- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: CHRISTINA AGUILERA TALKS ABOUT HER LATEST ALBUM "STRIPPED"
- Date: 10th October 2002
- Summary: LONDON, UK (OCTOBER 10, 2002 ) (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRISTINA AGUILERA SAYING "You know I'm very comfortable with what I wear and I love being different, I would feel extremely uncomfortable being conservative and always covered up, expecially for being young, you know you go to any school or any place and you know kids aren't all covered up all the time, a
- Embargoed: 25th October 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Entertainment,General
- Reuters ID: LVACNQK1NEOTKNCOH8B1OOJ1PIXE
- Story Text: Christina Aguilera is back and hotter than ever with a
new album, which shows her development as an artist since her
arrival on the scene four years ago aged just seventeen. Now -
at the grand old age of 21 - Aguilera claims this album,
"Stripped" shows her more mature side.
Christina Aguilera first romped to the world's
attention with the smash hit Genie in a Bottle - rivaling
Britney's crown as teen queen. Several huge hits later and it
was time to take a step back - get off the corporate treadmill
and think about where she wanted to head with her musical
career. The result is "Stripped" an album with a much more
individual and varied sound than Aguilera's previous work.
"It is an extremely personal album having been that
I wrote, co-wrote, I prduce, I'm an executive producer on this
record, I'm so proud of it, it's like my baby because I didn't
have any apprehensions or any you know hesitations of just
being out there with my past and what I've gone through.
Especially, I'm not sure if you've read the song 'I'm OK'
about my father, that's an extremely personal song where I'm
almost, I'm literally crying on the record, so it was almost
like therapy in a way to record this record because it was so
personal and it was hard to record at times literally. But I'm
really really proud of it and 'Dirty' is also like, that's
just more of a, I definitely had a vision of what I wanted to
come out with and I wanted to come out with a harder beat,
something more explosive. And I listened to a lot of hip hop
and I just felt that, most comfortable coming out with one of
those kind of beats, I went to Rockwilder for that particular
beat because he had done a song with Redman called 'Let's Get
Dirty' that I loved so much and he did a beat for me similar,
I said I wanted something similar, and I slept on that track
for a while - on this one 'Dirty'.
The first single, Christina says, is not really
representative of the rest of the material on the album, but
for her was an obvious choice for her to launch it. The
no-holds barred video will certainly attract attention and
will do nothing to diminish her sexy image.
"I mean Genie in a Bottle got misinterpretation, you
know no matter what you say, no matter what you do people are
always going to misinterpret things. But I mean I'm not afraid
to say that 'Dirty' - I'll come right out and not hide
anything - it is a pretty sexual video, sexual pieces in it in
parts, but it's very strong and I didn't want to be so girly
and feminine and you know whatever in it because that's not
really me anyway, I have to have some raw energy or edge to it
and that's where the boxing kind of came in. Our whole idea of
working with David LaChapelle, who I'm a huge fan of his
photography - this is my first opportunity to work with him -
I was very excited. He had some crazy ideas and combined it
with my vision, I didn't want him to make it too glossy or
pretty either, I wanted it to be kind of gritty, a little
dirty, I mean to go along with the song. We were filthy by the
time, I mean we'd dirty up our clothes, we kind of rented out
a basement - we wanted it to have almost this underground, not
really club, but club-as, kind of like party where everybody
can come together and have a good time and just be crazy you
know."
For the first time, Aguilera has taken control of what
she is doing musically, and the resulting album not only
showcases her fabulous voice, but also her songwriting skills.
She has also collaborated with a wide range of artists from
Redman and Rockwilder to producer Scott Storch and current
industry darling, Alicia Keys.
"It's been really nice, I made the record 'Stripped'
just for that very reason, I was able to - I just got to a
point where I just couldn't do it anymore, I'm not great at
faking my way through trying to live up to a perfect kind of
virginal American sweetheart kind of thing, I just have to be
me, whatever that is, if it you know disagrees with people's
opinions or whatever you know. I just have to do my thing and
that's why I just got to a point where I couldn't do it
anymore and I just stripped every layer of all that overly
popped-out stuff down to just the bare me, and that's whay I
really called it Stripped, no matter how many people think are
going to think that's a sexual connotation or not - especially
coming after 'Dirty' - is a misrepresentation of the record.
But it's cool, I;m excited you know, and it is a change but
like who doesn't grow between the ages of such and such. And I
think some of my younger fans are older now and music has even
changed since then, you know a lot of songs out there like, I
don't know, you take Nelly's 'Hot In Here', that's a huge hit
and it's like, you can't please everyone at the same time and
I would be disappointing other fans who would be disappointed
if I stuck with the same thing and didn't move on."
If the music has grown up - the image certainly has.
Christina has always dressed to impress, but has often been
criticised for her dress sense - she, however is confident in
her look.
"You know I'm very comfortable with what I wear and I
love being different, I would feel extremely uncomfortable
being conservative and always covered up, expecially for being
young, you know you go to any school or any place and you know
kids aren't all covered up all the time, and I'm not going to
dress like this forever, and I like to be edgy, I like to be
different, I hat you know people that almost conform to what
society or what the majority of people want, I'm a little bit
of a rebel like that I guess you could say, but you know I'm
very comfortable with what I wear and you just have to ignore
that stuff and I think a lot of it also - I don't know I feel
like some of it is also playing favourites sometimes, no
matter what they wear because, I don't know I would just feel
very uncomfortable becuase you look at a lot of those 'Best
Dressed' sections because I've looked at it all, it's like the
whole first three pages ar all ballgowns, you know, and it's
like I'm not always going to show up at an event in a ballgown
you know, so that's kind of crazy, but I'm cool with what I'm
doing and you know, just looking at one of my favourites-
Madonna had to go through it all her life - ok she did it, I'm
going to do it too."
Singing from an early age, Aguilera had her first taste
of showbiz with the Mickey Mouse Club - as did Britney Spears
and Justin Timberlake. Despite the perils that a young talent
in the music business can face, she feels the rewards are
worth it.
"I got into this business because I love to sing and I'm
a lover of performing and music, you know I live for it, I
live for music. It was almost disappointing in way that,
seeing everytihng firsthand, it almost took away a little bit
from - I realise the music almost comes last sometimes and
that's really sad to me and you know hopefully that will help
change that. But I would love to see more real singers and
whatnot out there and there's more true talent put together,
it's easy to call yourself and artist but to really be one I
think that really says something else but you know, there's a
lot of misconceptions but you know I'm just trying to do my
thing and keep away from any negativity and whatnot. A lot of
it's really mean-spirited too I think at times, you know the
press can be - and that's kind of sad but you know, all that
aside, you just try to ignore any rumours or anything that's
untrue and keep on going with what you're doing."
At the international launch of Stripped, Aguilera also
had to put paid to rumours of her involvement with Britney's
ex.
"Oh I can so clarify that we're definitely not going out!
Definitely not! What? Anymore? No, never was. No, it's not my
thing, we see each other occasionally but definitely nothing
there."
Christina will be performing at the MTV Europe Music
Awards in Barcelona in November.
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