What A Girl Wants By: Aaron Beck

Pop singer Christina Aguilera released a self-titled album last year that made her and her record company rich. More than 8 million people own a copy of the disc, which has spawned two No. 1 singles: Genie in a Bottle and What a Girl Wants. For a performer as commercially successful as the 1999 winner of the Grammy Award for best new artist, what could be sweeter than an afternoon full of 10-minute chats with reporters? Such strangers phone from all over the world to find out, say, just what she felt as a 12-year-old on the set of The New Mickey Mouse Club. When her road manager, Ki-ki, turned over another call one day last week, Aguilera had already given eight or nine "interviews." Q: Are you sick of being interviewed today? A: I'm all right. Q: What are you really sick of talking about? A: I don't know. I just got asked some pretty crazy questions from someone in Nashville. Oh, man, they asked me: "Do you consider Florida a part of the South? Who's your favorite Grand Ole Opry singer? Do you want to hang out with Al Gore or George Bush? If you were on Survivor, would you be kicked off the island?" Crazy stuff, you know? Q: How is your tour going? A: It's going so great. I'm really having a blast headlining my first tour. I've dreamed of it my whole life. Q: You're 19. You haven't really waited that long. A: Oh, yeah, practically since I was out of diapers I've been wanting to sing. It has been a lifelong dream. Q: Fair enough. You have a full band with you on tour, right? A: Yes, my whole band and "pyro" and dancers -- a big old stage show. Q: How long do you and that dancing army have to rehearse to pull it off? A: My choreographer, who is amazing, . . . gives me a good balance because, of course, the vocals are a huge part of the show. It's important to me as a vocalist. So we have to have the right amount of dancing and singing. My dancers were in preparation for about a month. I came in a few weeks later; I wish I had more time. I've been in the studio along with headlining the tour, trying to finish up this Latin record, along with a Christmas record. Q: Latin and Christmas records? A: I'm very excited about covering some new ground, totally seeing a completely different side of me you haven't seen before. Q: Do you have new songs on the Latin record? A: Yes. . . . I'm influenced by blues and R&B, but, then again, I'm half-Latin, so we did explore some new ground. If you could take the Latin of a Marc Anthony track and combine it with the R&B flavor of a Destiny's Child track, that's what this would be. Q: And the Christmas album? A: That album allowed me to explore myself vocally. I was 17 when I started to record my debut album (Christina Aguilera). I've really, definitely grown and learned a lot within the last couple of years. Q: What do you sing on the Christmas album? A: We're covering some classics: Silent Night, O Holy Night, Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, classics like that. And we also brought in a few new songs that we're doing with new producers. The whole thing has a young and mature flavor. Q: In concert, just what do you consider the right amount of singing and dancing? A: We start with a mysterious Arabian vibe, opening with Genie in a Bottle, sort of rocking it out. I'm pretty much doing choreography throughout the whole number nonstop. Then we go into a softer number, like Somebody Somebody; that's a midtempo number where I work the stage just getting hands in the air and whatnot. It's just to give me a break from dancing full out and to give me a chance to do more vocals. Q: How does a person do aerobics and sing simultaneously? A: It's tough. Oh, yesterday we were in Kansas City, and, oh, the humidity! I'm not a big sweater, either. I was dripping with sweat. Q: When you go to a fair, what do you like to eat? A: I go right to the caramel apples. Oh, my gosh, I love those. I go for the cheeseburgers and fries or hot dogs, if I'm hungry. I'm a total meat-and-potatoes girl. Q: What don't you miss about The Mickey Mouse Club? A: I've never been asked that. It's usually "What did you love about it?" I was 12 and 13 at that time. It's an awkward age: You're changing. . . . I was trying to get comfortable with the changes and stuff. Me and Britney (Spears) were the youngest, so she was like 11; I was like 12. It ranged from us to people who were like 18. We would always look up to Keri Russell (Felicity) because she was like 16. She had the car; she had the boyfriend. She was more developed. We totally looked up to her as what we wanted to be. Now, of course, that's changed, but at that age, the youngest, you wanted to be older. Aside from that, I had a really great time doing that show. It was a really great growing experience for me to be on a show that had so many people who had dreams like I did. I had a hard time at school because a lot of kids didn't share my dream of becoming a recording artist or superstar one day. . . . I wanted to make a record and sing for thousands and whatnot. Q: Does seeing yourself undress on the cover of Rolling Stone freak you out? A: It's kind of freaky, yes. I always thought, "If I make the Rolling Stone cover, that's when I'll know I've made it." It still doesn't feel that way, though. I remember doing the photo shoot. That cover was a face I made during an in-between take. When I see that, I see myself goofing off at a photo shoot. I don't see the cover of Rolling Stone. So it is kind of a trip. To Top