Christina Aguilera, an icon, gave her audience everything they wanted during her career spanning over 20 years. She performed all of her iconic bangers, filled the set with numerous costume changes, and knew how to captivate the crowd. In early August, she invited Olly Alexander, the lead singer of Years & Years, to join her on stage at the packed O2 Arena in London, telling him that he is an “icon.”
In the UK, it is still reluctant to embrace English sung in music, but three short nods were felt important for Christina Aguilera’s album. In the middle of her set, she performed a medley of her entirely new Spanish-sung songs, almost masking the glitz of her 2000s anthems. However, at some point, she sang ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Marmalade’ in a bottle, like a genie’s ‘There’s. Let’s be honest, when it was released in 2002, it prompted a sexual awakening for many prepubescent kids like us – it was a career-defining, exploration journey through pop that lasted for 80 minutes with her anthem ‘Dirrty’.
Ecuadorian-American musician Christina Aguilera has formed a show to showcase her power and success in the pop genre, using the explosive art recognition from the region. She has collaborated with some of the most exciting young women artists from South America, such as Nicole Nicki, TINI Peluso, and Nathy. Her music spans traditional Mexican folk style, even incorporating hints of ranchera and trap, as well as reggaeton and Latin pop influences. Earlier in the year, she teased the release of her first Spanish-language album, which is formed from the two EPs, Tormenta La and Fuerza La, that she released in the previous 22 years.
“In AGUILERA, she’s playing with genre and using her success and power after more than two decades in pop to show what has formed her identity as a musician, and also as an Ecuadorian-American”
In the context of her early career – her 2000s Spanish-speaking hits have been mentioned as a fundamental influence of many of the young Latin American artists she is currently collaborating with, today’s suggestions that Aguilera is joining a “Latin music” trend feels particularly unjust. Because the name “Aguilera” was deemed “too cultural”, she released a completely Spanish-language album, Mi Reflejo in 2000, only years after industry executives suggested that she should change her last name to ‘Agee’. Christina, who was born to an Irish-American mother and Ecuadorian father in New York, has always advocated for her heritage.
AGUILERA, who is now a mother, expressed her desire to sing in Spanish as a way to hear and bond with her children. Despite the pressure from the industry to conform, she remained true to herself and used this opportunity to reconnect with her cultural heritage. She shared this personal journey with the audience at the O2.
Has Christina’s career been reinvented? There is no doubt that she has been pushed into corners by an industry that historically failed women. She rose to fame during one of the harshest periods for queer and pop women, being judged and shamed for their talent, behaviors, and looks. Women in the 1990s were deemed too fat, too skinny, too frigid, and too slutty. The question of being ‘Latina enough’ has also come into play. If you can’t fluently speak the language, can you truly identify as a Latina? Although Christina was criticized for not sounding or looking Latina, she seems to have moved past this, while Black Latin communities continue to face ruthless discrimination for not fitting into a single homogeneous image of what ‘Latin identity’ is.
“Christina’s career has been one of reinvention, no doubt pushed into corners by an industry that has historically failed women”
To truly explore the diverse experiences and identities within the Latin American region, one must go beyond the confines of their own home region and strip away the layers of identity. It is important to ask questions that help us connect with our heritage.
In the past, Christina has been accused of cultural appropriation, particularly in reference to her music videos from 2003. It’s worth noting that amidst all this, Pimienta Lido, a Canadian-Colombian Afro-Indigenous musician, has fought painstakingly for more inclusive representation of Indigenous and Black artists in Latin music. Ariana DeBose, an Oscar-winning Latina Black actor, spoke out against casting directors who engage in “ambiguous” ethnically casting roles.
I was the other, not the one thing that mattered too much; I never felt enough to identify as a Latinx woman who holds onto her heritage. Speaking English was not something I could avoid, as it was necessary to fit in. Many of us, born to Latin parents in diaspora communities, were not allowed to embrace our differences. Whenever I speak Spanish, the obvious traces of my English accent and my lack of fluency in Spanish have always made me feel ashamed, especially as a Chilean-British woman. All of this plays into the insecurities and complexities of what it means to straddle cultures and borders.
“During a press conference earlier this year, Christina stated, ‘I’m a woman who has grown and had an incredible career for 20 years, which means I have had to be adaptable to many different things and many different people. She emphasized how proud she is of where she comes from and how she has always been held accountable to toxic standards in the industry, which often punishes queer artists and women. Christina, who is now in her 41st year of life, has spent more than half of her life in this industry. She felt that it was especially important to talk about the significance of exploring crucial musical genres from the Latin American region and the value of singing in her second language in this album.'”
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