Try it again, Christina Aguilera

Well, look who shows up again. She hasn’t won any awards (long gone are the days when she hoarded nominations and statuettes, although last year she still managed to receive a nomination, the one for “Best Latin Pop Album” with “Aguilera”) and she didn’t perform : the 43-year-old American singer on stage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles she limited herself to opening one of the envelopes containing the name of one of the winners of the coveted prizes (Aguilera presented, with Maluma, the award to Karol G for “Mañana Será Bonito” as “Best urban music album”.

This was enough for his fans to say they were happy in one way or another: and who knows whether his appearance at the Grammy Awards represents a first step towards a return to the center of the recording industry. Christina Aguilera has been on the fringes of the scene for too long, like a boxer on the ropes: a star 90 million copies soldwho has written some of the most important pages of pop music of the last twenty years (hits like “Genie in a bottle”, “Beautiful”, “Hurt”, “Candyman” speak for her), deserves more consideration.

“Liberation” from 2018 and “Aguilera” from 2022, rather than repositioning her on the market, represented holes in the water: the last best-seller of the pop star’s career remains “Back to basics” from 2006.

Chameleonic, capable of reinventing herself and changing her skin, moving from pop to soul, from jazz to r&b, from the homage to Tina Turner on the notes of “River deep, mountain high” to the one to Whitney Houston on “I Will always love you ”, from “Ave Maria” performed with a string quartet to the tribute to Kobe and Gia Bryant to her version of “At last” by Etta James, up to rediscovering her Latin roots, Christina Aguilera – currently busy with a residency in Las Vegas – .prepares his return with an album in English six years after the last one: “I worked on the experimentation of new sounds and new styles. A lot has happened in the last six years, huge personal and professional changes. I will share this growth and my new inspirations in the next album. There are some collaborations in the works with other musicians I’m fans of. And I would like to explore new creative and commercial paths.”

As evidence of theimpact he had on pop music worldwidelast autumn it was also honored by Tate McRae, the new star of the charts who ended up on everyone’s lips with her “Greedy”. In the video clip for the single “Exes” the Gen Z icon reproduced the ring scene from the “Dirrty” video: “Madonna, Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera’s were among the most iconic video clips ever – said the singer, 20 years old, who wasn’t even born when Xtina released “Dirrty” in 2002 – the visuals, the choreography, the songs: I think people miss all of that”.

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of the eponymous debut album “Christina Aguilera”: it was the summer of 1999 when the star of the singer from Staten Island, born as a child prodigy on Disney programs, began to shine in the firmament of world pop. “In my 20s I said to myself, ‘I have to make songs that have meaning to me and that are valid for who I am, without fear and talking about anything,’” she recalled in an interview last year. Who knows, maybe the new album in her drawer will bring her back to speaking in the present.