Christina Aguilera: Fighter

For so many of her prime years, Christina Aguilera had been compared to her contemporaries for better and for worse.

Comparison that thief of joy, and after her biggest rival and earliest friend became America's favorite train wreck slash punching bag, comparisons still haunted all that Christina did.

Following the success of the throwbacky Back to Basics in two thousand and six, Christina released a Greatest Hits album with two new, more electronically focused tracks.

The songs gave us a hint at where Christina's head was at musically, our girl was staying curious and looking for new sounds. The follow up to Back to Basics was on its way.

Titled Light and Darkness, the album would explore duality, not just musically but thematically, but for reasons unknown, the project was scrapped.

Rumor has it that the label was afraid that the album would draw comparisons to Beyonce I Am Sasha Fears had just and obviously we just can't have two pop divas exploring their two sides.

God forbid two women talking about themselves at the top of the charts. So instead, the follow up to Back to Basics would be titled Bionic.

And after being delayed by two months, Bionic was released. To critics, do you mean crickets? Oh well both? Bionic was Christina's first album not.

To go platinum, just like they thought Christina was chasing the Latin explosion with Mire Flejo. The critics heard the synthpop direction of Bionic and could only think of one thing.

Lady Gaga, the fame Monster wasn't even a year old. Poor Christina didn't have a chance, and the music video for her lead single did not help matters.

If you look at the video, you would instantly go, wait, does that go like if you were on let's just say you didn't have your okay, if I didn't have my.

Contacts in Yeah, no, but it's bad. Like it's literally a knockoff like legit.

But it's not a good knockoff.

Sometimes knock ups you're like, hey, that's not bad, Yeah, that have budget. Yeah no, it definitely gives me. And the song we're talking about in the video that we're talking about is not myself Tonight. And if you kind of do a little side by side screenshot of that with Bad Romance, you're gonna understand exactly what we're talking about.

This was the same game of apples to oranges the press had played with her and Brittany, but this time actively weaponized and so Bionic.

Ticked I hate us back then, h I hate us like we need to make it up to her. By the way again, hindsight is twenty twenty and in recent years critics have been much kinder to this album. But the damn it which was done, and while there is a happy ending, the twenty tens, for the most part, would not be kind to our girl. I'm your host Lilianavsquez.

And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.

A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous Latin v stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extra level.

Sit back and get comfortable.

Because we are going in the only way we know how.

With Buena buenasriesas some me and a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them still iconic.

So, I know you think I've been a slot for strip this whole time, but you are, but not exclusively. There's another Christina project I've been dying to talk about.

Is it Christina Aguilera's.

Share.

It's a must see.

It's a classic.

Cult classic, I think, is what you mean?

It's educational? Who among us knew what air rights were before seeing Burless?

I mean, who even knew that anything that happens in this movie could ever happen in La. It's so campy, it's so good, it's visually incredible. It makes a zero sense. It is escapism and its purest form.

So wait, try to reconstruct a story from memory, though, crush MEI okay?

So here's like the cliff notes.

Christina is basically a cocktail waitress with a big voice and big dreams of being discovered in a star and she ends up getting a waitressing job, a cocktail waitressing job in a burlesque club that is owned and and managed by Share, and she wants to be one of the girls on stage. But the girls are like, no, bitch, you're just a cocktail waitress. Say the fuck off our stage.

Big shot and like what happens.

Of course she becomes like this huge draw and I'm not gonna spoil it for you, but hold on, the club's in trouble. The club is in trouble, and share what like in what world is share in this movie?

Like who got this movie made?

I need to have that producer on my team so that I can get all my good ideas made.

Anyway, point is it was really.

Interesting to me that at that point in her career Christina was like, pause, I want to act in a movie that's not that great.

Like, honestly, we need to give burlesk a whole episode of the show because it's just.

Iconic bonus content for sure.

But although Burlesque is a bona fide camp classic, the movie's promotion schedule ended up crashing headlong with Christina's tour for Bionic and one had to go.

Not to sound like pres Hilton, please don't but if she were ten years younger, she could have totally done them both. Remember how she made her throat bleed.

I don't know.

I feel like promotion for the film, the schedules are wild and she'd probably have to be in two places at the same time, And ultimately the tour was canceled due to a lack of rehearsal time.

Christina promised to reschedule the tour for twenty eleven, but it never happened. Bionic, Christina's a lowest selling album, never got a tour.

You could say that times were tough for Miss Aguilaira and didn't stop with her career. Towards the end of twenty ten, Christina confirmed that she and her husband, Jordan Bratman, had separated. The divorce proceedings would stretch on through twenty eleven.

The same year the Bionic tour was supposed to be rescheduled for. Christina would state quote, things were so unhealthy and unhappy for both Jordan and me. I knew it had to end. When you're unhappy in your marriage, your children are the ones who suffer. That's the last thing I wanted.

For my son, considering, you know, the home that she grew up in. It makes perfect sense that her attention was not on her career at this moment. She would also state, although Jordan and I are separated, our commitment to our son Max remains as strong as ever.

Our girl needs a win.

Well, there's still a cherry on top of his shit. Sunday No. The same year as her divorce, Aguilera was chosen to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl forty five.

Okay, I mean she's got this right. She's saying at sporting events in Pittsburgh all the time, she's their lucky charm.

Yeah. Well, unfortunately she fucked up the larraa no oh. And you know the people who like football, you know how they get about the national anthem. So twenty eleven was Christina's no good, very bad year, and that's probably why she was drawn to the stability of a hot new show on NBC called The Voice. Before the Masked Singer and all that jazz, there was the Voice.

It still is The Voice. Honey. We're on season twenty five, and.

In the very first season, Christina Aguilera was selected to be one of the shows four coaches.

Okay, if you've never watched the Voice. You might ask yourself why would Christina choose to relive her failed run on Star Search, But from the other side of the judge counter.

One answer could be money, but the other might be the opportunity to cultivate a protege or two.

The Voice gave Christina the opportunity to mentor young talent and stay in touch with the next generation of music lovers and be a shady binge to Adam Levine.

Honestly, the Voice might have been the best place for her to channel that mean girl Exstina.

Energy from her stripped days.

Who doesn't like a little healthy competition, even if you've never seen international TV sensation The Voice or even a commercial for it.

Here's the spark notes.

First contestants audition for four pop stars turned music coaches who sit in swivel chairs with their backs turned to them.

If a coach likes what they hear, they push a big red button to thring their chair around and see who's singing. The contestant then gets to pick their coach among the button pushers, and each coach ends up with the team of contestants. Then we get a season long singing tournament for Christina.

This was a let them come to me approach to fostering proteges, and she picked contestants who would let her stick to what she knew, singers with formidable vocal range, who could riff, and it was.

A safe way to stay in the spotlight, no shade. Speaking of did you watch her on the Voice?

I did, but I watched it not because I wanted to see her coach and mentor.

I actually just wanted to see the looks.

Of course, I just wanted to see it because I wanted to see what she was like.

Yeah, I do think that the Void is that kind of vehicle for an artist that allows you to see a much more.

Stripped down version of them.

It's very authentic, right, Yeah, it's in the moment. It's in the moment you're reacting. I mean, it's not live. And they say that they feed them lines in all of this drama. But point is you got to just see her being her, and she is kind of bitchy in a good way, like she's.

Really funny and she I think she was just.

No, I mean bitchy, good direct direct quick like could read can read you, And I don't mean the exactly and I don't mean it about the contestants.

I mean with her fellow judges.

Like she could read their bs and call them out on it, which I love.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And The Voice gave Christina seven seasons of consistent exposure and an opportunity to work with the next generation of vocalists, not just as a coach, but as a collaborator.

In the first season, she's saying beautiful on stage with one of her finalists, Beverly McClellan.

And that's not all.

The Voice also gave Christina an opportunity to organically jump on a Maroon five track alongside fellow coach Adam lebin.

I don't skip many Christina tracks, but when I do, it's the one with Adam Lebine.

I'm going to join you on that.

But anyway, Moves Like Jagger was the biggest hit Christina had had in five years, charting at number one in fourteen different countries, including the US.

I Hate Us, I still hate Us.

So The Voice was a bit of a lifeline for Christina's career, and when it came time to drop a new album, the show even gave her a stage to debut her lead single.

Her follow up to Bionic twenty twelve's Lotus was themed around rebirth. Christina wanted to move on from the hardship of her No Good, Very Bad. Twenty eleven, she.

Debuted the lead single your Body on stage on The Voice, and the track hit number one on the US Dance Club Song Chart, a welcome change from Moves Like Jyer.

While the singles performed well as an album, Lotus wasn't really enough to bring Christina back to the highs of her two thousands platinum age. Rcia was unwilling to put much promotion behind it, possibly still apprehensive over the drama surrounding Bionic and.

The fans weren't having it, but Christina released a statement to everyone, upset about the lack of support, saying music and an artist's truth and identity cannot be defined on a chart or review or with an award. It's good to care, but being rewarded by material things isn't why I remain in the business. It's the love of creating, expressing, and connecting with myself and others.

Christina would leave The Voice in twenty sixteen after winning the series with her contestant Alison Porter, making her the first woman coach to win the show. Christina's next moves a return to touring and two more albums. Never one to shy away from the truth, Christina described her time on The Voice as a hamster wheel.

When our girl is done, she's done. After gaining a reputation as the shadiest coach on the show for good or bad, she kept the season finale by joining Ariana Grande on stage for Dangerous Woman.

Extina had been chipping away at two new albums as far back as twenty fourteen. Four years later, she gave us Liberation.

To promote the album, Christina appeared on the cover of Paper magazine with a natural look, zero makeup, zero retouching.

Do you believe that was zero makeup?

Yeah, because I think my friend Zoe Grossman shot that.

I'm not mistaken, and it really was. It wasn't like Alicia Keys pretending no makeup.

Well you know what, I think you could look back in the ten was doing her then he might have done a little face and body. Let's be honest.

Just when people say no makeup, they don't usually.

Mean they just mean the real high fashion no makeup makeup, Thank you, Joseph, Like Runaway no makeup.

This is why Joseph is here anyway?

Look back at the cover, you guys, because it made waves, and it is so easy to see why. After we had the bubblegum pop look of her debut, the gritty sexuality in Stripped, and the baby Jane back to Basics era, and of course all of those seasons of sitting all dolled up in the coach's chair, this was.

The Christina that no one had seen before.

This look defined Liberation, an album dedicated to freeing herself from anything that wasn't her truth.

And the album liberated her in more ways than one. With Liberation, Christina finally received critical recognition, free of any comparisons to competing pop stars. Instead, she got nods to her direct influences Whitney, Mariah, and Janet Jackson.

Rolling Stone called Liberation Christina at her peak. BuzzFeed called it a throwback to Stripped, featuring rock, R and B, soul, hip hop, regaton, and of course classic Christina ballads.

With her strongest artistic statement in years. Out in the world, Christina finally returned to touring after a full decade away.

The Liberation tour wasn't an arena tour like back to basics, but critics hailed it as a bona fide comeback.

The Houston Press called the show a form of therapy for diehard Extina stands with a set list featuring blocks of songs from each of her albums.

I say, does that sound familiar?

Taylor sound for Mills.

They also went on to call it a winning audition for a Vegas residency and wouldn't you know it? In twenty nineteen, Christina would begin a residency at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas.

Dubbed The Experience. The residency coincided with the X Tour aka the European leg of her Liberation tour twenty four Nights of Ecstasy. She even did songs from burlesque or the real ones.

That would be me cheering in the audience. The Liberation was one half of a creative renaissance for Christina. The other half was the Spanish language double album Aguilera, her first fully Spanish release since Mireflejo.

And everyone came through for this one. Becky g osuna fini Natipaluso. The very first track samples Genie in a Bottle and gives it a reggaeton beat. Lahna escapo and She's here to ball.

Aguilera is a marathon of Latino musical stylings from urbano to more traditional affair like guaracha and rancheras, separated into three parts, La Fuersa, La tormenta, ilalouse, signifying empowerment, vulnerability, forgiveness and closure.

The album closes with nois quetextrane, the haunting ballad about her childhood that we touched back on part one. This is sixteen a coming full circle, making amends with the past and being unapologetically herself.

In May of twenty twenty four, Aguilera parted ways with RCL, the label that never quite knew what to do with her. Her new home is fifty twenty Records, a Regazon label based in Miami and distributed by Sony.

Fifty twenty boaths up and coming Latin artists like Nati Beluso, who's featured in Tina's last album, and Gania Oh's who I can't stop talking to since Domas recommended her.

Hey, Kuti Putti, remember what we talked about with Daddy Yankee, Those indie labels with major label distribution, creative freedom and a healthy cut of those profits.

Ching Mommy's Home y'all, and she's doing whatever the f she wants in the booths and in the bedroom.

Are we gonna talk about playground?

I mean, is this safe?

Are you asking me if this is a safe space to talk about vibrators?

Yeah, this is a safe space.

Christina founded a sex brand. And by the way, she's not her Hello. Yes, and she's not the only one. Oh, did you know Selena has one Gomez? Can you imagine if she had a vibrator called.

I'm deleting.

We've got Selena dabbling into this business.

Jemi Leva, I.

Don't know Demi Levado had something as something.

I am here for this.

I love that.

I love these latinas being like, no, no, no, no, no.

Sex is good, sex is enjoyable, It's pleasurable.

It's for both people, correct.

But mainly for us.

I also want to take us back to that infamous Blender interview where Christina says that she never wanted to hide her sexuality or her Latini that and now she is finely in an era where she can confidently express both.

She can be who she is without comparisons to anyone else. And while she and you know who still follow and unfollow each other as time goes on. In twenty twenty one, she expressed solidarity for the same woman she was once pitted against, just as that woman was on the cusp of liberation.

On her social media, Christina shared an open letter supporting Brittany as she fought against her conservatorship. The letter read, every woman must have the right to her own body, her own reproductive system, her own privacy, her own space, her own healing, and her own happiness. The person I once knew has been living without compassion or decency from

Christina's first track as a recording artist found her wondering when her reflection would show who she was inside.

And the music industry is almost designed to make you forget who that is, but actions and choices can help remind us.

Time and again. Christina has caught her way back from dark day. That's when we can see exactly who she is inside. A fighter a mother, a diva, and of course an icon.

On the next Becoming an Icon rock Mexicano Royalty Mana. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael dudda podcast network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast