Christina Aguilera is a bilingual singer of Ecuadorian-Irish roots born Christina Maria Aguilera on December 18, 1980 in Staten Island, New York to Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera and Sherry Lorraine Fidler. Christina’s father was a controlling and short-fused Sergeant in the U.S. Army while her mother was a Spanish teacher.
When she was seven years old, her parents divorced and her mother took Christina and her sister Rachel to live in Wexford, Pennsylvania with their grandmother. There, Christina joined many local talent shows and competitions. She was so good at it that she and her family were soon subject to harassment by other jealous competitors and they had to relocate to another suburb in Pittsburgh.
In 1990, when she was ten years old, she took her soulful voice to “Star Search”, but lost the competition. She returned home to Pittsburgh and continued wowing people again with a performance on a local TV show, as well as at local sports events, singing “The Star Spangled Banner” for the games of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates.
She officially joined the entertainment industry in 1993, as a member of the Disney Channel’s “The New Mickey Mouse Club”. Her co-stars on the variety show included Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, J.C. Chasez, Ryan Gosling and Keri Russell. When the show ended in 1994, she recorded her first song, which was a duet with Keizo Nakanishi, which was a hit in Japan. In 1997, she was a U.S. representative to the “Golden Stag” International Festival in Romania, joining Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross.
And then the big time arrived. In 1998, she sent a home-recorded demo tape of herself singing Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Run To You” to the producer’s of Disney’s “Mulan”, and her amazing voice wowed them, making her the choice to sing “Reflection” for the soundtrack. She got an RCA Records contract the same week on the strength of her performance, and the song reached the Top 20 of the Adult Contemporary Singles Chart, aside from being nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Original Song.
Her self-titled album was released on August 24, 1999 and reached the top of the Billboard 200 and Canadian album charts, moving up 8 million units in the U.S., and selling 14 million copies worldwide. Based on U.S. sales alone, it is in the RIAA Top 100 Albums of All Time list. The singles “Genie in a Bottle”, “What A Girl Wants”, and “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)” all reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999 and 2000, with “I Turn To You” reaching No. 3.
Christina won the “Best New Artist” award at the 2000 Grammys, as well as being nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Later in the year she recorded her first Spanish album, “Mi Reflejo”, which peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard 200 and reached the top of the Latin album charts. Her Christmas album released even later that same year peaked at No.28 on the Billboard 200 and has sold over 3.2 million copies worldwide.
And her success continued in 2001, with a Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album for “Mi Reflejo” and a World Music Award for being the best-selling Latin artist that year. It was also in 2001 that she joined Lil’ Kim, Maya, and Pink for the remake of “Lady Marmalade” for the “Moulin Rouge” soundtrack. This Missy Elliot-produced single spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 charts and snagged a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for those involved, as well as winning Video of The Year from MTV.
That year, Warlock Records released an album of Christina’s done when she was just 15 years old. She filed a breach of contract and unfair competition suit against them, but both parties later reached a settlement.
Aguilera was also involved in a legal battle around this time, because of a suit she filed in late 2000 agaianst her manager Steve Kurtz for fraud, as well as improper, undue and inappropriate influence over her professional activities. She decided on the lawsuit when she discovered that Kurtz was using more of her commissionable income than he was allotted, and that he had paid other managers to assist him in this. Kurtz countersued, but after the termination of his services, it was Irving Azoff still ended up Christina’s new manager.
The year 2002 was the start of the “Stripped” era, which saw Christina take more control of the creative aspect of her career. Her album sold more than 330,000 copies in the first week and eventually peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. “Stripped “ showcased Christina’s raunchier side, burying her teenybopper “Genie In A Bottle” image for good. It was produced by Scott Storch and Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes fame.
The first single from the album was “Dirrty”, and the video became very popular, while the single suffered on the U.S. charts because of the controversy and ridicule accompanying her new skanky image. The song was a worldwide hit though, and the album eventually went on to sell over 10 million units worldwide, becoming a four-time platinum hit in the U.S. The second single from the album, the Linda Perry-penned “Beautiful”, was a No.2 hit on the charts and a critical success.
She then joined Justin Timberlake on the last leg of his world tour, and the two artists turned it into the “Justified & Stripped World Tour”. After a few cancelled shows because of a stage mishap, she continued solo and the “Stripped World Tour” became one of 2003’s top-grossing tours, with Rolling Stone readers calling it the best of the year. In late 2004, she joined the cast of the animated film “Shark Tale” and recorded a single for the soundtrack.
Aguilera eventually changed her Dirrty image into a classier, more mature one, which drew praises from many quarters. Her third English-language album, “Back To Basics”, was released in August of 2006 and debuted at No. 1 in the U.S., U.K. and several other countries. The lead single, “Ain’t No Other Man”, reached No.6 in the U.S. and No. 2 in the U.K., and the “Back To Basics Tour” was launched later that year, starting in Europe. The tour spanned several continents and continued well into 2007.
Christina is currently working on her next album from the comfort of her Beverly Hills home, which she shares with husband Jordan Bratman and their son Max.