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Interview
by A. (Voyeuristic) Mahon
19-10-2002
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More on: Christina Aquilera
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| Christina Aguilera: a minimalist dressee |
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What sista wants
Dress (not), cheese and bees
Before you start pondering what is, first, Christina Aguilera doing onsite and then – in this channel – we have to assure all interested parties that’s we haven’t suddenly crossed over the fine line dividing (pretence not intended) a genius from a loony, it is all true. Young Aguilera has made an album that is so good to rival – forget Britney – Whitney, Mariah and, almost, Mary J Blige! You better believe it chaps, it is as real as the chaps she wears in the ‘Dirrty’ video-clip…
Arrested musical expression is what prints money and the industry is very adamant that artists continue recording songs that are already proved sellers. Christina Aguilera sold ten million copies on her own and many more of the mega-hit ‘Lady Marmalade’ she was part of with three other hardly-dressed babes, Pink, L’il Kim and Mya for the cover on the ‘Moulin Rouge’ soundtrack. All the success, fame, pampering, love of millions… If you reckon that would be enough for anybody then you overlook the fact that life is never an easy prescription, regardless of where you find find yourself in a food chain, because wealth only affords misery in more comfort.
The 21-year-old Aguilera had it all and yet she felt trapped by her pop profile, frustrated by being prevented to express her true personality and feelings, coached and controlled in her career, fashion dictated, life tailor-made to be less than enjoyable. Thus, the girl who scored worldwide hits with ‘Genie In A Bottle’ and ‘What A Girl Wants’, wasn’t having any of it and decided to take time-off before recording her second album that actually reinvents her. Very deeply personal and intimate disc it is.
“When your personal pain becomes material for songs and those songs become hit singles, the process is indescribably unnerving, however flattering it may appear at first,” Marianne Faithful observed in her eponymous ‘autobiography’.
‘Stripped’ is an album that presents us with a young, independent woman with attitude who is not afraid to flaunt it. To that end she invited a number of name-collaborators, such as Redman on her lead-off single ‘Dirrty’, Alicia Keys, Pink’s producer Linda Perry, L’il Kim, Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction guitarist)… There are also samples by her known detractors, Eminem and Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit), included on the disc. (Is this a display of her sense of humour as well as a hint of self-deprecation?)
How much things have changed in Aguilera’s reality is aptly demonstrated by the Pittsburgh-native’s video clip for ‘Dirrty’ that’s been banned in Thailand. Not only for its raunchy display of scantily clad Christina dancing explicitly in a boxing ring but because of a wall with posters in Thai that read, ‘Thailand’s sex tourism’ and Young underage girls’. This could have never happened to the ‘pop-ette’ of yore.
But, the main reason why the album has such potent emo-content is Agulera’s split with her boyfriend of three years, Jorgi Santos. That split, together with a heartbreaking song to her father, ‘I’m Okay’, and her dealing with years of rumours, fabrications and inventions of her rivalry with Britney Spears, posing naked for ‘Playboy’, dating Justin Timberlake and bitchin’ diva-behaviour, are other subjects she tackles on ‘Stripped’.
When she introduces herself on the opening/title-track, she sings “Sorry if I don’t fake it/No hype, no gloss, no pretence/just me/stripped’; in the Interval named ‘Stripped Pt. 2’ we get ‘Sorry I’m not a diva/Sorry I’m not a Virgin…’ This is Christina’s side of the story! And she means it: I can assure you that her handshake is as firm as her attitude and rhythms.
But, can you take a woman who dresses like her – seriously? Aguilera belongs to that rare group of, ED-practitioners, like the divine Liz Hurley: the Event-Dressing or, in other words, an Excuse-of-a-Dress. But then, “The amount of pressure I’m under to look good and to be an object of desire is really sickening,” Alicia Keys remarks.
A cynical (Finnish) colleague wondered, with all the minimising of stars’ dresses, who’s is gonna be the first to appear with nothing top-wise, Britters or Aguilera. Is it going to sink that low? Erm, probably...
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A week later, we hear about regrets over ‘Dirrty’ video-clip. The director of Christina Aguilera’s new video has said he had no idea that two posters featured in the clip would be offensive to Thailand. Acclaimed photographer, David LaChapelle said he “sincerely regrets” the insult which has led to Aguilera’s video being banned from local Thai television.
The raunchy video shows a scantily clad Christina dancing explicitly in a boxing ring, next to a wall with posters in Thai that read, ‘Thailand’s sex tourism’ and ‘Young underage girls’.
LaChapelle said in a statement: “I had absolutely no knowledge that this poster contained such offensive words, and I sincerely regret the insult. Thailand is a beautiful country with a long cultural history that I truly respect. I would never intentionally do anything to insult the people of Thailand. Please accept my deepest apologies.”
Last week, acting director for the government’s Commission on Contemporary Arts Office, Preecha Kantiya, said that local and foreign businessmen are more interested in profit than in presenting a genuine image of Thailand. He told the Nation newspaper they preferred to use Thailand’s seedier side to serve their business goals.
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Other bits that Aguilera’s life and times maketh:
Riders: Aguilera’s backstage demands cause no end of trouble and apparently include one pack of Soya Kass soy cheese (full-fat mozarella or Cheddar) and one cheese platter with Cheddar, Jack, Gouda and Swiss. Is she a fondue fan?
Etta James: “I was planning to record an Etta James’s song for my album, ‘I Prefer You’, but we ended up having too many tracks. And, you know, I do perform ‘At Last’, one of my favourite Etta James songs, my favourite probably, in my live show, so… I’m a huge fan, yeah…”
Heroine: “My favourite artist, my idol is Madonna…” (Who, accidentally, wore chaps some years ago.)
Dogs (two Papillions, gift from Santos) Stinky and Chewy: “Right now my mum is taking care of my dogs. I went back home for a second before I started out and I left them with her. They usually travel with me all over America and that’s why they had to be small. But, when I’m on another continent, I can’t take them and they really miss me and when I get back, they are mad at me for leaving them behind.”
Pink: Christina Aguilera counts Pink among her closest friends – going as far as to snog the Hispanic hussy during a game of spin-the-bottle, triggering a groundless gossip explosion that they were bisexual lovers.
That was when she was not dragged along to the strippers’ convention masquerading as a pop song – CA was one quarter of singers-turn-slappers, alongside Pink, Maya and L’il Kim, for ‘Moulin Rouge’ soundtrack sideshow.
Britney: How it all started; both appeared on American TV’s Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s, kick-starting a lifetime of professional rivalry. In May, Christina refused to be photographed with Britney outside an LA nightclub, saying, “I don’t want to be in the same picture as that teenybopper trash.”
She’s also said of her music: “Is Britney being true to herself? I doubt it. My songs are as good, if not better.”
In latest round CA demonstrated that there is not way to stop her because she upped the onslaught by enjoying nights out with BS’ beloved ex, Justin Timberlake, that she’d categorically denied ever since.
Kelly O: A month before the half-dressed harlot’s released her single ‘Dirrty’ , tabloids and gossip mags were already sneering at the video in which Aguilera – surprise, surprise – is dressed like an Amsterdam hooker who is into bikes. There is some strange spillage going on as well…
Even the delightfully outspoken Kelly Osbourne has waded in to have a go. “She looks like a drag queen,” begins KO, without fear of contradiction. “She has an amazing voice but that doesn’t change
the fact she’s one of the most disgusting human beings in the world.” Isn’t this a double standard? Kelly is complaining about – exposure? Or she envies that lithe bod?
A. (Voyeuristic) Mahon
19-10-2002
‘Dirrty’ is released 11 November on BMG
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