“Beautiful,” the second single from Stripped, remains the most important song in Aguilera’s narrative. The key lyric: “It’s about time for my arrival.” The song was about sex, but the message was freedom. “Dirrty,” the set’s advance single, borrowed its edge from hip-hop, via Redman and producer Rockwilder. With 2002’s Stripped, however, Christina became “Xtina”: swapping blonde for brunette, her pale complexion for a tan, girlish outfits for assless chaps. In 2001, “Lady Marmalade” raised a few eyebrows - but performing alongside Pink, Mya and Lil’ Kim, as commissioned for the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack, and with Labelle’s original, explicit come-on sung in French, the culture didn’t read too much into Aguilera’s involvement. But Christina’s a committed narrator, rendering believable lyrics as clichéd as “I turn to you/ For the strength to be strong.” She stood out among the pack: TIME Magazine called her “one of the most strikingly gifted singers to come along since Mariah Carey.” Christina couldn’t wait to grow up, though - as she told Rolling Stone in 1999: “I always want to shock people, throughout my career.

It’s under-produced and directionless, the product of A&R who lacked the songs to match her talent. But “What a Girl Wants,” her follow-up, preached a surprisingly mature, humble message about love: “You waited so patiently/ While I got it together/ While I figured it out.”Īguilera’s self-titled 1999 album hasn’t aged well. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, not exactly a modest beginning. “Hormones racing at the speed of light/ But that don’t mean it’s gotta be tonight” - “Genie” put Christina in control. But “Genie in a Bottle,” her debut pop single, wasn’t about trying to please a boy. Like Britney, she’d gone from The All-New Mickey Mouse Club to a major label. But Christina Aguilera was unusually self-possessed, even at just 18 years old.

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