Dirrty was released years before society began to accept that women can portray their bodies however they choose (a notion reinforced in Beautiful, from the same album, Stripped) but even then, the response felt uncalled for. Her transition helped inch the conversation forward. Younger people are more self-aware, which I think is amazing.”
I definitely think that people are raising their voices more. “Now people know to say, ‘that’s not okay to touch by body’ or ‘that’s not okay to tell me what’s good for me’. Now, thanks also to outspoken examples in the entertainment industry (Kesha, Rose McGowan, Alyssa Milano) the idea of the older svengali exerting influence over younger women is immediately a red flag “but when I was coming up there was no access to hearing other people’s stories, or sharing experiences, or shedding light on something. I’m still triggered if I feel put in a box or if I’m not given the right information.”Ĭhristina Aguilera: ‘Not everybody has a perception of where they want to go artistically. I don’t miss those days of coming up in the business and having to fight so hard to get an opinion across in a world of older men who tried to mould me into something I’m not. “It’s a sadness when you feel like don’t have your back. I was overworked, and there was no one to speak up for me. But I didn’t have good management, a lot of unwise choices were made. “It was an amazing time and I’m so thankful for getting my foot in the door. “I should have been on top of the world,” she says. When she came out with her self-titled debut album, it propelled her into the spotlight as a pop starlet and earned her a number-one debut and the Grammy for Best New Artist. Before, she recalls, creative and practical decisions were made by her manager, the late Steve Kurtz, against her better judgement. This control is why Dirrty was the pivotal moment in her career. Not everybody has a perception of where they want to go artistically. “You have control over yourself, and how you see yourself – and that’s a growth period within itself. “There’s a sense of freedom that comes with being in this business for such a long time,” Aguilera says. Her most recent album, Liberation, feels less like a blinkered attempt to garner radio play and more like a meandering stroll from rock to R’n’B, meeting collaborators like Kanye West, Demi Lovato and Anderson Paak along the way. Looking back on her two decades as a singer famed for the power of her four-octave range, (most of which can be heard in the one verse of Lady Marmalade) she talks of lessons and learnings, moments of pride, and a whole lot of fun: the tours, the image changes, the videos, acting with Cher in Burlesque, and her five years as a judge on The Voice. It also defined her transition from teen queen to adult celebrity – a manoeuvre that rarely goes smoothly in the spotlight.Ĭhristina Aguilera: promoting Dirrty in New York in 2002.
At the very least, it differentiated her from Spears, her rival since their days as Disney Mouseketeers. We’re speaking exactly 20 years since her first solo album, and ahead of the second leg of her European tour, which suggests the move didn’t go too badly. I was proud of the fact that I’ve fought my way through this industry.” That was me stepping up and saying I was a woman that’s proud of my sexuality. So I came out with Dirrty, and that was my f**k-it moment. I really wanted to be honest and truthful. “And I wasn’t about to play that game, I wasn’t that girl. When we came out, there was an essence of innocence that you had to sort of portray blindly,” Aguilera says, speaking from her home in LA. “It was that pop-star time of N’Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and me. I was proud of the fact that I’ve fought my way through this industry Directed by the revered David LaChapelle and taking place in a low-lit boxing club with risqué clothing and choreography, the deviant vibe came out of the blue, especially as it was the follow up to – if we’re amongst friends here – a cringey Christmas album.ĭirrty was me stepping up and saying I was a woman that’s proud of my sexuality. It was that time around 2002, when, aged 21, she broke free of her management, strapped on the chaps, and unleashed Dirrty: the tune that showed us in no uncertain terms that her vanilla days were over. Her own f**k-it moment is unlikely to have passed us by. A life well lived should have what Christina Aguilera describes as a “f**k it moment” – that glorious decision of silencing the head and giving in to the heart, regardless of the consequences.
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