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“When I’m onstage, there’s not a bigger high, when I’m in connection with my voice and my heart and my soul,” she says. “But at the end [of a performance], I want to wipe it all off, get in my sweatpants, make silly noises with my kids and have someone comfort and cuddle me.”
Lately, of course, that domestic life has included a lot of riding in the back of this Escalade, playing the new songs over and over again. She would drive herself, except she never learned how. “I know,” she says, laughing at the absurdity of it. When she was old enough to get her license, she moved to Los Angeles to get a record deal, and the thought of driving here, with all the “road rages,” scared her. By the time she released her self-titled first album in 1999, hiring a driver was no problem: The disc debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, eventually selling 8.3 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Music, and produced four top five singles on the Billboard Hot 100, three of them No. 1s.
In the nearly 20 years since then, much has changed in music. Aguilera’s personal preferences aside, streaming has overtaken CDs, and other female stars have found great success, struggled with reinventions and, well, taken gigs on The Voice and American Idol. Some things have gotten better. It’s hard to imagine Eminem getting away with a sexually charged attack on a 19-year-old woman, as he did in 2000, targeting Aguilera on “The Real Slim Shady.” When I tell her I can’t believe that even happened, she says, “Yeah, absolutely. Things have definitely changed. What was great was how badass I was at such a young age to then write ‘Can’t Hold Us Down,’” her empowerment anthem from Stripped. “We are coming slowly but surely around a corner, not taking the things that we used to.” In fact, after all the years away, this might truly be her moment.
Aguilera’s driver pulls back into her driveway, and she squeezes my hand. “Write great things about me,” she says, before skipping out of the Escalade and back into her home to wait for the sun to go down.
Lately, of course, that domestic life has included a lot of riding in the back of this Escalade, playing the new songs over and over again. She would drive herself, except she never learned how. “I know,” she says, laughing at the absurdity of it. When she was old enough to get her license, she moved to Los Angeles to get a record deal, and the thought of driving here, with all the “road rages,” scared her. By the time she released her self-titled first album in 1999, hiring a driver was no problem: The disc debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, eventually selling 8.3 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Music, and produced four top five singles on the Billboard Hot 100, three of them No. 1s.
In the nearly 20 years since then, much has changed in music. Aguilera’s personal preferences aside, streaming has overtaken CDs, and other female stars have found great success, struggled with reinventions and, well, taken gigs on The Voice and American Idol. Some things have gotten better. It’s hard to imagine Eminem getting away with a sexually charged attack on a 19-year-old woman, as he did in 2000, targeting Aguilera on “The Real Slim Shady.” When I tell her I can’t believe that even happened, she says, “Yeah, absolutely. Things have definitely changed. What was great was how badass I was at such a young age to then write ‘Can’t Hold Us Down,’” her empowerment anthem from Stripped. “We are coming slowly but surely around a corner, not taking the things that we used to.” In fact, after all the years away, this might truly be her moment.
Aguilera’s driver pulls back into her driveway, and she squeezes my hand. “Write great things about me,” she says, before skipping out of the Escalade and back into her home to wait for the sun to go down.
