Christina Aguilera turns up the heat on the cover of Paper Magazine‘s latest issue.
The Pop icon lives up to her billing in the striking shoot, which was lensed by Erica Synder
Though ever booked and busy, the spread specifically arrives in tandem with the 25th anniversary of Xtina’s self-titled debut studio album.
And while she’s seized the season to reflect on that blockbuster project, which is home to ‘Genie in a Bottle,‘ Aguilera is also opening up about 2010’s polarizer –‘Bionic.’
Head below to see what she had to say…
Speaking on the ‘Not Myself Tonight’-led record, the 43-year-old began by saying:
“‘Bionic’ was not a huge song, but I can’t tell you how much love I get for that specific album. You listen to that song now and it holds up. At the end of the day, you look at the actual body of work. Whenever I’m not around anymore, for generations to come, they can enjoy different aspects of what I did and the music lives on. This is about the bigger picture.”
Continuing, she doubled down on past remarks about it being ahead of its time:
“Bionic was an adventurous album. I was very inspired at the time by electronica music, by M.I.A. and Ladytron, Switch and John Hill, who are incredible producers. They knew how to piece together these intricate electronic sounds, and these are newer to the ear. At the end of the day, sometimes things happen in pop culture that people aren’t ready for. But it’s not for me to really know and dissect, because I put something out there that I truly loved and still love to this day. “Bionic” and “Vanity,” these records that are so fun to perform live and get the audience hype and stand the test of time.”
On loving the LP despite the critique it received at the time, Aguilera quipped:
“I make that decision before I release it. It’s almost like you’re protective of your child: If I send this out into the world, it’s not mine anymore. You want to protect it and love it, and you don’t want people to be mean to it, like a child. But at the same time, I’m not going to shy away from a challenge. If you’re a real artist, you’re gonna put yourself out there. You get it to a place where it’s like, No matter what somebody can say about it, I love it. It can’t be broken because it’s a part of me, it’s real. That’s why I don’t hold weight in numbers or in other people’s opinions, because it’s so easy to critique and cast judgment. But it comes with the territory, I get it. You have to be able to stay authentic, or else you’ll lose your own sense of self and creativity.”
Expanding on how approaches her artistry, she concluded:
“I never was interested in making the same record over and over again, that’s my worst idea of music. It’s part of our jobs as musicians to see where music is moving and see what’s happening socially. It really is about connecting and trying to bring people together.
“I’m not a machine, I’m not a number. I’m a human who wants to connect on a very human level. To a lot of people, it is about numbers because numbers generate dollars and that’s when it becomes business and stale and, to me, the ugly beast of the creative business. Success is great, it brings people together. It generates conversation. But I will never be a part of the creative world in a way that jeopardizes my own integrity.”
She looks like a frail old lady wearing Depends ewwww
Like Trump
THE REAL VOCAL BIBLE. ARGUE WITH YOUR ALIEN HEAD BASIC VOCAL FAVES LMAOOO
who ares….
Urghhh….has been
I still don’t like Bionic. Back to Basics is my favorite. That’s when I think her creativity was at its highest.
Things were going so well until that last photo. I’d support whatever she’s saying if she just make more music E N G L I S H not S P A N I S H …. She’s not interested in making the same thing over and over but she’ll happily perform in vegas over and over again…..to make money…… integrity whatever she needs to hurry up…. I heard rumours Christina’s skinny transformation is making Britney get back to work
She hasn’t been relevant since the 2000’s and she looks sick in that pic Britney is true queen of pop
Trump sounds like the Uncle with worsening dementia who shows up at a family gathering and makes everyone cringe as they ramble on and on about every topic, weaving in deluded nonsense with running “commentary” on whatever is shooting around in their pinball machine-like brain.
Why are you here? Keep your mental illnesses to yourself
She always gives great talk at interviews and the pics are great except the cover 😅
I get what Christina is saying, but I would LOVE for her to work with Alicia Keys on another soul-drenched album.
Ok! Impossible is still that girl after all these years
The only person with a worse music catalog than xtina, is Nicki Minaj. Stop trying to make bionic happen…it’s not gonna happen!!
Well at least she wasn’t scared to go for different paths with each album.
There’s some good songs on there but it’s not my favorite.
She’s definitely one of the best vocalists from the past decades. Even tho I feel like there’s a huge stretch in between what she can do acapella and the way she uses her vocals when she performs.
She has maintained the power and range 2 decades+ into her career (from her debut album I mean), that’s quite impressive.
I don’t think she has a bad album under her belt, the one I least got into and listened to being Liberation.
Stripped and B2B are classics. I think it’s quite impressive she’s recorded Stripped so early into her career, right after an album (without counting the 1st Spanish one and Christmas one) that was really the bubble gum Pop from the 00s. She really took control of her career and sound early, kudos to her.
Hunnie, where is da album?
But she didnt protect her kid. The Moment she realized the album did not click immediately, she stopped promoting it and it was never heard of again.
The Album could have had longevity imo, cause there were some good songs that could have been strong Singles. Not myself was not a good First Single, but she could have tried two or thee more, which she didnt. She dropped that album after the first week Sales
i think that was rca that dropped the promo not her. they cancelled her tour & any further promo. the 2nd single was woohoo & rca refused to fund a video for it.
That’s not accurate at all. Xtina fought for the project to go as planned with WooHoo but RCA pulled the plug on that and moved with You Lost Me cause they thought they could force another Beautiful moment with a ballad single.
Humiliationnnnnnn …………….