Christina Maria Aguilera (born December 18, 1980 in Staten Island, New
York), colloquially known as Xtina, is an American popular music
singer-songwriter. She is most often recognized by her notable vocal
abilities and unorthodox fashion sense. Her vocal skills have been
compared to those of singers such as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston,
and she is one of the most prominent recording artists of her
generation. She has achieved four number-one singles on the Billboard
Hot 100 chart, as well as two top five albums and four Grammy Awards
in the United States.
Christina Aguilera grew up mainly in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wexford,
Pennsylvania, after living in various places around the world. Her
father, Fausto Aguilera, is a U.S. Army sergeant of Ecuadorian
descent, and her mother, Shelly Loraine Fidler (now known as Shelly
Kearns), is a Spanish translator from Newfoundland, Canada, and of
remote Irish descent. Aguilera's parents met while Fausto was serving
at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and
Labrador.
Since Aguilera was able to talk, she set a goal to become a
professional singer. As a child she performed at block parties and in
talent competitions -- defeating opponents with little effort.
Aguilera soon gained media attention, and was known to some as "the
little girl with the big voice".
On March 15, 1990, she appeared on Star Search singing Ella
Fitzgerald's "Sunday Kind of Love", but failed to win. Soon after
losing on Star Search, she returned home and appeared on Pittsburgh's
KDKA-TV's "Wake Up with Larry Richert" to perform the same song again.
Later on, she would sing "Vision of Love", Mariah Carey's first
single, and astonished everybody in attendance by hitting every riff
and note, including Carey's trademark whistle register note. People
remarked that the then-ten year old "sounded twenty".
Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang "The Star-Spangled
Banner" before Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Pirates
baseball games. Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993
when she joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse
Club. Her co-stars included Britney Spears, as well as Justin
Timberlake, JC Chasez (who went on to join *NSYNC) and Keri Russell
(who would go on to become the star of Felicity).
Aguilera's first hit single was "All I Wanna Do", which was a
collaborative effort recorded in Japan with Japanese pop sensation
Keizo Nakanishi. In 1997, Aguilera competed in an international
singing contest at the Golden Stag Festival in Transylvania, Romania,
where she shared the stage with Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross. In 1998,
after proving herself as a singer with a high, powerful chest voice,
singing the High "E" note an octave above middle "C" on a cover of
Whitney Houston's "Run to You" which she recorded with an old tape
recorder in her bathroom, she was selected to perform the song
"Reflection" for the Disney animated production of Mulan (1998). The
music video promoting the film featured a young Aguilera with bobbed
hair. It was her first music video. "Reflection" peaked at number
fifteen on the Adult Contemporary Singles Chart. The song was
nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for a Motion
Picture in 1998.