Christina Maria Aguilera is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She ranked at number 58 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008, and was included on Time’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2013. Take a look below for 35 more fun and interesting facts about Christina Aguilera.
1. Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York City, on December 18, 1980, to musician Shelly Loraine Kearns and United States Army soldier Fausto Xavier Aguilera.
2. Her father is Ecuadorian, and her mother has German, Irish, Welsh, and Dutch ancestry.
3. Her family moved frequently because of her father’s military service, and lived in places including New Jersey, Texas, New York, and Japan.
4. Aguilera alleged that her father was physically and emotionally abusive.
5. To cope with her turbulent household, she used music as a form of escape.
6. Following her parents’ divorce when she was six years old, Aguilera, her younger sister Rachel, and her mother moved into her grandmother’s home in Rochester, a suburb in the Pittsburgh area.
7. Her mother later remarried and had one more child. After years of estrangement, Aguilera expressed interest in reconciling with her father in 2012.
8. As a child, Aguilera was drawn to soul and blues records her grandmother bought and would practice singing, which earned her a reputation as “the little girl with the big voice” in her neighborhood.
9. She aspired to be a singer, and won her first talent show at age eight with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”.
10. Aged 10, she performed “A Sunday Kind of Love” on the competition show “Star Search,” and was eliminated during the semi-final round.
11. She performed the song again on KDKA-TV’s “Wake Up with Larry Richert.”
12. During her youth in the Pittsburgh area, Aguilera sang the US national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, before Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Steelers football, and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games, and the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals.
13. She attended Rochester Area School District in Rochester and Marshall Middle School near Wexford, and briefly attended North Allegheny Intermediate High School before being home-schooled to avoid being bullied.
14. In 1991, Aguilera auditioned for a position on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” although she did not meet its age requirements.
15. She joined the television series two years later, where she performed musical numbers and sketch comedy until its cancellation in 1994. Fellow cast members included Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake.
16. After the show ended, Aguilera moved to Japan and recorded her first song, “All I Wanna Do”, a duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi.
17. In 1998, Aguilera returned to the US to seek a recording contract. She approached RCA Records, who told her to contact Disney instead because they were having financial difficulties.
18. She sent her cover version of Whitney Houston’s “Run to You” to Disney in hopes of being selected to record the theme song “Reflection” for their animated film “Mulan.” Aguilera was ultimately selected to sing “Reflection”; the song was released in June 1998 and charted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart at number 15.
19. Aguilera is a soprano, possessing a four-octave vocal range spanning from C3 to C♯7. Since the start of her career Aguilera’s voice has been compared to that of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
20. Aguilera has credited blues singer Etta James as her main influence and inspiration, elaborating, “Etta is my all-time favorite singer. I’ve said it for the last seven years – since I had my first debut record out – in every interview”.
21. As of 2018, Aguilera had sold over 75 million albums and singles worldwide.
22. Aguilera’s works have earned her numerous awards and accolades, including five Grammy Awards.
23. Aguilera’s use of sexual imagery has helped catalyze public discourse on sexuality and feminism. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, co-founder of The Vagenda, opined that the provocative dance routines in Aguilera’s music videos are “empowering”.
24. Aguilera is also known for her television and music video impact; in 2012, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times commented that Aguilera “will be remembered for her glamour, her scandalous take on femme-pop and her Brobdingnagian voice, and … as the person who almost single-handedly reshaped music-competition reality programming”.
25. She was considered as one of the greatest women of the music video era by VH1.
26. In November 2008, Rolling Stone placed Aguilera at number 58 on its list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, writing that “[Aguilera] has had the finesse and power of a blues queen ever since she was a child star”.
27. In November 2010, Aguilera was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
28. In 2019, the Human Rights Campaign honored Aguilera with its “Ally for Equality” award. She was recognized as an “LGBTQ icon” who used her platform to share a message of hope and inspiration.
29. In 2000, Aguilera supported a program called Come on Over and Do Something, which aimed to “encourage kids to get involved in their communities and make a difference.”
30. In 2005, Aguilera contributed “Beautiful” to the compilation album Love Rocks, which proceeds benefited the Human Rights Campaign.
31. In 2008, Aguilera headlined London’s Africa Rising charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which raised awareness for finding substantial issues facing the continent.
32. In 2009, Aguilera became the global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief; she and Bratman traveled to Guatemala with the World Food Program to bring awareness to issues including its high malnutrition rate, and met with local families and beneficiaries of WFP’s nutrition programs.
33. In 2000, Aguilera was the face for make-up line Fetish, where she worked in choosing colors and packaging for the line.
34. Throughout her career, Aguilera has endorsed several brands, including Sears, Levi’s, Skechers, Mercedes-Benz, Versace, Virgin Mobile, Orange UK, Oreo, Sony Ericsson and soft drink giants Coca-Cola, and Pepsi in 2001 and 2006, respectively.
35. In 2004, Aguilera earned $300,000 for opening the summer sale at London’s Harrods store and appeared in an advertisement for MAC Cosmetics’ Viva Glam V campaign.
