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August 25, 1998 Real Pittsburgh Article:
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Christina |
In a modest white house in Wexford, a tiny blonde girl walks from a back room. She's dressed in the styles of today, with form-fitting black pants, a black crop top with zippered 50s-style jacket/shirt over it, along with black and white wedge-heeled sneakers. Hair and make-up are fixed to perfection. She seems comfortable - and used to being in the spotlight.
Seventeen-year-old Christina Aguilera may just be Pittsburgh's next claim to fame. She signed with RCA records in April, and in the very same week, was asked to record the pop version of Disney's newest animated film's theme song. 'Reflection' appears on 'Mulan's' soundtrack.
The outfit described earlier seems to be a good, comfortable choice for traveling clothes, as she was going to New York later that day for, as she called it, vocal training/media training. Oh, and while she's there, she has a little gig on a show called CBS This Morning on Friday. 'Gosh,' she covers her face, 'they're going to have me sing at, like, eight o'clock in the morning. My voice doesn't even wake up until 2:30. I'm so nervous, but excited.'
Her demeanor and self-possession belie her age. Looking at her, it's easy to wonder how such a powerful voice can come from such a small person. But, it does. By her own description she sings pop/R&B, in the Mariah Carey vein. And she just may be competing with Mariah on the charts someday soon.
This summer, Aguilera will be recording her very first full-length CD in Los Angeles - a dream come true. 'I've been singing all of my life. This has always been my dream; I can't even think of doing anything else,' she says.
She tells a story that her mother, Shelly Kearns, out of the room at the time, reiterates a little later. When she was three, she used to spread out a towel (her stage) and grab a bottle of shampoo that she sang into. 'It was the weirdest thing,' Kearns says, 'every other little kid would be playing normal, and she was playing entertainment.'
Aguilera's parents are very supportive and, when asked how she feels, Kearns says, 'Proud. I always knew it would happen.' When she was eight, Aguilera was on Star Search. She didn't win. 'I tied with a 12-year-old. I was like, 'it's not fair, he's twelve!'' she says with a smile.
After that she auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club (MMC). She didn't hear anything back from them, and kept up regular performances in the area. A few years later, when she was twelve, she got a call from the people at Disney. Turns out she was too young at the time of her MMC audition, but they had liked her and kept her tape. Now that she was twelve, she was old enough to be on the show.
The MMC episodes were taped at Disney studios in Florida over the summer and played all winter long. She was on the show for its last two seasons. When she was 14, the search for a manager started. She's been with the same management team for a few years, which is how she got to be on the 'Mulan' soundtrack. Her management is also responsible for sending her to compete in an international contest in Romania last summer where she represented the United States. While there, she got to share the stage with Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross. And we can't forget that she went to Japan to record a single with a Japanese artist. Peebo Bryson sang on it also, but their schedules didn't coincide, so she didn't get to meet him.
It's a crazy business that she's involved in, isn't she worried about all of the horror stories? Getting involved with bad people or a bad scene?
'I'm worried about being naive or taken advantage of. You just have to have good people around you.' Something that she and her mother feel she already has. Her management team is trusted implicitly. As Kearns says, 'After what we put those poor people through to make sure they were who they said they were (we trust them) ... oh yeah. We put them through the Spanish Inquisition.'
When traveling, Aguilera's always with either her managers or a chaperone who they've appointed for her. She admits that many things can happen in the fast-lane, but says that you just have to be careful. Plus, that's what the chaperone is for. 'Right now I'm pretty chaperoned - too chaperoned.'
The life she's led is far from that of a normal teenager. She says that she's learned the hard way who her friends really are, and that dating isn't the easiest thing in the world when most boys are intimidated by what she does.
Will she look back years from now and feel like she's missed out on her childhood? 'I already do. I was with someone looking at their yearbook, and I thought, 'I won't ever have this moment.' But I can't go back to school, I would regret it. I would always think, 'What if...' This is a dream, this is what I was meant to do.'
- Patricia Ricci for RealPittsburgh.com