Christina Aguilera has managed to reinvent herself almost as many times as her idol Madonna
has over the years.
A child of the '80s, the Staten Island-born superstar has experienced quite the evolution
ever since she first hit the scene.
From precocious toddler to devoted mother, here's Christina Aguilera's stunning transformation.
When Christina was just six years old, her mother, Shelly Kearns, left her dad because
of an alleged violent streak.
Kearns told E! that her ex once lashed out at a young Christina after she woke him from
a nap, allegedly drawing blood.
Although her father denied the accusations, Christina later confirmed to W magazine,
"I felt caged by my childhood.
And unsafe.
Bad things happened in my home.
There was violence."
But despite the difficult circumstances, she managed to take with her some important life
lessons.
She told Paper magazine,
"I watched my mom have to be submissive.
[…] You can either be, unfortunately, so damaged by it that you take a turn for the
worse, or you can feel empowered by it and make choices to never go down that route."
"I was very grounded at a very young age to know that I was never gonna be weak to a man.
And that I didn't want that fairytale."
While her musical inspiration, Madonna, wasn't allowed in Christina's house when she was
young, she turned her attention to a more age-appropriate role model; Julie Andrews.
And when things got tough at home, she would belt out songs from The Sound of Music at
the top of her tiny lungs.
Christina recalled to W magazine,
"I watched her twirl around those mountains, and she was just so free.
[…] I would open my bedroom window to sing out like Maria.
In my own way, I'd be in those hills."
The musical offered Christina a place to escape during a dark period in her life, but there
came a time when she started craving something more.
As Christina shared with Newsweek,
"At a really early age I connected with old soul and blues.
There's a lot of pain and angst in those songs.
They spoke to my life before I moved in with my grandma — my father, all the abuse I
endured."
Christina was already performing for her stuffed animals when she was just two years old, and
by the age of six, she'd upgraded to an actual human audience.
Encouraged by her grandma, she began singing at block parties in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.
Christina told Newsweek,
"I was known around the neighborhood as the little girl with the big voice, and I always
liked that contrast."
When the opportunity to appear on the iconic TV talent show Star Search came along, Christina
and her mom jumped at the chance.
While she would ultimately land in second place — to 12-year-old Christopher Eason
— Christina later told Rolling Stone,
"I was eight, and I sang Whitney Houston's 'Greatest Love of All.'
[…] I was told it was fixed, but I'm not going to hold a grudge.
My mom made me go back out and shake [Christopher's] hand and tell him I was happy he won.
Tears were running down my face.
Awful."
"Either Christopher Eason or [Christina Aguilera].
Champion once again Christopher Eason."
But we all know how it worked out for runner-up Christina.
Christina immediately hit the circuit, singing the national anthem at sporting events in
Pittsburgh, and before long, her persistence paid off when Disney contacted her about The
All New Mickey Mouse Club.
Christina had applied to be on the show a few years earlier, but hadn't heard back about
her audition.
She told Yahoo,
"I just figured I didn't make it.
But when I was 12 years old I got a callback, and they said they had held on to my tape
because I was too young for the part before.
So I auditioned again, and I got one of the six new spots they filled that year."
"Hey guys!
Y'know, I'm from a small town in Pennsylvania called Wexford, but now, I'm here in Orlando."
Aguilera was part of a particularly talented crop of Mouseketeers, sharing the stage with
a young Ryan Gosling , Keri Russell, Justin Timberlake, and of course, Britney Spears.
When The All New Mickey Mouse Club came to an end, Christina headed to Japan to release
her little-known first single, "All I Wanna Do," a duet with a Japanese pop star.
Despite the track's success abroad, Christina remained a relative unknown in the States.
But all that changed when her manager submitted a makeshift demo of his teenage client singing
Whitney Houston's "Run to You" to Disney headquarters.
It was a hit with execs — and they asked her to record a song for Mulan.
"I mean, me and Disney have a thing."
Writer of the film's hit song, "Reflection," David Zippel recalled the moment he heard
Christina tackle the song for the first time, telling The New York Post,
"It was like, 'Oh my God.'
Even then it was so palpable.
She was a perfectionist even as a 17-year-old."
The Disney ballad remains one of Aguilera's most-loved songs to this day.
She recorded an updated version for the 2020 live action remake of Mulan, which was viewed
over 16 million times in its first six weeks on YouTube.
"The message in it is so strong and so truthful to what my lyrics and my music has always
been about."
One of the first people to fall in love with Christina's Mulan track was RCA Records exec,
Ron Fair, who signed her shortly after hearing it.
He told Rolling Stone in 1999,
"She is a badass genius of singing.
She was put on this earth to sing."
Christina's self titled debut album went eight-times platinum and her lead single "Genie in a Bottle"
topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five consecutive weeks.
She became an overnight sensation, but she wasn't the driving force behind her sound
or her image.
Speaking to Paper magazine in 2018, Aguilera said that her first record was really a male
label exec's view of what pop music should be.
The six-time Grammy award winner later offered People magazine a little advice for aspiring
artists, saying,
"Looking back, I would just say trust yourself.
Even in your insecurities and your moments of feeling lost, those are all gonna lead
you to the place that you need to be."
Christina made the leap from suggestive to unapologetically saucy when she collaborated
with Mýa, Lil' Kim, and Pink on a number for "Lady Marmalade."
But these soul sisters weren't exactly one big family behind the scenes.
Things got off to a bad start when an exec from Christina's label allegedly demanded
that she get the verse with the highest vocals.
This didn't go down well with Pink, who recalled to VH1,
"I stood up and I said, 'Hi, how are you?
So nice of you to introduce yourself.
I'm Pink.
She will not be taking that part.
I think that's what the f------ meeting's about.'"
While Pink has always been known for being outspoken, it appears that Aguilera apparently
also held her own.
Pink remembered on Watch What Happens Live,
"She swung on me in a club.
Hilarious!
I was like, 'What's happening right now?'"
Christina denied the accusations, but regardless, the two buried the hatchet when they came
face to face on The Voice years later.
Pink revealed to Andy Cohen,
"We became moms.
We grew up.
We hugged it out.
It's that simple.
I feel so good about that."
"Pink's phenomenal."
"She's got great pipes."
"And she can flip in the air while doing it.
That's pretty phenomenal."
If there were any lingering doubts after "Lady Marmalade", Christina's video for "Dirrty"
confirmed once and for all that she was all grown up.
The lead single from 2002's Stripped heralded a new era for the 21-year-old, who was putting
her "Genie in a Bottle" days behind her.
She told Glamour,
"At the time, I was under the thumb of my label, and I felt like I had to do, say and
act out everything they asked me to do.
I was trying to please them and the public and finally I had to say, 'Enough.'"
"Finally, I was able to take my mask off and say, uh-uh, this is how I need to do this
for myself."
The "Dirrty" video has been hailed as a cultural icon of the early 2000's by Billboard, but
it had plenty of critics, some of whom got pretty personal.
Entertainment Weekly called Christina, quote, "the world's skeeziest reptile woman," while
MTV branded her as a, quote, "pop tart [who] writhes about in revealing costumes."
But none of that appeared to bother Christina, who was happy to finally be doing her own
thing.
She told The Irish Times,
"I came out with 'Dirrty', and that was my 'f--- it' moment.
That was me stepping up."
Christina reinvented herself once more for 2010's Bionic, but the EDM-inspired album
didn't go over very well with existing fans and failed to attract new ones.
Some accused the artist of trying to copy Lady Gaga, and the album's poor performance
led Christina to cancel her summer tour, reportedly at the cost of millions of dollars.
Her label was reportedly considering severing ties and it seemed like things couldn't get
much worse for the singer, but they did.
"I've never seen anything like this before.
Great enthusiasm, terrible timing."
In October 2010, Christina revealed that she was leaving her music producer husband Jordan
Bratman, who was father to her then-2-year-old son, Max.
She later told W magazine,
"It got to a point where our life at home was reminding me of my own childhood.
I will not have my son grow up in a tension-­filled home."
But it soon became apparent that Aguilera had met someone else.
She reportedly fell for ­production assistant Matt Rutler while working on her feature film
debut, Burlesque — which also failed to impress critics.
The pair, who have been engaged since 2010, welcomed their daughter, Summer Rain, in 2014.
Unfortunately, Christina's bad luck continued into 2011.
The experienced singer inexplicably fluffed a line during her national anthem performance
at the Super Bowl, and for a while it looked like she would never live it down.
One eyewitness told MTV,
"This was the biggest performance of her career and she blew it."
But it turned out, a change in fortune was just around the corner.
A few months after her Super Bowl disaster, Christina debuted as a coach on The Voice.
Her on-and-off time on the series coincided with a career resurgence, but she still threw
shade at the show when she left for the last time in 2016.
She told Billboard,
"It became something that I didn't feel was what I had signed up for in season one.
You realize it's not about music.
It's about making good TV moments and massaging a story."
Christina reportedly hung around on The Voice for as long as she did because she was craving
some stability.
She stopped touring after giving birth to her son, Max, and she still didn't feel like
hitting the road after the arrival of her daughter, Summer Rain.
She explained to Billboard,
"Touring is so frightening to me, because I am a mom first.
It's easy to get comfortable and cushy in the same place and not have to worry about
uprooting your kids."
"I think routine and all of that is important in upbringing, but yeah, mom will be up on
that stage."
Aguilera would eventually work up the courage to get back out there and show her kids what
it's like to enjoy working.
The artist said on the Today show,
"As much as we all love our kids, ultimately we all have our selves that are separate and
it's important to have a release just for yourself.
We literally give so much of ourselves.
It's important to make time to be able to find a creative release or pampering release."
Christina has cemented her place as a true pop icon in recent years.
Her 2018 album Liberation was met with positive reviews, and she was named an official Disney
Legend the following year.
Having spent much of her career as part of the Disney family, she said of the honor at
the 2019 D23 Expo,
"This is way cooler than a Grammy."
The singer was also recognized for her LGBTQ advocacy that same year.
But perhaps the biggest moment for her happened on May 31st, when she began her Las Vegas
residency.
The Xperience , was a big hit with the local press, with the Las Vegas Review-Journal calling
it, quote, "powerful [with] a forceful message of individuality and empowerment."
A series of shows was scheduled to take place in November 2020, but Christina was forced
to cancel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While the immediate future may be uncertain, from what we know about Christina Aguilera,
she most definitely won't be hanging up the mic anytime soon.
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