It is hard to believe that Christina Aguilera will soon be thirty-eight years old. Also difficult to believe she has enjoyed an over twenty-five year career in the entertainment industry. She is forever busy with one project after the other, many times working on two or more simultaneously. After releasing her eighth studio album Liberation, her first album in six years, she embarked on a worldwide Liberation tour to promote the recording. Next week, Christina Aguilera will bring the tour to South Florida. She will also grace the main page of Weekly Music Commentary this week. As we prepare down here for the historic event, it might be good to look back on the life and career of the international icon.
Christina María Aguilera was born in the Staten Island borough of New York City, New York, on December 18, 1980, to Shelly Loraine Kearns (née Fidler), a musician, and Fausto Xavier Aguilera, a United States Army soldier. Her family moved frequently because of her father’s military service, and lived in places including New Jersey, Texas, New York, and Japan. Following her parents’ divorce when she was six years old, Aguilera, her younger sister Rachel, and her mother, moved into her grandmother’s home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Rochester, Pennsylvania.
Throughout her younger years, Aguilera was quite the busy prodigal singer. Aguilera, known locally as “the little girl with the big voice”, aspired to be a singer, singing in local talent shows and competitions. Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Steelers football, and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games, in addition to the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals.
In 1991, Aguilera auditioned for a position on The Mickey Mouse Club, although she did not meet its age requirements. She joined the television series two years later, where she performed musical numbers and sketch comedy until its cancellation in 1994. Her co-stars included Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake.
At seventeen years old, Aguilera won an audition to record the song “Reflection” for the soundtrack of Disney’s 1998 animated film Mulan. After the recording of “Reflection”, Aguilera attracted attention of RCA Records A&R Ron Fair and was signed with the label quickly afterwards. The label then started presenting Aguilera with tracks to record and laid foundation for her début album.
Christina Aguilera was visible to not only teenage fans, but some older fans of music as well. At the time I was a married man with a young family and took notice of the young lady with the powerful voice. Following the success of the single, Aguilera’s eponymous début album was released in August to commercial success, peaking at number one on the Billboard 200 and was certified eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It moved 14 million copies worldwide, and produced three singles, including two Billboard Hot 100 number ones “What a Girl Wants” and “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)”, and an All-4-One cover of “I Turn to You”. The album helped Aguilera win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 2000 ceremony.
For Christina Aguilera, that beginning was something special musically. I think many of us understood that Aguilera could very well have a long, successful career. We were right. Her work has earned her five Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Throughout her career, she has sold more than 75 million albums and singles worldwide. In 2009, she ranked at number 58 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, thereby becoming the youngest and the only artist under 30 to be named. Billboard recognized her as the 20th most successful artist of the 2000s, and Time listed Aguilera among the top 100 Most Influential People in the World of 2013.
In the midst of creating her monumental musical career, television opportunities became available to provide an interesting footnote to all the recording success. In April 2011, Aguilera served as a coach on the television series The Voice and went on for its three first seasons until December 2012. During the promotion of seventh studio album Lotus, Aguilera was temporarily replaced by Shakira for the fourth season of The Voice and returned for the fifth season in September 2013. For the sixth and seventh seasons of The Voice, Aguilera was respectively replaced by Shakira and Gwen Stefani, clarifying that she wanted to devote her time to her family. She subsequently returned as a coach for the eighth and tenth seasons; for the latter she won with her contestant Alisan Porter and became the first female coach to win the show.
With all of the praise and accolades surrounding the talent of Christina Aguilera, there have been some critical comments about her work. First, Aguilera is a soprano, having a vocal range spanning four octaves, four notes, a semitone and the whistle register. Since the start of her career Aguilera’s voice has been compared to that of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. A journal by Ann Powers for the Los Angeles Times said there are influences of Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin on Aguilera’s vocal style, opining that the “Aguilera’s Streisand-esque tendencies” “[help Aguilera] figure out how to become the ‘great singer’ she’s been dubbed since she released her first single, the wise-beyond-its-years ‘Genie in a Bottle’, at 18” Aguilera has, however, been criticized for her excessive use of melisma and oversinging on songs and in concerts. Lucy Davies, a writer for BBC Music, opined that although Aguilera had “a stunning voice”, she “could be more varied, simply by cutting out some of the ‘y-e-e-eeeh, woah yeh’s'”
Nevertheless, Aguilera is still one of the top recording artists of our time, with a worldwide fan base. I think it all depends upon the preferences of the music listener. The evidence is how much the music fans have supported her throughout the years.
Now Christina Aguilera has delivered her current album, Liberation. She comes to South Florida with a live performance to promote her new music, and give fans a little more. About the title of the album Aguilera explained, “I wanted to have a title that meant freeing myself from anything that wasn’t my truth. That’s a constant I think in everyone’s life: every time you feel stifled in a current situation where you feel you’re not quite yourself or being bogged down by other people’s opinions. Or when you feel like you’re stuck in a stagnant place.”
Now South Florida prepares for Christina Aguilera. I’m sure she will deliver an outstanding performance. What’s next for the iconic singer? Maybe more television, of perhaps more music. Regardless, I don’t think she will ever stand still musically.