I would like to go back to my teenage years. It was terrible then but it was somehow interesting terrible. Jokes aside, I actually want to go back to that period when I had my favorite diva. When you are a gay teenager growing up in a conservative country, you need armor to protect you from the outside world. Mine was Christina Aguilera. Whenever I hear her powerhouse vocal, I admit that I still love her. You know you grew up when you realize there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. If it’s pleasure, it’s pleasure. Let’s call spider a spider. Let’s call diva a diva.
The initiation of Christina Aguilera into my favorite music diva began with her empowering Stripped album back in 2002. Yes, it was her dirty era but when you dig dipper, you realize this is one of the best and the most meaningful pop albums of all time. What I got from it was listening to the stories of a woman who has been through a lot: abusive childhood, body issues, growing pains, identity problems, female issues, etc. At that time, it didn’t matter to me If it was fake. I believed her every single word. I used Stripped as my mandala. I am pretty sure there is not one person reading this who does not agree that the song Beautiful has one of the most positive messages in the history of music. You are beautiful no matter what they say, words can’t bring you down. OK, now I am getting really protective of my Xtina. My favorite track from Stripped was The Voice Within because of the lyrics When there’s no one else, look inside yourself, like your oldest friend just trust the voice within.
Back to Basics was the second and the last album from her that I adored. It makes me sad that she didn’t stick to this pop-jazz style because it does justice to her astonishing vocal abilities. There are a plenty songs here that are high-quality pieces of mature pop music– Hurt, Enter The Circus, Without You, Makes Me Wanna Pray, On Our Way, Mercy on Me. Since this was Christina’s classy era, I was obsessed with her old Hollywood glamour looks. I remember stalking her on dumb websites such as x17online and watching all of her performances on my very slow Eastern European internet.
What I really appreciate about Miss Aguilera is her ability to be a white trash and diva at the same time. She might be trying too hard to be eccentric sometimes, but that voice is everything.
Diva would not be a diva If she didn’t fail in the eyes of the world. Still, your own diva never fails you. I will always be grateful to Christina Aguilera for being there for me in my pathetic emo years. And I will always be on her team. It’s Xtina, bitch!
