Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer, songwriter and record producer. She 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 critical and commercial success. A Latin pop album Mi Reflejo, and a Christmas album, My Kind of Christmas, followed during this period and also sold very well.

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.

Aguilera's third studio album Back to Basics (2006) included elements of soul, jazz, and blues music. Mainly produced by DJ Premier, it was released to strong sales and positive critical reception. Aguilera's work has earned her numerous awards including five Grammy Awards amongst sixteen nominations. She has sold 30 million albums worldwide.

Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York, to Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army at the time and Shelly Loraine Fidler, a Spanish teacher. Aguilera's father was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, while her mother is of Irish descent (her 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 Wexford, Pennsylvania, a blue-collar 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 has changed her name to Shelly Kearns.

As a child, Aguilera aspired to be a singer. Her musical influences included Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, and Madonna. She also cites the musical The Sound of Music 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 and took to secrecy about Aguilera's talent lest another backlash occur.

On March 15, 1990, she 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 she joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Rhona Bennett (who later became a member of En Vogue), Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Keri Russell. According to the documentary Driven, Aguilera's Mickey Mouse Club co-stars called her "the Diva". One of her most notable performances was of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing". When the show was canceled 1994, Aguilera began recording demos in an attempt to get signed to a record label.

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.

In 2000, Aguilera was rumored to have dated MTV VJ Carson Daly. The relationship was the subject of much discussion after the release of Eminem's song "The Real Slim Shady", in which Eminem satirically suggests that Aguilera had performed fellatio on both Daly and Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit, and had given the rapper himself a venereal disease. Aguilera called the song's innuendo "disgusting" and "untrue." Aguilera and Eminem reportedly resolved the issue three years later backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards.

She dated Puerto Rican-born dancer Jorge Santos for two years until the relationship ended in September 2001.

In early 2002, Aguilera began dating music marketing executive Jordan Bratman. Their engagement was announced in February 2005, and they married on November 19, 2005, in the Napa Valley. The couple celebrated their one year anniversary in Dublin, Ireland where she was on tour at the time. E! News reported that they are expecting their first child together.

In March 2007, producer Dallas Austin alleged in a video interview with SOHO Magazine that Aguilera had sex with him and several of his friends. He also alleged details about Bratman, who Dallas referred to as his old best friend. Several days following the incident, Dallas issued an apology stating, "My statement about Christina Aguilera was a reaction to an incident I care not to discuss in any forum - I do owe an apology to Christina." Aguilera's rep responded with, "She's not commenting on such ridiculous statements, and we are consulting a lawyer to explore her options."

On September 9, 2007, Paris Hilton confirmed that the singer is currently pregnant, saying, "Congratulations to the most beautiful pregnant woman in the world." Aguilera, however, had not yet publicly confirmed her pregnancy at the time, though she was spotted picking out items for her baby registry at a West Hollywood baby boutique on October 6, 2007, where she told the staff that she was pregnant, as well as the sex of the baby, but asked them to keep it private.

In November 2007, Aguilera officially confirmed her pregnancy in an interview with Glamour magazine by saying "That'll be about the time I enter into mommyhood, so... I'm hoping to have started a beautiful family with my husband!." She said about her husband's feeling on the pregnancy, "Oh, he's thrilled! He's just great." Although not officially confirming the baby's gender, her baby shower included blue-themed gifts and decorations which were spotted at her Beverly Hills home.