Surveying the musical landscape you can't help wondering where all the pop stars have gone.There was a time you couldn't open a gossip magazine without being confronted with stories of Britney going gaga, Robbie Williams saying something bonkers about UFOs, or Mariah Carey throwing a strop because she'd been asked to take the stairs.
Today, we have to make do with Lady GaGa - surely the musical equivalent of sagging breast implants -- recycling her 'look at me kids, I'm ker-azy' act and Cheryl Cole dabbing her eyes on the way home from a movie premiere. Or, on a slow news day, Lindsay Lohan showing us her knickers.
Proper pop stars -- with decent songs and lightning bolt charisma -- are about as regular a sight as a crane on the Dublin skyline.
Let's clink champagne flutes together, then, in celebration of the imminent return of Christina Aguilera who, unlike bitter rival Britney, has weathered overnight fame and the pressure of growing up in public extraordinarily well.
Rolling out her slinky new cyber-babe persona, comeback single 'Not Myself Tonight' finds Xtina going all Bad Romance on us -- though, unlike Ms GaGa you get the impression that her ultimate goal isn't to have the moral majority foaming at the lips with indignation.
Speaking ahead of the release of the single today (an album, Bionic, follows in June) Christina revealed that, in addition to having her first child and dabbling in acting, she's spent recent years immersed in hip electronic artists such as Ladytron, M.I.A., Sia and Goldfrapp.
She was such a fan of all of those musicians, she roped them in to produce the new album.
"I was inspired by a lot of electronic music, electronic artists, and so you'll hear all those elements," she said. "(There are) different textures and things with my voice that I was really playing around with and having fun with on this record that I never even knew I could do, vocally."
She added: "So many collaborations: M.I.A., Santigold. I loved working on this record. It's my favourite to date. "I'm exploring a lot of different sides of myself. The first single sort of feels like a multi-personality sort of thing to me."
She is also about to make her onscreen debut, alongside Cher and Kristen Bell in rags to riches musical Burlesque.
Aguilera, is plunging in at the deep end: in Burlesque her character 'Ali' escapes a nightmare childhood, much as Aguilera herself did when she and her mother fled her physically and emotionally abusive father. "The girl I play has a rough past. Her mother dies when she's very young and she's been in foster homes. I could relate to that pain, growing up in an abusive household," she explained.
"That gave me great motivation to provoke my tears for the scenes where I had to really pour it on. I felt it deeply, to go through a lot of those things that brought up a lot of painful memories."
Admittedly, just a few years ago, the thought of holding Christina Aguilera up as a pop role-model would have seemed absurd. Remember the, ahem, "assless chaps", or the way she seemed unable to leave the house without baring an entire Pirelli-calendar worth of flesh?
Ironically for someone who wore so little, her sartorial sins saw her feature regularly in the annual 'worst dressed' persons lists, though the way she tells it, this was entirely on purpose.
Indeed, when People magazine finally omitted her from its annual countdown of the terribly turned out, she feigned indignation.
"I was actually disappointed that I didn't make this year's Worst-Dressed list in People magazine," she said. "Those are the people that go out there and make a statement. "
When not showing the world her midriff, Christina devoted a fair chunk of the decade to embroiling herself in feuds. Famously, she and Britney never got on, even when appearing together as 10-year-olds on Disney's The New Mickey Mouse Club (Christina's nickname among other "Mouseketeers" was rumoured to be 'diva').
In addition, P!nk was reputed to dislike Christina so much she declined to co-host an awards ceremony with her.
Answering questions about her alleged mean streak, Christina was refreshingly honest.
"I could take somebody in a real fight. I do box. I get feisty sometimes, especially when I am out and have a little bit to drink," she said. "I'll confront somebody if they try to be up in my face or talk about me."
Not everybody, it should be pointed out, goes along with the notion that Aguilera's an uber-bitch. Certainly those who worked with her on Bionic -- incredibly only the fourth LP of her career -- were nothing if not complimentary.
"She wasn't guarded at all. Very relaxed," said Alison Goldfrapp of their hook-up in Los Angeles last year.
"We have met a few lady pop stars and, you know, they can be quite guarded in the way they present themselves. And she wasn't like that."
Teddy bear or diva, one thing is indisputable. It's good to have her back.
- Ed Power
Irish Independent
Source: IrishIndependent
Credits: SweetGal
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