Latest news with #Stripped
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Christina Aguilera on bringing Burlesque to the stage and her rise to fame
Christina Aguilera has told Sky News it is "magical" to see her hit film Burlesque being brought to London's West End - and also opened up about her rise to fame in the late 1990s. The US star topped the US and UK charts with Genie In A Bottle in 1999, before finding an even bigger audience with her acclaimed album Stripped and hits including Dirrty, Beautiful and Fighter in the early 2000s. In 2010, she starred in Burlesque alongside Cher, Julianne Hough and Stanley Tucci, and now, 15 years later, is a producer for the stage version of the show alongside the film's original director and writer, Steven Antin. Speaking ahead of the show's gala night, Aguilera told Sky News presenter she has enjoyed taking a backseat and seeing the fresh interpretation of her character - a small-town girl turned into a star. "It's just so beautiful to see the talent that's on this stage and to absorb it and appreciate the fresh takes on things," she said. "I love actually taking a step back and a backseat… it's beautiful to see the reinvention. "When you're in it, you focus on the choreography, all these different elements, that being able to take a backseat and being more of a visionary of the bigger picture, it's really a special thing." Aguilera said she had been "blown away" by Jess Folley, who plays her character Ali in the show, and has fully embraced the "powerhouse vocals" as well as the vulnerability needed for the role. "She just is doing such a magnificent, magnificent job and likewise inspires me as well," she said. Aguilera said she would love to see her film co-star Cher popping by to see the show in London. "She's always welcome to grace us with her incredible, iconic presence. And I'm just so grateful that I had the time to be with her. I mean, looking back, it's just - did that even happen?" Aguilera arrived on the scene at the same time as Britney Spears, at a time when young female pop stars were celebrated, sexualised and scrutinised. After the success of her debut album, she took a different direction with Stripped - embracing her sexuality and famously taking on a less girlish image with chaps, a nose stud and black streaks in her hair for the Dirrty video, and opening up about her life and emotions through songs such as Fighter and Beautiful. She also took on the patriarchy in Can't Hold Us Down, a duet with Lil' Kim, and performed on the hit cover of Lady Marmalade alongside Lil' Kim, Maya and Pink for Moulin Rouge! "I always want to stay true to authenticity," she said. "And for me, with that first album it was wonderful to get my foot in the door... "It's important to me that I stepped out on my own and reflected all sides of me as a woman, embracing my sexuality and sensuality, and my body... Dirrty, I just loved those chaps and everything about that was just so fun and raw." Read more: So would she do it all again, then? Or would she prefer to be an artist starting out now? "The '90s, it was a pretty special time in music. And it was a time when you could still like go to Virgin records or like wherever and look at the CDs, look at the packaging. And, you know, sometimes the authenticity is missed." However, the good thing about social media now is that it has given stars the means to tell their own stories, she adds. "You have an opportunity now to really present yourself in ways that it's not just about the music, to become more the narrator in real time… this is what it is like, be your own voice rather than reading about yourself in an article." But still, she wouldn't swap. "It has to stay where it was." Burlesque The Musical is showing at The Savoy theatre in London now
Perth Now
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Christina Aguilera was told that she 'didn't have the right to her own' body in early pop career
Christina Aguilera was told that she "didn't have the right to her own" body at one point in her pop career. The 44-year-old singer had just released her fourth studio album Stripped in 2002 when she opted for a more raunchy sound and look with the track Dirrty but recalled "facing quite a bit of backlash" at the time, even though she was just "expressing herself" in the way that she wanted to. Speaking as part of a panel alongside Halle Berry at the Bare It All Event in California, she explained: "I remember, just releasing my Stripped album, I faced quite a bit of backlash with my song Dirrty. "And for me, I felt incredibly empowered and owning my body and expressing myself the way I wanted to and not fitting this weird label-driven, pop bubble manufacturer, robotic thing that I knew I wasn't. "And so when that started for me, it was very interesting for me to hear other people's views on why I shouldn't be doing that, why I didn't have a right to my own voice on my own body." The Candyman hitmaker - who shot to fame alongside Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake as part of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s and initially released more bubblegum pop records like Genie In A Bottle and Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You) upon the launch of her pop career - admitted that she still has the outfit she wore in the Dirrty video, and actually had more fun by wearing it as often as she could amid the negative reception. She said: "We definitely archived the look and God, I just hope they're still in good condition after all these years. "But they're somewhere in the vault, yes. "I have to say probably the more trouble I got in for wearing it, the more fun I had wearing it. The chaps were iconic. It was definitely a fun moment, and it still is fun to see people represent them for their Halloween costumes. I get so excited to see different people's interpretations of it."
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Christina Aguilera's Stripped retrospectively reviewed: The most drastic, effective reinvention in pop
At the turn of the millennium, teen pop was dominating the charts like never before. The sugary-sweet sounds of hits like Britney Spears's 'Oops!… I Did It Again' and *NSYNC's 'Bye Bye Bye' were in. It was bubblegum pop with added E numbers. Christina Aguilera's 1999 self-titled debut was an example of this, launching the Disney alumnus onto the world stage with 'Genie in a Bottle' and 'What a Girl Wants'. She established herself among the likes of Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore as a new teen idol, all of whom were being moulded to Britney's girl-next-door image. It was these comparisons that made Aguilera want to break away from her contemporaries and showcase her true identity on Stripped. It was Aguilera's fourth overall studio album, but second English-speaking, non-Christmas effort. Lead single 'Dirrty' featuring Redman was the general public's first proper re-introduction to 'the new Xtina'. Gone was her cookie-cutter, virginal image in favour of an edgier, more original look and sound. It was a shock and largely criticised; misogyny in the media was at fever pitch during the early 2000s. However, the single and accompanying music video was, and still is, a thrilling piece of pop. It's arguably the most drastic and effective reinvention in pop, long before Miley Cyrus ditched her good girl image for Bangerz. Lyrically, the track is a sexually charged romp with hard hip-hop sensibilities. It flopped in the US, reaching number 48, but hit number one in the UK and the top 10 in several other countries. To this day, it's guaranteed to get any party started. Follow-up single 'Beautiful' couldn't have been more different, however. The tender piano ballad is a defiant statement for self-empowerment: 'You are beautiful no matter what they say'. Written by 4 Non Blondes's Linda Perry, the track was immediately adopted as a queer anthem. The accompanying music video also reflects this, featuring a same-sex couple and a transgender woman overcoming adversity and self-doubt to live authentically. While accepting the Special Recognition Award at the 14th GLAAD Media Awards, Aguilera said of 'Beautiful': 'This song is definitely a universal message that everybody can relate to — anyone that's been discriminated against or unaccepted, unappreciated or disrespected just because of who you are. It was so important to me that I support the gay community in this sense.' It has become one of the singer's signature tracks. 'Fighter' continues the theme of self-reliance, this time in a toxic relationship. Aguilera adopts a different sound yet again, this time taking inspiration from Guns N' Roses and stadium rock. It's a biting 'fuck you' to a cheating lover and an ode to the strength that comes from walking away. The album's lead single had been something of a red herring. While the album did speak of sexual liberation, the title Stripped speaks more to the baring of Aguilera's soul — as the latter singles demonstrated. This misconception perhaps muddied the understanding of what the singer was trying to achieve at this particular point in her career. On tracks like 'The Voice Within' and 'I'm OK', Aguilera is at her most introspective and vulnerable. It's these expressions of feeling like an outsider or facing trauma that helped Aguilera connect with her LGBTQ+ fanbase on a meaningful level. Despite being a pop pin-up, she felt just as insecure as the rest of us. Stripped stands up as Aguilera's most cohesive body of work and one of her most commercially successful. The album hit number two in the UK and US and top 10 in most of the world. In 2022, it was certified 5x Platinum. She would continue to have success in music, with hits such as 'Ain't No Other Man' and the cult classic 'Not Myself Tonight'. Aguilera would also appear alongside fellow gay icon Cher in the 2010 movie Burlesque. Aguilera has continued to show unwavering support for the LGBTQ+ community throughout her career. Following the tragic Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, the singer released the one-off single 'Change', dedicated to the victims. Proceeds from it were also donated to the victims' families. Speaking to the US's She Magazine in 2012, Aguilera said of her queer fanbase: 'I cannot express in words how much the LGBT community means to me. On my darkest day, their support lifts me up. I feel honoured that some of my songs become anthems to them as well.' The post Christina Aguilera's Stripped retrospectively reviewed: The most drastic, effective reinvention in pop appeared first on Attitude.
