Your Ad Here

ACTORS more>> MUSICIANS more>> ATHLETES more>> MISC. more>>

Pics of the Week This week... Models BadGirls Graduation Mbw Rating: HOT ALERT: Shannon Lucio   Loaded Mbw Rating: HOT ALERT: Nathalie Kelley   Your Ad Here

BIOGRAPHY

Christina Aguilera
	BIOGRAPHY | GALLERY | GOSSIP | BLOG

Christina Marķa Aguilera, born on December 18, 1980, in Staten Island, New York, is an American pop singer and songwriter.

Aguilera was signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection" for the film Mulan. She came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera (1999), which was a commercial success. A Latin pop album, Mi Reflejo, and several collaborations followed which garnered Aguilera worldwide success, but she was displeased with the lack of input in her music and image.

After parting from her management, Aguilera took creative control over her second studio album Stripped (2002), which received mixed reviews and produced substantial sales. The overtly sexual image Aguilera displayed during the promotion of the album became the subject of intense criticism and ridicule. The second single, "Beautiful", was a commercial success and sustained the album's sales.

Aguilera's third studio album Back to Basics (2006) included elements of soul, jazz, and blues music, and was released to positive critical reception. Aside from being known for her vocal ability and ever-changing image, musically, she includes themes of dealing with public scrutiny, her childhood, and female empowerment. Aguilera's work has earned her numerous awards including five Grammy Awards amongst eighteen nominations. She has become one of the most successful recording artists of the decade, racking up sales of more than 37 million albums worldwide.

Aguilera is the daughter of Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army at the time and Shelly Loraine Fidler, a Spanish teacher. Aguilera's father is Ecuadorian born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, while her mother is of Irish descent (Christina's maternal grandmother emigrated from County Clare.) Her father, Fausto, was stationed at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada and Japan.

Aguilera lived with her father and mother until she was seven years old. When Aguilera's parents divorced, her mother took her, and her younger sister Rachel, to her grandmother's home in Rochester, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside of Pittsburgh. According to both Aguilera and Fidler, her father was very controlling, as well as physically and emotionally abusive. She later wrote about her difficult childhood in the songs "I'm OK" in Stripped, and "Oh Mother" in Back to Basics. Although her father has written to Aguilera, she has ruled out any chance to reunite with him. Since then, Fidler has married a paramedic named Jim Kearns, and changed her name. As a child, Aguilera aspired to be a singer. Her musical influences included Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, and Madonna.

Aguilera also cites the musical The Sound of Music and its lead actress, Julie Andrews as an early inspiration for singing and performing. As a child, she was known locally as "the little girl with the big voice," singing in local talent shows and competitions. According to VH1's Driven, whenever competitors learned they would be up against her in any given week, they would immediately withdraw, prompting insiders to claim it was "like sending a lamb to the slaughter." Her peers soon became jealous of her and would frequently subject her to ridicule, ostracism, and, in one gym class, attempted assault. Acts of vandalism around her house included the slashing of the tires on the family car. Eventually, the family relocated to another suburb in the Pittsburgh area (this time, Wexford) and took to secrecy about Aguilera's talent lest another backlash occur.

On March 15, 1990, Aguilera appeared on Star Search singing Etta James' "A Sunday Kind of Love," but lost the competition. Soon after losing on Star Search, she returned home and appeared on Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV's Wake Up with Larry Richert to perform the same song. People remarked that the then ten-year-old "sounded 20." Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games.

Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993 when Aguilera joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, and Keri Russell, the show lasted another year until its cancellation. According to the documentary Driven, Aguilera's co-stars called her "the Diva." One of her most notable performances was of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing." At the age of fourteen, Aguilera recorded her first song, "All I Wanna Do," a hit duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi. In 1997, she represented the United States at the "Golden Stag" International Festival with a two-song set which included Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross.