Christina Aguilera Biography
From the moment you first place Christina Aguilera's new album Stripped in your CD player, the transformation she has gone through, both as an artist and a person, is evident.

Nowadays, Christina Aguilera adorns a collection of slender gold chains around her neck; a Playboy bunny logo charm dangles off one, while another bears a flashy b-girl nameplate reading "X-tina," her nickname. A tiny barbell pierces the skin just below her lower lip - a recent companion to the stud in her left nostril. Gone is the "green and inexperienced" fresh-faced former mouseketeer who sang the readymade ballads and spunky, safe pop of her self-titled debut.

True to its title, Stripped, strips away the last remnants of her previous teen idol persona. What's left is a highly personal proclamation of independence and adulthood. The Stripped collection is a melting pot of soul, R&B, rock, hip-hop and Latin influences; a tapestry of songs that are raw, reflective and personal.

"I got a chance to show of all these colours and textures of my love of music and of my vocal range," Christina Aguilera says. "Coming off of the height of being a part of such a big pop-craze phenomenon, that imagery of that cookie-cutter sweetheart, without it being me, I just had to take it all down and get it away from me. And that is why I actually named the album Stripped, because it is about being emotionally stripped down and pretty bare to open my soul and heart."

"A lot of my past is in this record," she explains. "What I was going through on tour, what's in my head about everything, about my personal life. It's like an open book. A storybook, from beginning to end. I'm telling my story."

Yet at the same time, Stripped isn't simply a reaction to the past. "I wanted to explore some of the music that had inspired me coming up," she explains. "I've always been a huge fan of soul. I love real rock & roll and hip-hop, of course, is one of my biggest influences. I wanted it all."

The album is the first step of Christina Aguilera's comeback after an eighteen-month hiatus. Initially, Christina Aguilera spent much of her time at her Los Angeles home where she could catch her breath, and reconnect with herself in the process. "So much had happened in such a short time, and not only in my career. I'd gone through a breakup with my first real love and I began realizing that I should be experiencing a bit more of life than TV and recording studios, hotels and green rooms."

Christina Aguilera steadily began to fearlessly break free from the mass media mask that hid her true self, and the full scope of her talent. "I felt trapped," she admits. "I was under the thumb of people who were mostly interested in keeping me doing exactly the same thing".

However well-intended (and arguably well-deserved) her hiatus was, Christina Aguilera soon found herself unable to resist the lure of a promising creative collaboration. I'm driven," is Christina Aguilera's frank admission. "Even in the midst of touring, I was thinking about what my next album would be, writing bits and pieces of songs in journals and scrapbooks." She soon joined forces with Pink, Mya and Lil' Kim on the smash Lady Marmalade single and video, something which kept her front and centre in the international spotlight even as she began, slowly and steadily, to lay the groundwork for a musical manifesto that would change all the rules. "For a long time, I'd been uncomfortable with the image that had been built around me and my music. It felt like I was pretending, trying to hide the real me, and hurting inside because of it. This time I was determined to step beyond the hype and glitter, to take it back down to the bare necessities. It was like starting all over again."

Christina Aguilera set about to achieve what she wanted with a relentless determination and a willingness to stretch her creative boundaries. "I've always thought recording was about attaining perfectio