Cristina Aguilera: Genie in a Bottle

Okay, Joseph, it is that time again. I'm afraid let's go pop quiz. What was Christina Aguilera's debut single. I actually know this answer because I'm obsessed with this movie?

Okay, So what was it?

Reflection in Mulan. Oh so good. It's so it was my favorite Disney princess ever ever, ever that every kist didn't because I feel like she looked like the girls that I grew up with. Oh my god, that's so weird because they were Asian, but she just looked different, and she just looked I could see you.

Being legit obsessed with Mulan.

I was Mulan. Okay.

So the very first time that the world heard Christina Aguilera on the radio, they hear her ask this question, when will my Reflection show.

Who I am? Inside? Is it any surprise that the gays have her back?

I mean, hindsight is twenty twenty and Reflection was not only the single that introduced Christine to her biggest audience yet, but that is the track that earned her a record deal with RCA.

That's because of the say it with Me for octave vocal range. Reflection made full use of Christina's vocal chops. It had a note that nobody else on the label's roster could reach, that.

Note, being E flat five in case you wanted to try it at home. So without getting two song exploder about it, that means that Christina had to take her voice from here.

To here, and our girl, who had trained herself in Mariah Whitney and showtuned Queen Julie Andrews, checked every box and hit every note.

The same week Christina recorded Reflection for RCA, she signed with the label. All of this happening two months after she turned seventeen. Okay, let's just think about this for a second. Joseph, what did you do when you turned seventeen?

U probably went to Penny Hannah that tracks what did you Do? Definitely went to Penny Hona.

Now, the point is Christina was hardly old enough to drive at this point, and she made her radio debut that summer at an age where most people have no idea who they are belting about.

It about looking in the mirror and not seeing the battie you knew yourself to be. We love a teen pop star with her heart on her sleeve, right.

Olivia Rodrico and the funny thing is before she got signed, labels like RCA were asking themselves who is Christina Aguilera. According to her first manager, Steve Kurtz.

The labels didn't know what to do with a six year old girl who sang like a Wretha Franklin. How are we going to sell her? Come on, you guys, you could have just given me a call.

After just hearing one of Christina's demos, specifically the song Obvious, which would eventually become the closing track of her self titled debut album, one executive said, we have hundreds of Christina.

Oh no, he didn't.

Oh no, he didn't say that, or oh no, he didn't have hundreds of Christina's uh uh both Okay, Well it's okay boo, because he is going to eat his words very very soon. But this is another part of the story where things look very different compared to today. Young aspiring singers know the power of the brand, But.

Back then, all Christina had was an incredible voice and a suitcase full of cassette tapes.

And execs are not exactly known for their very strong and colorful imaginations. Still, RCA took the plunge with Christina off the strength of her demos and her performance on Reflection.

And they fixed her up with the makeover. She walked in with those fabulous curls we saw on Mickey mouse Club videos and left with the clean, cropped cut we saw in her debut album. Not to mention the white u K fates.

I need to replicate every cell fit that was in those videos. Like if I want inspo to look like a Z, I should just look at old Christina Vida. It would blow their minds now spoiler alert. Christina was about to rock it to success throughout the oughts, but her multi platinum sales wouldn't put to rest all these questions about her, her brand, her musical identity, both on the label side and.

In the media. And when people ask questions, haters come ready with answers. Well, haters and paparazzi.

And rightly or wrongly, many would define Christina's golden age with comparisons.

To you know who.

That's Brittany bitch strap In y'all, it is a bumpy ride to the top. I'm your host Liliana Rosquez.

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 LATINV stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extra level Sit back and get comfort, because we are going in the only way we.

Know how, with whenas us, when assas and a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic.

So here's what we're going to do today.

We are going to focus on Exstina's golden age.

You mean platinum age, honey, her multimillion selling chart topping, undisputed icon decade. Wow.

You phrase that so powerfully, Joseph, I like it. You're getting all excited for this now. By the way, this era includes her three most beloved albums. And being the fans that we are, I think that we do need to get just one thing out of the way before we tell the tale. Okay, Joseph, imagine.

That scared you always come with some crazy shape.

The ocean is rough, the sun is pounding down on your back. You have no sunscreen, no no Internet. You're stranded alone on a desert island.

Okay, okay, And.

Since we're talking two thousands, let's just say that you have a volleyball for your bestie, a la castaway.

What do you name said volleyball? I would name it my name. I would call it Joe because I would be talking to myself, I swear. I would be like, snap out of it, bitch.

Okay, fine, so Desert Island, you've got Joseph and Little Joey. What classic Christina album are you and Joe bopping too? You can only pick one album? You get all of the songs because you're by the way, and I'm generous. Okay, I'm not giving you one song. I don't want you to kill yourself.

I was like, okay, I need a really really I felt stuck. I would definitely say Stripped because I I feel like it has everything I love about Christina and it would just take me back to It would take me back to a really good place and still kind of give me my EMO. If I needed some, I get that. What about you? What would you pick? I would pick Stripped? Okay.

Now, hindsight is twenty twenty. When the album came out, I don't think it hit for me. I wasn't ready for that album. Like as a fan, I wasn't ready for the album but now, as a forty four year old woman who has been through a lot more than I was back then, I have a new found respect for what that album represents about her. Obviously, to Joseph and I, all three records, Christina Aguilera, Stripped and Back to Basics are perfection.

And Christina was snatched from a moment she was hatched perfection.

I'm putting that on a T shirt. Icons snatched from the moment they're hatched. A perfectionist is what I was going to say from day one, from the get go. Before she was signed, her manager linked her up with producer Roy Hoffman, and with Hoffman, Christina recorded five demos in five days.

I'm hearing the listeners go, so listen, baby cakes. That's five days of take after take after take. We were wiped out after three hours in the booth last week. Imagine if you did that for five days in a row, Leana.

I mean, imagine five days back to back of singing lead and backing vocals. Okay, basically, your throat is bleeding. It is on fire, and that is what Christina insisted on doing.

Y laryngitis right now, oh triggered. So when we say Christina put in blood, sweat and tears for her bobs, We're being dead ass, and that was just for her demos.

Now, RCA had put a million dollar budget behind her debut, and she and the.

Label had different ideas about how to use it.

Christina wanted her debut to feature more unadulterated R and B in the tradition, of course, of her idols Mariah and Whitney, meaning more extensive ad libs and riffs, but the label wanted to push for a more team pop direction.

And the label ain't about what a girl wants.

I see what you did there that was really good and that track is a perfect example of where things ultimately landed. R and B rhythms and instrumentals with hooks for days years, and while RCA talked Christina down from too many ad libs and extended riffs, the debut still sat comfortably in the Mariah Whitney wheelhouse thanks to writers and producers like Diane Warren, Shelley Pakin, Pam Shane, and fun Fact Robin Thick Robin Dick Well, it was Robin

Literally all of Christina's dreams were coming true.

Oh speaking of dreams, fran Gold had also worked with our idol, Selena.

Did you know that she wrote dreaming of you Shut Your Button?

Christina even got to record a song that was originally written for the Queen of Tejanah's crossover album track number four, so emotional.

I don't know. This sounds like a good use of a million dollar budget, Okay, fair.

Christina was working with top songwriters and producers, and we've seen labels hedge their bets with the artists before on this show, Selena being a perfect example.

Do you remember that cover Callina had debate more than her fair share of dues.

So it says a lot that RCA put its full weight behind Christina's debut. But you can bet that Christina felt that weight on her tiny shoulders.

Girl wasn't in camp masketeer no more. She was in and out of studio NonStop and working with Whitney's songwriter. I'd be so nervesighted. Sure enough, Christina.

Didn't always feel like she could actually speak up. She said, it was really hard trusting in the world, very young and feeling like you don't have a voice. She wanted to work, but she was afraid of losing what made her her.

Uh whatever that means when you're seventeen and all alone in Hollywood with your mom all the way on the East Coast, Little Tina didn't have any girlfriend staying out with but the women who wrote her songs.

Oh, that means her only friends were her work friends.

That makes me sad. Wait, work friends who were decades older than her.

No shade, we are those older friends now. All to say she felt lonely, But eventually it was a rap on the studio and after all those sessions and struggles to make her voice heard, it was time to shoot the video for Jeanie in a Bottle on the beaches of.

The bit Ooho in April.

Oh, by the way, I know y'all think it's warm and hot and sunny in California all the time. It is not that shit is cold. The ocean is freezing year round in California. April is not a warm month, but Christina powered through, just like she had done in the booth, and finally, in June of nineteen ninety.

Nine, Christina came out of the bottle. I think we need to take a moment of silence for the video. Let's just reflect. I just want to rub the bottle. I want to go.

I just have to say I remember watching the video for the very first time, and I was confused.

Okay, let me tell you why.

Because her name was Christina a Yilera.

Yeah.

Well I saw the name, yeah, and then I saw her.

And mm hmmm, yeah, that would be weird.

You're looking at me, deep into my eyes, and I think that you see why it felt strange for me in that moment.

Why do you think it felt strange for me? Because she had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her name was Christina Aguilera, Yes, And.

I don't know if that is because a Mexic Ghana and I lived in Texas and I was seeing this happen. I don't have a lot of blue eyed, blonde haired Mexican friends. I didn't even really understand how different Latinos looked until I left Texas, because everyone in my immediate community is Mexicano. Like, Okay, my dad's Puerto Rican and like he is a fair eyed and fair haired, but he's like an anomaly. I was like, that's sad. My

But then I was like, I'm obsessed with her. I remember immediately feeling is this girl trying to take Britney's place? I did. I was like, oh no, this girl's not. But then I realized she was Latina, and in al Paso, and in the north of Mexico there's a lot of blonde hair, blue eyed girl, so I mean she looked like your friends. Yeah.

And as excited as Joseph and I were for this song, Christina, being the R and B perfectionist that she is, well, she wasn't the most excited about Genie in a Bottle being her lead single.

And yet it became the second best selling single of nineteen ninety nine, right after A Queen Mother's share Do you Believe in Life After Love? After Love After Love? Share?

Christina Santana. I just don't know that any year can top ninety nine, but Obviously, Genie and a Bottle wasn't.

All I was obsessed with Come on over Baby. I don't know.

It was just so over a Baby. I don't know it, you Rea. It just reminded me of the nineties.

It is peak nineties like it just it was.

I don't know. It took me which which one was your songs? I mean, I loved I every single song. The whole album is so good.

I mean, you're talking about a very very young artist that is just giving you hit after hit after hit. Right, it wasn't one song, it wasn't two songs, it wasn't three songs.

The whole album is a bop.

And by the way, it wasn't just us that loved this, because after her singles all climbed to the top of the charts, that self titled album did debut at.

Number one, and here today in twenty twenty four, that album is eight times platinum.

But let's also recall what year the album came out. In two thousand, there was one thing that mattered just as much, if not more, than the Billboard charts, and that was becoming the number one most requesteds on on.

Total Request Genie in a Bottle was the most requested song on TRL for five straight weeks and stayed in the top ten for several weeks more.

And so it came to pass that Christina performed Genie and a Bottle on TRL, along with other tracks from her album. And that is the day the rumor mill hum to Life.

The Tea for Your Consideration host Carson Daily was out that day. So when Christina's being interviewed by the stand in host, she says she misses him.

I can see the US Weekly covers right away. Carson and Christina their secret romance exposed, not to mention he was actually engaged to Jennifer love Hewitt at the time.

Big if true, which it wasn't, But now the readers had gotten a taste. Everyone was looking for dirt on Christina.

Of course, rumored romance and risque affairs were common tabloid fodder back then, but as we all know, the press would find its true paydirt in Christina's supposed rivalry with her fellow format.

Mouseketeer, Britney Bitch.

Everyone who was around during the days of Britney Spears versus Christina Aguilera can remember the arguments, actually remember them like they were yesterday, and whether you remember them playing out in the schoolyard or at happy hour.

It's like Britney's a better dancer, Britney's songs are catch here, or Britney can't sing bitch. Christina's a real musician, lest you forget her four octave vocal range.

Media coverage of this supposed rivalry wouldn't re it speak till a little later.

In the aughts.

But the seeds were there from the beginning, before the scandals and flashpoints that are burned into our heads, which we will get to. The magazines would simply pit their talents against each other. And here are a couple of quotes from that era.

People Magazine wrote, quote, Christina's powerful vocal chords sound refreshing in an industry inhabited by baby voiced divas like Britney Spears, who wear the diva label like little girls where their mother's heels.

Imagine if they made that Instagram post today, like the cant they would turned down, They would burn down the people building like that is so unacceptable. Okay, wait, they get better. Here's one from Entertainment Weekly. Christina Aguilera may show her belly button, but in her music and mannerisms. It's clear she's anxious not to offend. She's a good girl pretending to be bad. Spears, on the other hand, seems like a bad girl pretending to be good.

Wait a minute, that shit just really came out like that's I think it's true.

Just let women be, okay, true, but let women exist, Let women exist in their duality, tripleality, quadruplelality. Just just let women exist. Please, Okay. And by the way, that one continues on Thank You Entertainment Weekly, here's the quote. Spears's artificial sweetener voice is less interesting than everything around her. But even so, that blandness is a relief compared to Aguilera's staggering vocal gymnastics. Hold on, hold on, but I

If this resurfaces, they would be canceled. They're probably retired, old white men.

So after hearing all of those headlines, it's pretty clear where we all got our schoolyard and or happy hour, depending on how old you were.

Barbes about Brittany and Christina. But us Weekly and people aren't the only names written in these receipts. Christina's label butt into the feud in their marketing for Christina's debut.

Because while Christina's debut pulled insane numbers, Britney's debut actually beat Christina's to market, dropping in January of nineteen ninety nine, eight ful months ahead of Christina's.

So by the time Crazy and Baby One More Time had dominated radio, RCAA was ready to market Christina as quote, a Britney who can sing.

You know what, I take it back nineteen ninety nine has got to go. I don't know it.

Oh fuck night, take share, take our girls, leave the rest anyway.

Then came the Grammys, where Brittany and Christina went head to head for Best New Artists.

Alongside Macy Gray and Kid Rock. But let's be wrong, I.

Mean that wasn't a contest.

The result made it clear where the industry stood in the end. Best New Artists went to the Brittany who can sing, Christina Aguilera.

Christina shook as she received the gramophone and said her thank yous, which included both her parents. Round one going to Christina, who, by the way, probably didn't even want to fight in.

The first place.

I wish you guys could see the move that Joseph just did in the studio when I told him that it is time to talk about her next era. Yes, before Christina went on to her next era, which I know Joseph cannot wait to talk about.

Only makes me that much stronger.

She had an incredibly busy start to the new millennium, an.

Eighty two night World tour, appearances on Tierra Awards shows, and more.

Eight was NonStop, but the breakneck pace of touring and promoting didn't halt her creative momentum. In two thousand, she embarked on a project that saw her embracing her roots. The Spanish language album Mi Reflejo.

Mi Reflecho features five songs from her self titled debut redone in Spanish, plus four new songs like Final Size, Esperanzas and sinot vierrag Nocio, a duet with Luis.

Fonsi and Christina, unlike her parents, was not fluent in Spanish, so the album was a little bit.

Of a challenge, and if it ain't clear yet, our girl loves a challenge.

Like facts, facts, you guys are basically the same.

Not what do you mean right?

You?

Genie? Your genie?

I have a Genie a bottle anyway, Christina worked with Rudy Perez, the producer who worked with the Gloria Stepan, Mark Anthony, and Jlo, among others, to rework the material and worked with a vocal coach to learn how to sing in Espanol.

So All I Want Is You became Solemente Too, which became Christina's first single to top the Billboard Hot Latin Song charts.

While some critics knocked the album as an attempt to cash in on the quote unquote Latin explosion that Christina said of the album.

My message, as in all my music, stands for being fearless to explore who you are. It's never too late to open a new door. Although it's scary to dive into a territory that isn't your first language, it still doesn't erase who I am and how I want to express myself in all aspects of what intrigues and inspires me.

Not so fun fact, before her debut, RCA had considered giving Christina a more Anglo friendly stage name, like Christina A g Oh.

I just threw up a little bit in my mouth, so seriously it's the coffee, but christ.

Held onto her name and told interviewers she was proud of her heritage.

This is what we love about our girl. After everything that happened with her dad, she easily could have turned her back on being Latina, but she's aware of every part of her that makes her stronger.

You're just dying to get to the destination, aren't you? But things would get a bit held up for Christina. After all the burnout from her tour, she decided to cut ties with her manager and sue him for fraud. After Kurt's countersuit, the two reached an out of court settlement in two thousand and one, so she found a new manager, irving as Off, and began to find a better work life balance.

And started dating one of her back up dancers, because dancers nano balance.

She began to take more control over her life, her music, and her looks.

Starting in two thousand and one, Christina made a sport out of turning heads on the red carpet. Let's get into some.

Of these looks, okay, Joseph and I are evaluating relooks from this era. Christina at the VMA's in her tiny denim belt. I guess it's supposed to be a mini skirt, Christina at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards in a shredded velvet dress with very curly, big hair, and most importantly, Christina at the two thousand and one Grammys when she did her all over blonde braids. Do you want to talk about the makeup? Oh, because if anybody is going to break down a look, especially from this era, I think

You know what happened? I like it, I do.

Yeah, I quit the podcast. Yeah this is there is a liar in the boot.

No, but you know what I'm going to I do not deal well with liars. Okay, No, why because she really changed her look for all of these events, right, it was everything was different. I like that. She definitely didn't style herself like anybody at the time. She was like Julia Fox like she was like but people weren't treating her like that, right, People are like, oh, Julia Fox,

You're absolutely right, here's what happens. Let's go back to the year that it was, like, let's actually go back there. People did not have the same level of admiration and respect for individuality when it comes to personal style back then. May include it, right, And so while Christina's hair and makeup and looks might not have been your taste level, it was her taste and it was her individuality and

It was like Gaga forward. We can't think about it like that. Now she was ahead of time.

You're right, and now we really get it, Like she was having fun, she was expressing her identity. And we want our musicians and our fistas to show up like this. I'm bored when artists are just like basic betties, Like I want to see them show up like this, don't you.

Yeah, I mean that's they all show up the same kind of still.

Yeah, because they don't want to get ridiculed. They don't want to they don't want to be individuals. And this is of course, her showing up looking like this in her most truest expression. After RCA had tried to make her just another blonde pop star.

Christina agh the Brittany who could think. You know.

She was tired of that noise. She wanted to express herself.

She wanted her reflection to show who she was.

And just like reflection amped up audiences for her debut, Christina's performance in Lady Marmalade, alongside Maya Pink and Low Kim, produced by Missy Elliott, gave audiences a hint of what to expect from her follow up.

Wilder looks and vocals, in your face visuals, and unapologetic sexual let tee but listen.

As in your face and eye catching as Lady Marmalade was, the world was not prepared for Dirty.

Carl I was not prepared for Dirty.

The lead single off of two thousand and two Stripped and its provocative video was about as clear a statement as you can get from an artist. Christina had the creative control she had yearned for, and she was.

Taking us to the floor. Goodbye bubblegum pop, Hello rock hip hop, miniskirts and mud wrestling. That's hot.

But that didn't mean ballads were off the table, because the follow up single to Dirty was of course Beautiful, whose Glad Award winning video shows marginalized.

Communities confronting their reflections, coming to grips with who they are and who the world expects them to be.

Duality was the name of the game on Strip, which alternated between confrontation and vulnerability over twenty tracks, and the rest of the singles showed listeners exactly what to expect.

Because next came fight Her, a song for her father, the kids who bullied her, the manager who did her wrong but cannot follows.

Followed by the feminist anthem Can't Hold Us Down, and the ballad the Voice within.

Can't Hold Us Down was my faith ver Rent. The words made me emotional when I first heard It's it's silly, but I was like, that's so crazy that girls feel like that, because I was a young gay thinking about my girlfriend. Yeah, I was just kind of like, what, it's good. It is good. I'm just I'm surprised.

I'm a fashion girl, like I am a visual learner, and I learned how to be dirty from that video. Yap Now Stripped followed through on Christina's way for creative control and gave us to be honest. I think her most honest music to date, including some of her most beloved anthems.

But the critics didn't get it. They panned dirty and called it desperate and shrieking, which rude and called stripped, uneven and unfocused. But it didn't end with critics.

Fellow pop stars such as Jessica Simpson and Yes, I Hate to say It. Shakita said that Christina had gone quote unquote too far with the sex appeal.

You hate to see the girls go after each other, and unfortunately Christina was not above it herself.

From two thousand through two thousand and two, Christina had been peppered with questions about you know who in virtually every interview down for it.

That's got to be exhausting, I mean, and our girls stayed on message. We're great friends. We're so busy, we never get to see each other anymore. We're completely different artists.

It's giving the old New York la. We have to catch upline like. It's not that you don't mean it, but you both know that you are not going to see each other.

And when friends grow farther and farther apart. That means more room for.

Messiness, and we will remind our listeners that every reporter with a microphone from two thousand to two was dying for that mess to break through, and they got their wish. In two thousand and.

Three, Christina kicked off the year with a bang in supportive strip. She announced a joint tour between herself and Justin Timberlake.

A pretty clear potshot at Brittany, with whom he had just broken up with because he said that she cheated on him.

Lies. Fast forward to August the two thousand and three MTV Music Video Awards, featuring the legendary Brittany Madonna on stage.

Kiss that rocked a country at a very conservative moment and was kind of seen as a passing of the pop queen crown from Madonna to Brittany, except.

That when Madonna drew away from Brittany, she went on to kiss Christina too, but the camera cut away right at that moment to get a reaction shot from JT.

Four months later, in December of that year, Blender magazine publishes a now infamous interview with Christina. Christina questions Brittany and Beyonce for acting quote unquote virginal and interviews around the subject of sex and dating while performing provocatively in their videos.

One easy answer for why they did that it was two thousand and three.

We were not accepting back then, we were not our best selves, and Christina also notes her dissatisfaction with MTV's editing of the Madonna Kiss and remarks that Brittany had been distant in rehearsals.

Christina would insist that she was misquoted, and on TV appearances she would say publicly that she wanted to talk to Brittany about the article. But the next year, Blender would publish an interview with Brittany featuring some choice words for Christina.

And thus the Brittany Christina feud the press had been itching for for years was made real. Years down the line, Christina and Brittany would state that they're on good terms, but this would mark the ugliest chapter of their friendship.

Knowing what we know now, it's tough to look back on. There's just all kinds of inch.

You have to imagine that after years of being pestered about Brittany and interviews, it was hard for Christina to not let some thing slip.

And with everyone coming for her after stripped and after all her wild looks, with Shaki and Jessica Simpson coming for her.

Long story short, Christina got her hands dirty. So as Brittany approached the bottom of her spiral in the late two thousands, Christina went back to basics.

Goodbye jet black hair and booty shorts, Hello old Hollywood looks and Broadway cost Her two.

Thousand and six album was a salute to Billie Holliday, Etta James, and Ella Fitzgerald, a gloss up throwback of gospel, boogie woogie and soul, modernized with beats courtesy of Mark Ronson and hip Hop Royalty DJ Premiere.

The album made its mark, debuting at number one in the US and topping charts all over the world.

In February of two thousand and seven, Christina accepted another Grammy, all done up in her curly blonde Baby Jane look.

That same month, Britney shaved her head. It seemed as though Christina had.

Won, except let's keep it real, nobody wins when women fight with each other. And for all of Christina's insistence that there was nothing to compare the two pop stars, who can better inspire and motivate an artist than appear.

From way back. As Christina entered the twenty tens, Brittany would be fighting her own battles and Christina would be fighting hers.

On the next Becoming an Icon, Christina reaches a new low of her own before reclaiming what makes her her. 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