Christina Aguilera

Christina Maria Aguilera was born on December 18th, 1980, to parents Jim, a military father of Ecuadorian descent, and Shelly, an Irish professional violinist/pianist. Growing up with her brothers and sisters in Wexford, Pennsylvania, Christina always knew that she wanted to be a performer. Only in her early 20s, this blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty may have gotten more than she bargained for. Her career as a singer started when she began performing at her school's talent shows. She took her soulful voice to the Star Search stage, (like her singing counterpart, Britney Spears), and performed on national telelvision. The next time she performed in front of a live audience was when she sang the National Anthem for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins. At the age of 12, Christina landed a coveted spot on the popular variety show The Mickey Mouse Club as a "Mousketeer," with fellow castmates Britney Spears, Keri Russell, and J.C. Chasez and Justin Timberlake from the boy band *N Sync. After her two-year stint on The Mickey Mouse Club, Christina travelled to Japan in 1998, where she recorded a duet with Japanese star Keizo Nakanishi, and later toured in Japan. Her next public performance was at the Golden Stag Festival in Transylvania, Romania, joining Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross, who were also on the playlist. As if overnight, Christina became a star. It all started when she sent a demo tape to the producers of the Disney animated feature Mulan after having been invited to audition for the part. All the studio needed to hear was her home-recorded demo tape, in which Christina sang karaoke to Whitney Houston's hit "I Wanna Run to You," and the studio executives knew that they had found the wide-range voice they were looking for. Two days later, Christina recorded "Reflection" for Mulan and was signed for a record deal with RCA Records that same week. The song "Reflection" became a hit adult contemporary single, and garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song for a Motion Picture. Later in 2000, Aguilera first emphasized her Latin heritage by releasing her first Spanish album, Mi Reflejo on September 12, 2000. In 2001, it won Aguilera a Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. On October 29, 2002, after much delay, Aguilera's second full-length English album, Stripped, was released, selling more than 330,000 copies in the first week and peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200. In late summer 2004, Aguilera released two singles. The first, "Car Wash", was a remake of the Rose Royce disco song recorded as a collaboration with rapper Missy Elliott for the soundtrack to the film Shark Tale. The second song was also a collaboration, but this time as a second single from one of Nelly's double-release albums, Sweat, titled "Tilt Ya Head Back". Aguilera collaborated with jazz artist Herbie Hancock on a cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" recorded for Hancock's album Possibilities, released in August 2005.