Michael and Prince. Janet and Madonna. Beyonce and Rihanna.
Historically, there are certain names that are consistently paired and often pit against each other in music.
One of the most notable groupings is Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears.
Both were beacons of the late 90’s wave of blonde bombshells who would go on to blow all the way up in the early 00’s – carving out success narratives that still resonate today.
In recent years, their paths have taken very different courses – Xtina into TV and Spears to Las Vegas where her ‘Piece of Me’ residency has proven a hit.
Still, the latter surprised many given that Sin City “had-slash-has” a reputation for being the arena ageing acts go post chart relevancy.
Clearly, it’s a sentiment Aguilera’s manager Irving Azoff seems to subscribe to.
During an interview on Pauly Shore‘s podcast, the legendary industry force shot down suggestion that the ‘Your Body’ singer should embark on a Vegas run like Britney’s.
Find out why below…
Azoff, drawing on the politically correct “with all due respect,” explained his view that – unlike Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and other divas who’ve inked Vegas deals – Xtina hasn’t peaked yet.
Instead her focus is her almost complete new album, a return to The Voice next Spring, and touring her new music worldwide.
Listen to Azoff expand on the matter in his own words below…
Easy as it may be to shoot his comments down (especially following the chart performance of Christina’s last albums ‘Bionic’ and ‘Lotus’), we see where he’s coming from. And, in many ways, agree with him.
Unlike some of her older counterparts, Xtina isn’t quite at the stage of her career where the industry’s unfair age bias would seriously affect her charting ability. A point highlighted by her success with her features on recent hits by A Great Big World and Pitbull.
What’s more, the reality of the matter is that Team Britney were – from we’re standing – almost forced to pursue the residency as a means to spin the fact that she no longer possesses the ability to compete in the modern climate. Hence the smart play to tuck her away in Vegas, market and milk her name, and make her money copious amounts of money in the process.
Christina, on the other hand, still has much of her range and ability to perform when not glued to that lucrative red chair on The Voice.
That said, so as for this Azoff’s words to not come and haunt him at a later date, we just hope he and the rest of Team Xtina have cultivated a potent plan to relaunch her in the music marketplace.
Because, talent and relative youth aside, any more missteps and it may be be hard to ever recover.
Gurl bye!
Hahahahaha! I never seen this side of you. I agree 100%
I see this “Gurl bye” everywhere so why not? 😀
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOO…..ERM OKAY……..
ANYWAY CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4peVgCVzjZA
I wouldnt ever count Britney out every artist has a flop dont count her out. I cant see where Xtinas fits in the current market she last had good solid vocals which was on burlesque. Artists who have made a name for them previously should not just depend on thier name for them to sell get put there and tour interact with your fans a little it wont hurt
xtina and britney are icons already but i feel like xtina has way to much to offer to give up now….. they have earned so much success i dont need rihanna and beyonce fans etc coming for them these girls would sell 10 8 9 mil in the states alone ??????? when will your fav but i think xtina shoukd have never taken 3 year breaks and i feel like if she could have 2 top 10 hits and her movie soundtrack good go gold why cnt her albums? if she just promotes it
Sales dont make u an icon. Beyonce is praised as a bigger Icon as both Britney and Christina, with there 8, 9 and 10 million albums. Both were doing those numbers when album sales were good. You forget the group Beyonce was in did those numbers also. Fast Forward years later, Beyonce was doing those numbers solo, while the other two cant. So your rambling dont make sense.
Her last great album was Back to Basics and it came out in 2005 or 2006 of that year, clearly this manager of hers is delusional but she hasn’t peaked yet (Blank Stare) OK THEN! SMH.
She peaked with her albums in 2002 and 2006, she was indeed “keeps getting better” till 2010, then she went down, but just because she peaked twice before, doesn’t mean she can’t peak again. She still has her voice, she’s not high on meds and still has a personality, she never acted like a robot, so I think that if she give her maximum, she still can peak again. But she needs to want it.
This guy might sound as if he’s putting down other artists, but you can tell that he was trying to choose his words carefully and avoid that. I think he simply wanted to state that Christina still got it and until I see differently, I agree with him.
Lies people are still interested in Britneys brand. Britney has mental issues and a bad knee that’s why she is no longer competing with the girls. Britney can still go platinum in 2015 if she had it together.
No lies detected
At this point with her being on the voice and its popularity it would be easy for Christina to find success on her own merit other than her recent features but this has not been the case. She has had tours lined up in recent years and nothing came of it. Honestly for me if Christina and her team can not come up with a winning game plan this next era she is definitely in serious trouble because nowadays if you take too much time off the public pushes you aside like yesterday’s news.
And that has been her problem, taking excessively long breaks in-between albums, which is why her popularity has waned.
It’s sad but seems that she chose this way.
I detect no lies here! Britney is a puppet on a string who cannot do anything unless daddy approves. Her fans can blame her inability to perform like it’s 2000 all over again on a bad knee but the reality is, the b*tch is bipolar and was locked up for it too. But yet people managed to give her another chance and still pay rentry money to see a robot perform. However, Christina has always gotten the shittier deal. She has always been more talented and made better music but people accused her of being a b**** and wrote her off. Hello, name me one person in this world who has never been a b**** and I will eat chalk. The harsh reality with Christina is that people have always hated on her because of that voice!!! Not a lot of people have her range or still have her range. Even black female artists who usually can sang the hell out of a song don’t have the range she does. Overall, Xtina doesn’t need Vegas. Britney needs Vegas. And I’m sure 2016 will see Xtina receive the praise and comeback she deserves!
You’re just as #delusional as her manager. People have always written off Xtincta because she’s always been an uppity b1tch who thought she was the sh it and above established icons.
Christina may be more talented vocally, but it ends there. In terms of having better music? Britney easily wins there. She’s had far more hits than Christina has. Christina may still have a good voice, but her past few songs have shown that she isn’t bringing anything new that the current market will enjoy. The only time she has a “hit” is when she is the featured artist. That’s it.
And people haven’t hated on Christina because of her voice. She does have a very diva attitude and that attitude comes out quite a lot on The Voice as well. She does herself no favors there and obviously thinks too highly of herself. Christina has a fantastic voice, but she is prone to oversinging and growling FAR too much. She’s the perfect example of an artist who doesn’t understand that less is more sometimes when it comes to singing. She needs to learn to connect to the emotions of a song more instead of trying to throw as many vocal gymnastics into a song as she can.
And mental health, by the way, is not a joke. So p*** off with that.
No the only relevant artists from the late 90s/00s culture, are Beyonce (Still one of the most popular female artists today), Justin Timberlake(Still one of the most popular male artists) and P!nk. All 3 of those artists have just as much if not more relevance than they had a decade ago and they can all still scan multiplatinum which today’s stars cant even do.
Yup, P!nk keeps a really low profile but when the bish is ready to drop an album and subsequently tour, she delivers! Bey and JT, (especially Bey, lol) are media mainstays. Side note: looking at your avi, do people (I mean the Hive) ever bring up Bey’s 2006 VMA performance as far as her best moments in stage go? I love it but no one really talks about it, haha.
Everytime i’m in a long trenchcoat in the rain I think about that moment, LMAO! That VMA performance was the definition of iconic. To be honest with you the live performances are the only reason I fux with RingTheAlarm, because alone that song used to drive me bananas with that damn siren Lol.
Xtina peaked in 99-02 and made a small comeback with aint no other man. She isn’t culturally relevant today because this generation only know her as The Voice judge and as a nostalgia act.
Ok Bey-Rih- The only reason the B2B era was moderately successful is because she was still newly married and got pregnant during that era. She put her main focus on those things rather than the money machine. Then Gaga came out and her team along with Perez tried to destroy her career and did so very briefly just so Gaga would have a chance to break into the industry. That scandal made Gaga. Many new artists owe their career to Xtina because they used her name at some point to sell.
Gaga only was compared to Christina because they were saying Christina was copying Gagas look and EDM SOUND. Nobody (or most ppl) knew Gaga was a TRUE SINGER for a while, she was a EDM PPP singer which didn’t have Anything to with Christina because she was making totally different music which were vocally driven.
Excuses. Gaga came 4-5 years later.
Has she even got a catologue to even do Vegas?? She needs to train that screeching as it kills my ears get it together
I think her peak was stripped. Make still was a soprano back then it didn’t hurt my throat when she sang . Love stripped
Xtina hasn’t peaked yet talent wise but she has in popularity a long time ago. Britney has declined in sales over the years but her popularity is still a force to be reckoned with. Even Pretty Girls shot to #2 on iTunes within hours of release (where is Beyoncé and naughty boy on iTunes???).
I love xtina and can’t wait to hear her new album.
Itunes????? Beyonce sell albums and you’re talking about songs on itunes lmfao
Lmao the delusion ….xtina has peaked and guess what ,it was not as successful as Britney’s .
Christina had released a slew of hits recently. Say Something was a duet ballad that became a multi-platinum hit and won a Grammy. Her 2015 NBA show proved she still has vocals and moves to command a stage. Christina’s problem has always been her inconsistency. The four year breaks where she would go completely dormant has cause her to lose steam but I think The Voice has made her a house hold name again. She needs to utilize the Voice more often and have the right material. No more chasing hits like Lotus. I want adult contemporary
If Beyonce can have a career renaissance after 4, I can see Christina doing the same. Both are very talented and creative. Christina just hasn’t quite gotten in right….in awhile.
Smh..I wonder about some of you people. Beyonce’s 4 is platnuim. The singles may have failed to resonate but that era was still successful. You’re comparing 4 to Bionic and Lotus???? #ChileBye
KIIII 4 DAYZ!!!! Xtina, even tho she waz more talented, has never been able 2 keep up w/ her contemporaries success, so she always released her albums 5 years apart hoping it wud help her look like sum established artist wen n reality, she has no signature sound or renowned artistry. Back to Basics waz the best era imo. Stripped wud prob b her peak as far as fame goes and for obvi reasons, her debut iz her peak 4 commercial success. Ppl have always been jealous of the heavily medicated Britney bc Britney has always came back every time she failed. Even after the horrible era that waz Blackout, Britney came back with Circus while Xtina flopped her next 3 albums. Long story short, Xtina peaked a long a** time ago and anyone expecting Xtina 2 make this Confessions, Circus, or Emancipation comeback iz clearly on the same medication and programming that Britney iz.
Delusional as hell. No shade to her but even artists 10 or 20 years older (Madonna, Mariah) seem to struggle way less with their careers and releases as SOLO artists (forget those features which are the only thing people have noticed about Xtina in the last…7 years?).
Love that pic btw. And yes, she can still do many things. But commercially… just no (well, the industry is a just no in general now lol, but you know what I mean). Her voice is way too damaged too (it was from the start to a point, and that´s why her impact was not enough to consider her any type of icon or anything, despite a few fans saying otherwise. More power to her though. I loved “Gennie in a Bottle”, most of the Stripped and Back to Basics albums and even half of the Bionic album.
There is way too much delusion with this manager. Of course she peaked. Hell EVERYONE pre 2005 has peaked because no one buys albums anymore. Artists that sold 5-6million are LUCKY to scan platinum (and if u do its considered a smash wtf?). The question is what u can get away with to stay relevant in today’s environment. In Christina’s case I don’t think anyone would check for her if she went on tour and lets be honest she can’t sing like she did 10 years ago moreless on multiple nights over an extended period. Shes not known for being a stage blazer either so she’s really in a tough spot.
Are serious about your statement of her not being able to sing like she used to? Have you seen her last performance at the 2015 NBA event? She clearly never lost her voice.
I didn’t see that one but I’ve seen others and she’s not the same. Not that she doesn’t sound good compared to most of the current lot but shes no where near her prime where her singing was effortless. Tbh though I’ve always thought she oversang and her runs are way too much imo. But as far as bed voice it is quite beautiful.
He needs to focus on getting Xtina to do her f u c king job. Britney works so hard like a machine.. gets outs there, puts on a show and gives her fans things. Christina just sits on a chair looking pretty it’s embarrassing. I love Christina but omg if she hasn’t peaked then do some work and take your music career seriously. She hasn’t toured in years and the only shows she does do are for millionaires and all we get is lq pics and bids that are 10 seconds. God sake
*vids
People, the title misled you all. He didn’t diss them in the clip. BUT to say she haven’t peaked, umm yea she did with Stripped. That’s why these artist are so lost, because they have delusional yes men around them. You’re either inde, current, consistent, peaked or iconic/legend. Brit is iconic and I see Vegas as practice because she gotten a lot better dancing. Pink is consistent because she’s the only early 2000’s pop girl that STILL doing it. Still topping the charts with albums and singles, still touring and can still perform.
.
Like I said, R&B girls may be flopping, but they’re still here and some what respected. These pop girls are thrown away. Where’s Jessica and Ashley Simpson? XXtina, H Duff, Gags, Gwen, Fergie, and so many others? You may launch off bigger in pop, but your expiration date is quick.
Delusional just like her fans,if Britney has peaked than Christina never was!All jokes aside,her peak was 99-07. It’s been over a decade and she still hasn’t put an album as great as stripped.B2B was her last decent album,without you still gets heavy play from me(Such a beautiful voice when toned down). Had she not wasted her time with a Spanish album and released another regular studio album,I think she would’ve been bigger.
Does xtina manager realize that Britney only flop album “Britney Jean” sold more than Xtina last 2 albums with barely any promo? Or the fact Pretty Girls was a top 20 hit with one promo spot at the awards? I love xtina as well but Britney hasn’t peaked as yet she can slay if she wants to….xtina last big hits were as a feature act not solo like brit!
I’ll never understand why the majority of critics hated “Stripped”, why “Dirrty” wasn’t well received in the U.S. while “I’m a S**** 4 U” became a moderate hit, and why “Your Body” was the worldwide hit that got away. I don’t understand why she can’t be successful anymore without a feature. It makes no sense to me.
people come for the likes of britney, madonna, mariah and claimed they are has been….
but these bishes has at least two diamond albums…diamond means they already shut the game down…
and beside the diamond albums, they are known to be legends..they already established every damn thing they could….
how dare you simple bishes compare legends to basic bishes like beyonce….
bish has been out since the 90s..still cant get not one diamond album
Gurl you’re one delusional biitch kii kii. Christina doesnt have a diamond selling album in the states. Sales doesnt make u an legend. Aretha and Tina have no diamonds in the states. So you’re calling them no legend? Those women sold those albums, when even rappers sold 8 and 9 million albums. What are they selling today, compared to King B?? Only a handfull of artist today can scan platnuim.
Girl shut your hateful fat ass up.If Beyonce is basic what is Jasmine Sullivan? Diamond albums are only used by stans that have nothing else to back up why their favorite artist are the s***. Why doesn’t Jazmine have a certification period?1st album flopped,second album flopped,third album flopped.The RIAA don’t know your fave!
as for xtina…I fukcs with her…I think she’s a great vocalist
her voice is like no other…but she’s trying to compete with basic bishes..hence why she’s not selling
she needs to just be herself…
People stop caring about Christina back in 2007, and it’s a shame she has a great voice, but I heard she was a major b**** behind the scenes.
Disagree. Christina literally can’t buy a hit on her own. And she is most definitely at the age of age bias against women. Say Something was an Adult Contemporary/ Hot AC format single. By nature that radio format is geared towards an older audience. Christina is definitely past her prime as a pop star in the same vein as Selena Gomez, Rihanna, Miley etc. And before people lose their s*** I didn’t say that any of those three are better than her. Young music listeners though just simply aren’t checking for Christina and thats a fact.
Christina peaked with her first album. Let’s not be delusional here ma’am.
Y’all be saying that people aren’t checking for this or that person, but it isn’t the artists, it’s biased a** radio. Secondly, Vegas is very lucrative for a number of reason. These megastars are making tons of cash. If they don’t want to tour then this is a great spot to bank millions. He’s talking as if her last few efforts were platinum/multi-platinum. She has an amazing voice. But she has solely garnered hits simply because of other acts recently. Britney is far from a has been. She has a huge FANBASE. If her material is on par then she’s great. As for Ashlee, Jessica, Hilary etc, sometimes people do other things outside of music. Jessica is running a billion dollar empire. Mariah & Madonna have scored gold/platinum plus albums & singles by themselves. Xtina hasn’t done that recently. If she wasn’t on the voice, what would else would it be that has kept her in the limelight? He’s speaking as though she’s come off of a massive era.
@theman I completely agree with u on the Vegas thing. Its not that you’re a has been, its that youve earned the privilege to perform in one spot, charge $200-300 a ticket, performing hits amassed over the course of a career. Why it is looked down upon is crazy to me.
“…forced to pursue the residency as a means to spin the fact that she no longer possesses the ability to compete in the modern climate.” That makes no sense whatsoever, considering the fact that booking and keeping a spot anywhere in Vegas means having to compete for the attention of an audience that is divided across hundreds of contemporary acts. As for Christina, she peaked with Back to Basics. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot left to give though.
Christina’s commercial high ended after her debut (after the 4 consecutive number 1’s she lost her momentum). Then Stripped dropped which one was of the strongest urban pop albums of the 00’s, but her image and attitude really messed up that era for her. Then we have Back to Basic (I left the S out for a reason), which was basically a well-recorded swan song. I can’t tell you about the albums or songs she dropped after that, because she peaked years ago!
Britney has peaked but she has moments of relevancy and success, and clearly Christina is still seething over it. I’d be pissed of too, if I clearly had more talent than someone but was always a step behind.
Fatina should be happy that a Britney came along. Before Brit (a t*** superstar that took the world by storm), Chris was marketed as a duel Dion/Faith type singer. It wasn’t til the late 90’s t*** golden era/ the 2nd wave of the Brat Pack (after Brit) when they got her image down right, basically a better singing, yet lacking dancing Britney (just like with the Simpson, Moor, Vitamin C and the rest of those White blond t*** girls). Like one stated, she did a Spanish album and 3 years later she came out with Stripped. The theme of Stripped should had been a 3rd album, she blew her wad WAY too fast by being a s***** and America didn’t have time to fall in love with her. And in 2006, the year that Pop/urban/rap/r&b were merging, she went with this blues 1920’s BS. To me, Xxtina isnt even on Pink’s level. But the “fall” in 2006 was that she didn’t have Britney to feed off of. Because in the beginning, she just countered whatever Brit did. Brit did Pepsi, Xtina did Coke. Brit dated JT and was marketed with him and his group, Xtina would (within a year of their breakup) tour with him. Also the VMA kiss, Xtina wasn’t even first pick, it was Pink, but Pink was shooting a video or tour and couldn’t make it. And even with that, they cut her part to show JT’s reaction… because he dated whom? Britney. Fatty should thank Britney for her career.
They were making identical career moves in the early 00’s, and Britney was usually the first while oinktina trailed along afterwards. Their rivalry was one of the driving forces for Oinktinas career, but once she disappeared into oblivion no-one cared about the Britney comparisons anymore. Even during the stripped era OinkOink was trying to drum up some drama for her album (e.g. touring with Justin, right after the breakup to p*** Britney off), but it always screamed desperate and GP saw right through it. It’s interesting that P!nk is being mentioned because I’ve always preferred her voice and style (would’ve liked another R&B album from her, but it was clearly just a fad from her and apparently she hated recording it). LMAO XtraXtraLargeTina didn’t even get mentioned in the headlines for the VMA kiss, all the media cared about was that Britney was shedding her virgin mary image… and everyone paid Oinktina dust! pretty much like they are doing now.
You always come through with the right comments! Christina is talented and although I never quite warmed up to her overall catalog (I find her best album, Stripped, to be rather tedious). I do think she’s a modern day Pop icon. However, like you said, there is little longevity in Pop. Britney may be a shadow of herself as a performer but her name is still very powerful and has actually scanned platinum as far as album and single sales go this decade (mind you, by virtue of her OWN music). In the 00’s, I’d say the ranking as far as Pop stars (pop as in popular music) go commercial success and overall popularity was concerned;
1. Britney
2. Eminem
3. Usher
4. Beyonce
5. Justin Timberlake
6. Alicia Keys
7. Christina Aguilera
8. Kanye West/Nelly
9. Jay-Z
10. P!nk
However, in today’s climate, you’d find that Bey, JT and P!nk would now be the top three whereas Britney and Usher have declined while Christina would still be somewhere at the bottom.
Chile you basically read my mind Lol… I like your list! I am punking Christina out right now, but I’d be lying if I said she wasn’t talented and had a good pair of pipes on her. I would say my main issue with her is that she overdoes the melisma runs (like many artists do, without realising) and her technique is slipshot. Mariahs runs in early 90’s were perfect, but Mariah had a unique circumstance that these contemporaries don’t, which is the nodules. Because Mariah trained herself to do the whistle register from such a young age, she has developed nodules that she has to sing through to reach the high notes (both a gift and curse). Christina’s voice is big but her voice doesn’t naturally lend itself to the high-pitched notes, so when she attempts to go there it sounds very forced.
__
Also i’m going to contradict myself slightly, and say that JT has managed to put out successful ‘pop’ music with large breaks. It’s crazy that he’s only on album number 3 after a decade, but he’s still a household name. There’s always an exception, eh?
So Janet was not doing amazing in Y2K???all for you? She still went platinum…
There is no longevity in Pop, period.
An artist can get the highest peaking singles with Pop, but ultimately it never lasts long. The hint is in the name ‘Pop’, as in ‘Popular’ music… Pop is all about trendhopping and what is hot right now, and unless you’re psychic it is impossible to consistently perform well in this genre over a long period of time (i.e. Gaga). An artist can have all of the hottest producers on their team making them radio-friendly music, but at the end of the day none of us can predict the future of the music industry, and the minute one trend dies another one is created. Christina’s biggest mistake was having huge gaps between her albums; and arguably the only reason why her debut was strong was because she was doing bubblegum pop which was the ‘in’ thing at the time.
A little bubblegum pop is cool here there. Some stuff is just fun & you enjoy that music for what it is. You still have to have a FANBASE to do Vegas. It’s multiple shows a week. Christina does take too long in between albums. That’s not a great strategy if multiple albums have underperformed previously. As for Lady G, she simply had one album that didn’t perform as great as her others. Having said that, that album still sold 800k with a top four & top fifth t*** hit. So that’s still good in this musical climate.
No, nice try. But when your “lessor” rival (Katy) sold trice as much, when Beyonce sold twice as much, when even Miley sells more and all were released in the same season. You can’t blame it on “climate”. Gags ran out of tricks, not only her fans moved on, but so did her team because she had a huge ego and couldn’t see that Artpop was crap. Her next album WILL flop because the GP has moved on from the “crazy” fashion BS. Even the Katys and Nickis don’t even use it anymore.
Katy definitely won the battle that era no doubt about that. But a career is dependent on more than a couple of successful eras. Gaga will last because cause at her core she is insanely talented and can really do anything. Katy is going to have to start coming up with something new or else be known as the Debbie Gibson of our time.
Everyone keeps ignoring cheek to cheek. While it might not have been Gaga doing pop it was insanely successful. The fact that Jazz might not be the general publics cup of tea doesn’t mean that’s its success didn’t happen. #1, Grammy, highly successful tour, Gold certification etc. Gaga snatched many a wig DOING JAZZ. Cant take that away from her.
I can’t with Christina, truly I can’t. This girl is a waste of talent! This girl was deemed an honorific title Voice of Her Generation and had the ability to be on the same level as Whitney and Mariah and now has nothing to show for it but a damn tv show. Christina’s career had so much potential and she was just lazy with it.
Hmm….he kind of have a point here and there. I dont think Christina peaked though. Divas with a voice can always make a comeback. Theres no to many pop singers with a voice out today. I always wonder what happen to Christina and Britney’s fanbase. Janet and Mariah came out in the 80s and early 90s and still captured multiplatnuim albums in the 2000s. Thats 14 years and beyond. I wonder why they peaked early in album sales.
Who?
Mariah & Janet appeal to the urban/urbanac market also. But back to Lady G, her last album still did pretty good. It didn’t do what her previous ones did. But it still did good, given all circumstances. Katy P had two number ones so that helped her album out a lot. Miley also had a number one with a ton of press too. One album doesn’t mean that you’re over. Lady G, is versatile & talented in so many ways musically.
I see no lies Xtina hasn’t peaked she just won another Grammy and had 3 top 3 hit songs! Moves Like Jagger,Feel This Moment and Say Something plus she’s on the hit show THE VOICE she’s too talented she will always be relevant doing something! I love her she has one of the best tones and voices in the game Can’t Wait for her New Album,Tour and her next Season on The Voice!