Christina Aguilera Essential Information

The career of Christina Aguilera can be divided in two different eras. During the first one she was marketed in the same way as so many teen idols, and though commercially successful, this era was not artistically challenging. The second era began when Christina took the reins for her fourth album Stripped, which dealt with more mature and even thought provoking topics. She continued to broaden her palette with 2006's Back to Basics, a throwback to 20's and 30's blues and jazz music. Her latest album is called Bionic, which further steps into new sounds and styles that Aguilera hadn't toyed with before.

Before all of that however, everything started with a song called Reflection for the Mulan motion picture soundtrack, in 1998. One year later, Christina Aguilera had signed a record deal and released her eponymous debut, which went through the roof on the strength of singles 'Genie in a Bottle', 'What a Girl Wants', and 'Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You).' Taking advantage of her Latin roots, a Spanish follow up called Mi Reflejo was also released, containing Spanish versions of five previous songs, and adding six new tracks. Additionally, she also recorded a Christmas themed album.

Christina Aguilera has followed into the footsteps of many pop divas before her, and attempted to branch out into acting, starring in the movie Burlesque, opposite diva godmother Cher. Fittingly, Cher plays the part of a mentor of sorts for Christina Aguilera's character, a struggling young woman who dreams of making it big. Before that, she had a voice role in the 2004 movie Shark Tale. A new Christina Aguilera album has been announced for 2012, though little is known of it at this point in time.