Speaker 1: For so many of her prime years, Christina Aguilera had
Speaker 1: been compared to her contemporaries for better and for worse.
Speaker 2: Comparison that thief of joy, and after her biggest rival
Speaker 2: and earliest friend became America's favorite train wreck slash punching bag,
Speaker 2: comparisons still haunted all that Christina did.
Speaker 1: Following the success of the throwbacky Back to Basics in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, Christina released a Greatest Hits album
Speaker 1: with two new, more electronically focused tracks.
Speaker 2: The songs gave us a hint at where Christina's head
Speaker 2: was at musically, our girl was staying curious and looking
Speaker 2: for new sounds. The follow up to Back to Basics
Speaker 2: was on its way.
Speaker 1: Titled Light and Darkness, the album would explore duality, not
Speaker 1: just musically but thematically, but for reasons unknown, the project
Speaker 1: was scrapped.
Speaker 2: Rumor has it that the label was afraid that the
Speaker 2: album would draw comparisons to Beyonce I Am Sasha Fears
Speaker 2: had just and obviously we just can't have two pop
Speaker 2: divas exploring their two sides.
Speaker 1: God forbid two women talking about themselves at the top
Speaker 1: of the charts. So instead, the follow up to Back
Speaker 1: to Basics would be titled Bionic.
Speaker 2: And after being delayed by two months, Bionic was released.
Speaker 2: To critics, do you mean crickets? Oh well both? Bionic
Speaker 2: was Christina's first album not.
Speaker 1: To go platinum, just like they thought Christina was chasing
Speaker 1: the Latin explosion with Mire Flejo. The critics heard the
Speaker 1: synthpop direction of Bionic and could only think of one thing.
Speaker 2: Lady Gaga, the fame Monster wasn't even a year old.
Speaker 2: Poor Christina didn't have a chance, and the music video
Speaker 2: for her lead single did not help matters.
Speaker 1: If you look at the video, you would instantly go, wait,
Speaker 1: does that go like if you were on let's just
Speaker 1: say you didn't have your okay, if I didn't have my.
Speaker 2: Contacts in Yeah, no, but it's bad. Like it's literally
Speaker 2: a knockoff like legit.
Speaker 3: But it's not a good knockoff.
Speaker 1: Sometimes knock ups you're like, hey, that's not bad, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that have budget. Yeah no, it definitely gives me. And
Speaker 1: the song we're talking about in the video that we're
Speaker 1: talking about is not myself Tonight. And if you kind
Speaker 1: of do a little side by side screenshot of that
Speaker 1: with Bad Romance, you're gonna understand exactly what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: And the critics, well, they didn't mince words, including Prez Hilton, who,
Speaker 1: after calling Aguilera has been along with other names that
Speaker 1: I'm not going to mention, actually encouraged followers to boycott
Speaker 1: the album and trash Christina, how about Perez's trash yuck?
Speaker 2: This was the same game of apples to oranges the
Speaker 2: press had played with her and Brittany, but this time
Speaker 2: actively weaponized and so Bionic.
Speaker 1: Ticked I hate us back then, h I hate us
Speaker 1: like we need to make it up to her. By
Speaker 1: the way again, hindsight is twenty twenty and in recent
Speaker 1: years critics have been much kinder to this album. But
Speaker 1: the damn it which was done, and while there is
Speaker 1: a happy ending, the twenty tens, for the most part,
Speaker 1: would not be kind to our girl. I'm your host Lilianavsquez.
Speaker 2: And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.
Speaker 1: A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on
Speaker 1: how today's most famous Latin v stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2: And given the world some extra level.
Speaker 3: Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 2: Because we are going in the only way we know how.
Speaker 1: With Buena buenasriesas some me and a lot of opinions
Speaker 1: as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to
Speaker 1: find out what makes them still iconic.
Speaker 2: So, I know you think I've been a slot for
Speaker 2: strip this whole time, but you are, but not exclusively.
Speaker 2: There's another Christina project I've been dying to talk about.
Speaker 3: Is it Christina Aguilera's.
Speaker 2: Share.
Speaker 3: It's a must see.
Speaker 2: It's a classic.
Speaker 3: Cult classic, I think, is what you mean?
Speaker 2: It's educational? Who among us knew what air rights were
Speaker 2: before seeing Burless?
Speaker 1: I mean, who even knew that anything that happens in
Speaker 1: this movie could ever happen in La. It's so campy,
Speaker 1: it's so good, it's visually incredible. It makes a zero sense.
Speaker 1: It is escapism and its purest form.
Speaker 2: So wait, try to reconstruct a story from memory, though,
Speaker 2: crush MEI okay?
Speaker 3: So here's like the cliff notes.
Speaker 1: Christina is basically a cocktail waitress with a big voice
Speaker 1: and big dreams of being discovered in a star and
Speaker 1: she ends up getting a waitressing job, a cocktail waitressing
Speaker 1: job in a burlesque club that is owned and and
Speaker 1: managed by Share, and she wants to be one of
Speaker 1: the girls on stage. But the girls are like, no, bitch,
Speaker 1: you're just a cocktail waitress. Say the fuck off our stage.
Speaker 1: But she has a better voice than them, she's prittier
Speaker 1: than that, she can dance better than them, and so
Speaker 1: finally she gets her.
Speaker 3: Big shot and like what happens.
Speaker 1: Of course she becomes like this huge draw and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna spoil it for you, but hold on, the
Speaker 1: club's in trouble. The club is in trouble, and share
Speaker 1: what like in what world is share in this movie?
Speaker 3: Like who got this movie made?
Speaker 1: I need to have that producer on my team so
Speaker 1: that I can get all my good ideas made.
Speaker 3: Anyway, point is it was really.
Speaker 1: Interesting to me that at that point in her career
Speaker 1: Christina was like, pause, I want to act in a
Speaker 1: movie that's not that great.
Speaker 2: Like, honestly, we need to give burlesk a whole episode
Speaker 2: of the show because it's just.
Speaker 3: Iconic bonus content for sure.
Speaker 1: But although Burlesque is a bona fide camp classic, the
Speaker 1: movie's promotion schedule ended up crashing headlong with Christina's tour
Speaker 1: for Bionic and one had to go.
Speaker 2: Not to sound like pres Hilton, please don't but if
Speaker 2: she were ten years younger, she could have totally done
Speaker 2: them both. Remember how she made her throat bleed.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like promotion for the film, the schedules are
Speaker 1: wild and she'd probably have to be in two places
Speaker 1: at the same time, And ultimately the tour was canceled
Speaker 1: due to a lack of rehearsal time.
Speaker 2: Christina promised to reschedule the tour for twenty eleven, but
Speaker 2: it never happened. Bionic, Christina's a lowest selling album, never
Speaker 2: got a tour.
Speaker 1: You could say that times were tough for Miss Aguilaira
Speaker 1: and didn't stop with her career. Towards the end of
Speaker 1: twenty ten, Christina confirmed that she and her husband, Jordan Bratman,
Speaker 1: had separated. The divorce proceedings would stretch on through twenty eleven.
Speaker 2: The same year the Bionic tour was supposed to be
Speaker 2: rescheduled for. Christina would state quote, things were so unhealthy
Speaker 2: and unhappy for both Jordan and me. I knew it
Speaker 2: had to end. When you're unhappy in your marriage, your
Speaker 2: children are the ones who suffer. That's the last thing
Speaker 2: I wanted.
Speaker 1: For my son, considering, you know, the home that she
Speaker 1: grew up in. It makes perfect sense that her attention
Speaker 1: was not on her career at this moment. She would
Speaker 1: also state, although Jordan and I are separated, our commitment
Speaker 1: to our son Max remains as strong as ever.
Speaker 2: Our girl needs a win.
Speaker 1: Well, there's still a cherry on top of his shit.
Speaker 1: Sunday No. The same year as her divorce, Aguilera was
Speaker 1: chosen to sing the national anthem at Super Bowl forty five.
Speaker 2: Okay, I mean she's got this right. She's saying at
Speaker 2: sporting events in Pittsburgh all the time, she's their lucky charm.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, unfortunately she fucked up the larraa no oh.
Speaker 1: And you know the people who like football, you know
Speaker 1: how they get about the national anthem. So twenty eleven
Speaker 1: was Christina's no good, very bad year, and that's probably
Speaker 1: why she was drawn to the stability of a hot
Speaker 1: new show on NBC called The Voice. Before the Masked
Speaker 1: Singer and all that jazz, there was the Voice.
Speaker 2: It still is The Voice. Honey. We're on season twenty five, and.
Speaker 1: In the very first season, Christina Aguilera was selected to
Speaker 1: be one of the shows four coaches.
Speaker 2: Okay, if you've never watched the Voice. You might ask
Speaker 2: yourself why would Christina choose to relive her failed run
Speaker 2: on Star Search, But from the other side of the
Speaker 2: judge counter.
Speaker 1: One answer could be money, but the other might be
Speaker 1: the opportunity to cultivate a protege or two.
Speaker 2: The Voice gave Christina the opportunity to mentor young talent
Speaker 2: and stay in touch with the next generation of music
Speaker 2: lovers and be a shady binge to Adam Levine.
Speaker 1: Honestly, the Voice might have been the best place for
Speaker 1: her to channel that mean girl Exstina.
Speaker 3: Energy from her stripped days.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't like a little healthy competition, even if you've
Speaker 1: never seen international TV sensation The Voice or even a
Speaker 1: commercial for it.
Speaker 3: Here's the spark notes.
Speaker 1: First contestants audition for four pop stars turned music coaches
Speaker 1: who sit in swivel chairs with their backs turned to them.
Speaker 2: If a coach likes what they hear, they push a
Speaker 2: big red button to thring their chair around and see
Speaker 2: who's singing. The contestant then gets to pick their coach
Speaker 2: among the button pushers, and each coach ends up with
Speaker 2: the team of contestants. Then we get a season long
Speaker 2: singing tournament for Christina.
Speaker 1: This was a let them come to me approach to
Speaker 1: fostering proteges, and she picked contestants who would let her
Speaker 1: stick to what she knew, singers with formidable vocal range,
Speaker 1: who could riff, and it was.
Speaker 2: A safe way to stay in the spotlight, no shade.
Speaker 2: Speaking of did you watch her on the Voice?
Speaker 1: I did, but I watched it not because I wanted
Speaker 1: to see her coach and mentor.
Speaker 3: I actually just wanted to see the looks.
Speaker 2: Of course, I just wanted to see it because I
Speaker 2: wanted to see what she was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do think that the Void is that kind
Speaker 1: of vehicle for an artist that allows you to see
Speaker 1: a much more.
Speaker 3: Stripped down version of them.
Speaker 1: It's very authentic, right, Yeah, it's in the moment. It's
Speaker 1: in the moment you're reacting. I mean, it's not live.
Speaker 1: And they say that they feed them lines in all
Speaker 1: of this drama. But point is you got to just
Speaker 1: see her being her, and she is kind of bitchy
Speaker 1: in a good way, like she's.
Speaker 2: Really funny and she I think she was just.
Speaker 1: No, I mean bitchy, good direct direct quick like could
Speaker 1: read can read you, And I don't mean the exactly
Speaker 1: and I don't mean it about the contestants.
Speaker 3: I mean with her fellow judges.
Speaker 1: Like she could read their bs and call them out
Speaker 1: on it, which I love.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And The Voice gave Christina seven seasons of consistent exposure
Speaker 1: and an opportunity to work with the next generation of vocalists,
Speaker 1: not just as a coach, but as a collaborator.
Speaker 2: In the first season, she's saying beautiful on stage with
Speaker 2: one of her finalists, Beverly McClellan.
Speaker 3: And that's not all.
Speaker 1: The Voice also gave Christina an opportunity to organically jump
Speaker 1: on a Maroon five track alongside fellow coach Adam lebin.
Speaker 2: I don't skip many Christina tracks, but when I do,
Speaker 2: it's the one with Adam Lebine.
Speaker 3: I'm going to join you on that.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Moves Like Jagger was the biggest hit Christina
Speaker 1: had had in five years, charting at number one in
Speaker 1: fourteen different countries, including the US.
Speaker 3: I Hate Us, I still hate Us.
Speaker 2: So The Voice was a bit of a lifeline for
Speaker 2: Christina's career, and when it came time to drop a
Speaker 2: new album, the show even gave her a stage to
Speaker 2: debut her lead single.
Speaker 1: Her follow up to Bionic twenty twelve's Lotus was themed
Speaker 1: around rebirth. Christina wanted to move on from the hardship
Speaker 1: of her No Good, Very Bad. Twenty eleven, she.
Speaker 2: Debuted the lead single your Body on stage on The Voice,
Speaker 2: and the track hit number one on the US Dance
Speaker 2: Club Song Chart, a welcome change from Moves Like Jyer.
Speaker 1: While the singles performed well as an album, Lotus wasn't
Speaker 1: really enough to bring Christina back to the highs of
Speaker 1: her two thousands platinum age. Rcia was unwilling to put
Speaker 1: much promotion behind it, possibly still apprehensive over the drama
Speaker 1: surrounding Bionic and.
Speaker 2: The fans weren't having it, but Christina released a statement
Speaker 2: to everyone, upset about the lack of support, saying music
Speaker 2: and an artist's truth and identity cannot be defined on
Speaker 2: a chart or review or with an award. It's good
Speaker 2: to care, but being rewarded by material things isn't why
Speaker 2: I remain in the business. It's the love of creating, expressing,
Speaker 2: and connecting with myself and others.
Speaker 1: Christina would leave The Voice in twenty sixteen after winning
Speaker 1: the series with her contestant Alison Porter, making her the
Speaker 1: first woman coach to win the show. Christina's next moves
Speaker 1: a return to touring and two more albums. Never one
Speaker 1: to shy away from the truth, Christina described her time
Speaker 1: on The Voice as a hamster wheel.
Speaker 2: When our girl is done, she's done. After gaining a
Speaker 2: reputation as the shadiest coach on the show for good
Speaker 2: or bad, she kept the season finale by joining Ariana
Speaker 2: Grande on stage for Dangerous Woman.
Speaker 1: Extina had been chipping away at two new albums as
Speaker 1: far back as twenty fourteen. Four years later, she gave
Speaker 1: us Liberation.
Speaker 2: To promote the album, Christina appeared on the cover of
Speaker 2: Paper magazine with a natural look, zero makeup, zero retouching.
Speaker 3: Do you believe that was zero makeup?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think my friend Zoe Grossman shot that.
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, and it really was. It wasn't like
Speaker 1: Alicia Keys pretending no makeup.
Speaker 2: Well you know what, I think you could look back
Speaker 2: in the ten was doing her then he might have
Speaker 2: done a little face and body. Let's be honest.
Speaker 3: Just when people say no makeup, they don't usually.
Speaker 2: Mean they just mean the real high fashion no makeup makeup,
Speaker 2: Thank you, Joseph, Like Runaway no makeup.
Speaker 3: This is why Joseph is here anyway?
Speaker 1: Look back at the cover, you guys, because it made waves,
Speaker 1: and it is so easy to see why. After we
Speaker 1: had the bubblegum pop look of her debut, the gritty
Speaker 1: sexuality in Stripped, and the baby Jane back to Basics era,
Speaker 1: and of course all of those seasons of sitting all
Speaker 1: dolled up in the coach's chair, this was.
Speaker 3: The Christina that no one had seen before.
Speaker 2: This look defined Liberation, an album dedicated to freeing herself
Speaker 2: from anything that wasn't her truth.
Speaker 1: And the album liberated her in more ways than one.
Speaker 1: With Liberation, Christina finally received critical recognition, free of any
Speaker 1: comparisons to competing pop stars. Instead, she got nods to
Speaker 1: her direct influences Whitney, Mariah, and Janet Jackson.
Speaker 2: Rolling Stone called Liberation Christina at her peak. BuzzFeed called
Speaker 2: it a throwback to Stripped, featuring rock, R and B, soul,
Speaker 2: hip hop, regaton, and of course classic Christina ballads.
Speaker 1: With her strongest artistic statement in years. Out in the world,
Speaker 1: Christina finally returned to touring after a full decade away.
Speaker 2: The Liberation tour wasn't an arena tour like back to basics,
Speaker 2: but critics hailed it as a bona fide comeback.
Speaker 1: The Houston Press called the show a form of therapy
Speaker 1: for diehard Extina stands with a set list featuring blocks
Speaker 1: of songs from each of her albums.
Speaker 3: I say, does that sound familiar?
Speaker 2: Taylor sound for Mills.
Speaker 1: They also went on to call it a winning audition
Speaker 1: for a Vegas residency and wouldn't you know it? In
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Christina would begin a residency at Planet Hollywood,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: Dubbed The Experience. The residency coincided with the X Tour
Speaker 2: aka the European leg of her Liberation tour twenty four
Speaker 2: Nights of Ecstasy. She even did songs from burlesque or
Speaker 2: the real ones.
Speaker 1: That would be me cheering in the audience. The Liberation
Speaker 1: was one half of a creative renaissance for Christina. The
Speaker 1: other half was the Spanish language double album Aguilera, her
Speaker 1: first fully Spanish release since Mireflejo.
Speaker 2: And everyone came through for this one. Becky g osuna
Speaker 2: fini Natipaluso. The very first track samples Genie in a
Speaker 2: Bottle and gives it a reggaeton beat. Lahna escapo and
Speaker 2: She's here to ball.
Speaker 1: Aguilera is a marathon of Latino musical stylings from urbano
Speaker 1: to more traditional affair like guaracha and rancheras, separated into
Speaker 1: three parts, La Fuersa, La tormenta, ilalouse, signifying empowerment, vulnerability,
Speaker 1: forgiveness and closure.
Speaker 2: The album closes with nois quetextrane, the haunting ballad about
Speaker 2: her childhood that we touched back on part one. This
Speaker 2: is sixteen a coming full circle, making amends with the
Speaker 2: past and being unapologetically herself.
Speaker 1: In May of twenty twenty four, Aguilera parted ways with RCL,
Speaker 1: the label that never quite knew what to do with her.
Speaker 1: Her new home is fifty twenty Records, a Regazon label
Speaker 1: based in Miami and distributed by Sony.
Speaker 2: Fifty twenty boaths up and coming Latin artists like Nati Beluso,
Speaker 2: who's featured in Tina's last album, and Gania Oh's who
Speaker 2: I can't stop talking to since Domas recommended her.
Speaker 4: Hey, Kuti Putti, remember what we talked about with Daddy Yankee,
Speaker 4: Those indie labels with major label distribution, creative freedom and
Speaker 4: a healthy cut of those profits.
Speaker 2: Ching Mommy's Home y'all, and she's doing whatever the f
Speaker 2: she wants in the booths and in the bedroom.
Speaker 3: Are we gonna talk about playground?
Speaker 2: I mean, is this safe?
Speaker 1: Are you asking me if this is a safe space
Speaker 1: to talk about vibrators?
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a safe space.
Speaker 1: Christina founded a sex brand. And by the way, she's
Speaker 1: not her Hello. Yes, and she's not the only one. Oh,
Speaker 1: did you know Selena has one Gomez? Can you imagine
Speaker 1: if she had a vibrator called.
Speaker 2: I'm deleting.
Speaker 1: We've got Selena dabbling into this business.
Speaker 3: Jemi Leva, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know Demi Levado had something as something.
Speaker 3: I am here for this.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: I love these latinas being like, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Sex is good, sex is enjoyable, It's pleasurable.
Speaker 2: It's for both people, correct.
Speaker 3: But mainly for us.
Speaker 1: I also want to take us back to that infamous
Speaker 1: Blender interview where Christina says that she never wanted to
Speaker 1: hide her sexuality or her Latini that and now she
Speaker 1: is finely in an era where she can confidently express both.
Speaker 2: She can be who she is without comparisons to anyone else.
Speaker 2: And while she and you know who still follow and
Speaker 2: unfollow each other as time goes on. In twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: she expressed solidarity for the same woman she was once
Speaker 2: pitted against, just as that woman was on the cusp
Speaker 2: of liberation.
Speaker 1: On her social media, Christina shared an open letter supporting
Speaker 1: Brittany as she fought against her conservatorship. The letter read,
Speaker 1: every woman must have the right to her own body,
Speaker 1: her own reproductive system, her own privacy, her own space,
Speaker 1: her own healing, and her own happiness. The person I
Speaker 1: once knew has been living without compassion or decency from
Speaker 1: those in control. To a woman who has worked under
Speaker 1: conditions and pressure unimaginable to most, I promise you she
Speaker 1: deserves all of the freedom possible to live her happiest life.
Speaker 1: My heart goes out to Brittany. She deserves all the
Speaker 1: true love and support in the world.
Speaker 2: Christina's first track as a recording artist found her wondering
Speaker 2: when her reflection would show who she was inside.
Speaker 1: And the music industry is almost designed to make you
Speaker 1: forget who that is, but actions and choices can help
Speaker 1: remind us.
Speaker 2: Time and again. Christina has caught her way back from
Speaker 2: dark day. That's when we can see exactly who she
Speaker 2: is inside. A fighter a mother, a diva, and of
Speaker 2: course an icon.
Speaker 1: On the next Becoming an Icon rock Mexicano Royalty Mana.
Speaker 1: Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael
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