We’re saluting one of TGJ’s most popular divas with this week’s From The Vault pick, and we’re taking it back to basics (pun intended).
The year was 1999 and a certain Christina Aguilera was making her grand entrance into the Pop stratosphere; her debut single, the R&B-tinged ‘Genie In A Bottle’, is this week’s selection.
Unleashed as a more mature alternative to then-emerging superstar Britney Spears, Aguilera’s music dealt with themes such as love, lust and sex in a more adventurous and daring manner (albeit still very tongue-in-cheek), as evidenced in this David Frank and Steve Kipner gem.
Managing to hit the Top 10 of every market it’s been released in, ‘Genie’ was Christina’s first of three #1 singles from her eponymous debut on home soil and ended up selling well over 7 million copies worldwide — making it one of the top selling singles of all time.
Director Diane Martel was enlisted to bring the song to life, resulting in a beach-set visual where the vocalist is seen frolicking in the sand, performing the now-classic choreography and attending a bonfire with friends and her love interest.
Still a staple on the music channels that actually play…music , we’re sure we’re not mistaken when we say this one is among the videos that define the “TRL Generation” alongside clips such as ‘Crazy In Love’ by Beyonce, ‘Pop’ by *N’SYNC and Britney’s… Baby One More Time’.
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With Christina sounding as good today as she does on this track (which was released almost 15 years ago), we need her to once again let vocal genie out of the bottle and hit the studio!
Though a super solid effort, the main issue with ‘Lotus’ was timing. Team Xtina -for whichever reason- did not capitalize on the worldwide smash that was ‘Moves Like Jagger’ in the timely way its banner band (Maroon 5) did with cuts such as ‘Payphone’ and ‘One More Night’. Indeed, the campaign for the ‘Your Body’ led set commenced too soon after the success of said song and, depending which reports you believe, was brought to an abrupt halt due to political infighting between respective forces involved with its release.
Now that the ‘Sing For Me’ songstress has her image in check and has returned for a fresh season of ‘The Voice’, the next few months would be the perfect time for “Baby Jane” to give her fans a collection of songs (in a perfect world a LP but why rule out an EP?) that she’ll hopefully promote in earnest. Also, as much as we love seeing her on that spinning chair, we feel she is wasting her time when, with the right setup, sound, and commercial muscle, she could “make the world move” all over again.
Let it out, Christina. Let it out!
