalla cantante or da una cantante.

We previously learned to use da for time, so why does this sentence use per cinque anni?

This is a classic tricky spot! You use da for time when an action started in the past and is still happening now, which would require the present tense (for example, Lei lavora da cinque anni). Because her time as a singer is completely finished, we use the past tense ha lavorato paired with per to show the exact duration of that completed past action.

Does the word cantante change if a man is the singer?