http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/4260/270607out021wu5.th.jpg

 

 

she says she'll be taking a break before doing a movie, and before another album i'm sure.. but the question is, how long? hmmmmm..

 

 

 

If you hear Christina Aguilera wail her signature "Heeeeey!", you'll know she's not just famous for her boobs and buns. Instead, Aguilera the superstar is basically a sweet and tiny girl with a steamroller voice. Disarmingly cute with her latest look of spit-curl coiffure and red Kewpie doll lips, Aguilera is an established pop star who emanates boundless enthusiasm and confidence.

 

Following a top-selling European tour and a sold-out, 41-city US tour, Aguilera, a four-time Grammy Award winner and one-time Latin Grammy Award winner, arrived in China a couple of days ago to start the Southeast Asian leg of her ultra-glam Back to Basics tour, which will hit Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, tomorrow night.

 

Appearing busy, active and somewhat restless, the 27-year-old blonde cheerfully greeted over 100 members of the local and international press an hour after arriving at Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Shanghai. With a benevolent attitude and an air of positive energy, Aguilera welcomed the media's enquiries and remained smiling and upbeat throughout the 15-minute session.

 

"Ah ... I have a little jet lag," explained the singer, who had performed in Korea a day earlier.

 

"But I just love coming back to Asia. Promoting the album is a blast. I like to learn a few native terms, certain keywords and phrases to address my audience and to thank them for their support. I love exploring, experiencing new cultures, hearing different languages and learning about how people live around the world," said Aguilera, who has spent three years in Japan.

 

Aguilera has assembled an acclaimed production team for her Back to Basics tour, including choreographer and director Jamie King and costume designer Roberto Cavalli. Working together, the team has created a modern and inventive stage show heavily fused with elements of retro glamour.

 

The concert features a unique stage design that promises to give the pop diva's fans an exceptional field of vision. The stage itself is operated by a state-of-the-art hydraulic system and is illuminated by more than 600 moving lights.

 

"I love performing more than anything in the world," said Aguilera at the press conference. "I have the best time being on-stage, feeling the passion of the audience and enjoying the music. I'm just so excited every night to get out there in front of my audience and give to them - to bring my album to life."

 

In the late '90s, Aguilera was second only to Britney Spears in the ranking of female pop singers. Yet unlike many of her contemporaries, both then and now, Aguilera is a truly capable singer with a vocal range that allows her to perform jumping dance songs and soulful ballads with equal ability.

 

When she was living in Japan, Aguilera achieved success through a duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi entitled All I Wanna Do. Her first serious recording in the US was done for a soundtrack; Aguilera sung the song Reflection for the 1998 Disney film Mulan. Her self-titled debut was released in 1999, the lead single from which, Genie in a Bottle, remained at the top of the pop charts for five weeks. The album's second single, What a Girl Wants, won Aguilera the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. The album went on to sell over eight million copies in the US alone.

Edited June 28, 200718 yr by Dino

Aguilera's other Grammys were awarded in 2001 for her cover of LaBelle's Lady Marmalade with Pink, Mya, Lil' Kim and Missy Elliot, which was featured on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, in 2003 for Beautiful and in 2007 for Ain't No Other Man. The part-Ecuadorian Aguilera also recorded a Spanish-language album in 2000 called Mi Reflejo, which was the source of her Latin Grammy Award.

 

Aguilera's look changed from pop princess to raunch renegade for her second studio album, 2002's Stripped. The album's first single, Dirrty, hinted at lustful freedom and featured a sexually charged video with explicitly suggestive dancing - which was never allowed to air in Thailand. The second single, Beautiful, with its elaboration of personal worth in the face of social contempt, articulated a contrastingly deeper side to Aguilera.

 

Now clearly established as a performer with the ability to sing in a myriad of styles, Aguilera's third album, the two-disc Back to Basics produced by DJ Premier and Linda Perry, is a big step in her creative journey. The album makes use of an orchestra, choir, string quartet and various mixes of jazz horns to blend vintage sounds with modern beats. The album includes the singles Hurt, Ain't No Other Man and Candy Man.

 

"The album explores my influences, mainly blues, jazz and soul music from the '20s, '30s and '40s. I wanted to accompany that kind of sound with a modernised twist and give it my own interpretation with the look and feel of Hollywood glamour queen styling like that of Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe. Basically, the album is going back in time and being inspired by the look and feel of that time," said Aguilera.

 

"It took me a good whole year to get all the ideas together to make this vision come to life. Of course, it wasn't my first intention to do a double-disc set. But as the material started to come and the process went on, it was just the best work and I couldn't leave things behind. The next album won't be a double, though!" she laughed.

 

Aguilera said she loves getting to share her experience with the audience. She described the overall feel of her latest record as being about a sense of happiness and peace.

 

"I've just got married over the past year and a half and I've grown into a completely different person. I fell in love and was in a relationship with my now husband, so I was just discovering a new side of myself. It took me to this kind of feel-good place. And during the tour, I've been adding that sense of home and peace to the concert. It makes me enjoy this peace, this chapter of my life."

While leaving her harder to pin down, Aguilera's latest image change cements her reputation as a stylistic chameleon. Yet she does not view her changing skins as part of any commercial adaptation but as reflecting different creative episodes of her life.

 

"I am the kind of artist that constantly likes to change and constantly likes to challenge myself and give my audience a new look and a new me," she said. "I'm constantly setting myself up for the possibility that people aren't going to like it. And for me, I just have to live with that because I'd rather come forth with something that's real and honest to me as an artist rather than try and second guess myself and try to figure out what the public and the critics and everyone's going to like.

 

"At the end of the day, something I've learned really early on is that you cannot please everybody at the same time. It's just impossible. I really feel that it's really important that I stick to my guns and I listen to my heart and do what I want to do. During the tour, I'm also getting inspired for what the next album will be, what the next look will be, which will be completely different from this one."

 

Apart from music, Aguilera plans to develop another part of her life: Her passion for acting.

 

"I'm taking time off to read a lot of scripts, absorbing what that world is about and getting to know more people in the film industry. It's something that when I attempt to do it, I want to do it right. So it's important for me that I do choose the right first role for myself. It can be either a small or a big part, it doesn't matter.

 

"But before that, I'll be taking a little bit of a break. I wish to find myself in my own bed, for just a minute."

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/270607_Ou...2007_out01.php

Thanks Dino. Great article.

you're welcome even though its quite long lol