Happy Birthday Christina Aguilera
American pop singer Christina Aguilera spun a late-'90s breakthrough into an evolving and genre-hopping career that focused on uplifting ballads and sexually liberated anthems delivered with her iconic voice. A leader in the parade of Mickey Mouse Club veterans who stormed pop music at the turn of the millennium, Christina Aguilera was the brassy diva of the bunch -- the Rolling Stones to Britney Spears' Beatles, as it were. Initially, it was difficult to see Christina outside of the prism of Britney, whose 1999 success launched the new millennium's teen pop boom, but Christina's big hits of 1999 -- "Genie in a Bottle," "What a Girl Wants," "Come on Over" -- more than held their own with "...Baby One More Time," while revealing a vocalist with considerably more power and range than her erstwhile rival. Soon, Aguilera distanced herself from the rest of the pack, beginning with her carnal sophomore set, Stripped, a heavy R&B album from 2002 that found its greatest success with the ballad "Beautiful." Christina may have emphasized her sexual side with Stripped singles like "Dirrtty," but by the time of 2006's Back to Basics, it was clear that Aguilera was the most musically ambitious, and reliable, pop diva of the boom.
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