Here is the biography of Christina Aguilera:
Before her twenty-first birthday, Christina Aguilera claimed
multiple platinum records, three Grammy Awards, and record sales well over
twenty million copies. A former child actor on the Disney series The New
Mickey Mouse Club, Aguilera made her first recording as a fourteen-year-old
on a duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi. While the song was successful in
Japan, Aguilera returned to the life of a high school student in Pennsylvania
before gaining a recording contract with RCA Records in 1998. Her first single,
"Genie in a Bottle," sold over two million copies in 1999 and its
Spanish-language version, "Genio Atrapado," helped Aguilera become a rare
crossover success from the pop mainstream to the Latino market. Her first album,
Christina Aguilera, was also an immediate hit and eventually sold over
eight million copies in the United States alone. Capping off an astounding
debut, Aguilera took home the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1999, beating
out competition that included her former Mickey Mouse Club cast mate
Britney Spears.
Christina Maria Aguilera was born on December 18, 1980 in Staten Island, New
York. Her father, Fausto Aguilera, was born in Ecuador but had immigrated to the
United States and pursued a career in the military. Her mother, the former
Shelly Fidler, was a talented violinist who toured with the Youth Symphony
Orchestra as a teenager. During her early years, the Aguilera family followed
her father's assignments to Florida, Texas, New Jersey, and Japan. After having
another daughter, Rachel, the Aguileras separated around 1986. The following
year, Shelly Aguilera moved with her daughters back to her hometown of Wexford,
a suburb northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After her mother remarried,
Aguilera's family included siblings Casey, Robert Michael, and Stephanie. For
several years after the divorce, Aguilera had very little contact with her
father.
While growing up in Wexford, Aguilera began entering talent contests; with a
voice that was unusually mature for her age, she usually won first prize. In
1988 she entered a regional talent audition for the syndicated show hosted by Ed
McMahon, Star Search. Aguilera made it through the audition with a
rendition of "The Greatest Love of All," which she performed on the show.
Although she failed to win in her appearance on Star Search, the
experience helped Aguilera build confidence in her performing abilities. For the
next couple of years she was a regular performer of "The Star-Spangled Banner"
before games of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and Pittsburgh Penguins
hockey team.
Aguilera's next big break came in 1990 when auditions for the cast of The New
Mickey Mouse Club were announced. The show was a popular series on the
Disney Network and included such future adult stars as Kerri Russell and Britney
Spears, as well as Justin Timberlake and J. C. Chasez of N'Sync. In her initial
audition, producers of the show judged Aguilera to be too young for the series;
two years later, however, they called her to join the cast. Aguilera traveled to
Orlando, Florida, with her mother to join the cast during her summer break from
school in 1993. She returned the following year to complete what turned out to
be the final year of The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1994.
While her two years on The New Mickey Mouse Club provided Aguilera with
invaluable acting, dancing, and singing experience, it caused turmoil when she
returned to school. After a number of incidents spurred on by classmates jealous
of her new fame, Aguilera was forced to transfer to a new junior high school in
Pittsburgh. She experienced similar problems during high school and was relieved
when she was able to complete her secondary education with a tutor while
recording her debut album, Christina Aguilera, in 1998.
After her stint on The New Mickey Mouse Club, Aguilera's agent secured an
unusual opportunity for the young singer. Keizo Nakanishi, a Japanese singer,
was looking for a duet partner to sing on his release "All I Wanna Do." After
submitting an audition tape, Aguilera was chosen for the assignment. She
recorded her part of the song in a Pittsburgh studio; it was then mixed in with
the final recording. The making of the video brought Aguilera to Japan, and she
subsequently joined Nakanishi on tour to perform their song in concert. After
returning to the United States in 1997, Aguilera worked on a demo tape to help
her find a recording contract. Her Disney ties came in handy when the producers
of the soundtrack for the studio's Mulan were looking for someone to
record a pop version of the film's key song, "Reflection." Aguilera got the job
and a recording contract with RCA records in early 1998.
Released as a single in the summer of 1998, "Reflection" became a modest hit on
the adult contemporary chart. After completing some promotional appearances for
the song, Aguilera entered a Los Angeles recording studio to make her debut
album, Christina Aguilera. With a team of veteran songwriters and
producers behind it, the album was a sophisticated yet accessible collection of
songs that highlighted the power and range of Aguilera's voice. The first single
from the album, "Genie in a Bottle," was released in the summer of 1999 and
quickly went to number one, selling over two million copies in the process. The
album itself debuted at number one on the Billboard chart and eventually
sold over eight million copies, another remarkable feat for a new act. Two other
singles from the album, "What a Girl Wants" and "Come On Over Baby," also hit
the top of the charts in 2000.
Like teen singer Britney Spears, Aguilera endured some criticism as her records
sold in the millions. While reviewers acknowledged her impressive vocal
abilities—especially in comparison to Spears—images of the sexually provocative
teenagers made others question the appropriateness of their videos. The protests
peaked around Aguilera's appearance in the video for the 'Lady Marmalade' track
for the movie Moulin Rouge in 2001. Aguilera countered the criticism head
on; as she told Allure in a May of 2002 interview, "Everybody said,
'Don't do "Lady Marmalade," it's too urban for you!' But I wanted to do it. The
girls [Pink, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Missy Elliott] were great to work with—it was
like, 'Let's play dress-up for a day!' If you're doing a video for a movie like
Moulin Rouge—I mean, it's about a whorehouse—you have to get up there in
some fun costumes. I love taking chances."
At the 1999 Grammy Awards Aguilera pulled an upset win over Britney Spears to
claim the award for Best New Artist. Her album had only been out a few months at
the time of the award, and most expected Spears to walk away with the Grammy.
Aguilera herself appeared shocked at getting such recognition just months after
her album's release. The following year she claimed her second Grammy Award—this
time from the Latin Recording Academy—for her Spanish-language release, Mi
Reflejo. Although she had to record the album phonetically because she did
not speak Spanish, Aguilera looked at the experience as a chance to reconnect
with her father's side of the family. The album was a major success and sold
over three million copies in the year after its 2000 release. That year Aguilera
released another platinum-selling album, My Kind of Christmas, a
collection of holiday standards.
After touring with the Lilith Fair and as the opening act for TLC in 1999,
Aguilera headlined her own tour with opening act Destiny's Child in 2000. She
went back into the recording studio late that year to record a duet with Ricky
Martin, "Nobody Wants To Be Lonely." Aguilera's attorneys were also making court
appearances on her behalf to prevent the release of demo recordings that she had
made several years earlier. Her court battle was unsuccessful, and Warlock
Records released "Just Be Free" in 2001 over Aguilera's objections.
Aguilera won her third Grammy Award at the 2002 ceremonies for Best Pop
Collaboration with Vocals for "Lady Marmalade." In 2002 she also put the final
touches on her second album of original material, Stripped, with help of
producer Linda Perry. Aguilera told Time in a special fall of 2001
edition that the album would be much more emotional and aggressive than her
first. "For me, in my heart, I have to move away from [teen pop]," she said.
"Even if the label said I had to make another record like that, I don't think I
could. Getting older, you just don't want to sing fluffy. You just have more
things to say about real life and real people and the bitterness that you get
from people."
Source: Contemporary Hispanic Biography