Public image of Christina Aguilera
In the early 2010s, Aguilera faced a highly publicized era with negative media coverage following personal struggles and the commercial failure of Bionic and her film Burlesque (2010).
[9] Early in her career, Breihan found that Aguilera "thought of herself primarily as a [...] young Mariah Carey-type",[13] but was instead marketed as a bubblegum pop artist due to the genre's popularity in the late 1990s.
[24] Wanting to depart from the teen idol image, Aguilera filed a fiduciary duty against her then-manager Steve Kurtz for "improper, undue, and inappropriate influence over her professional activities" and eventually hired Irving Azoff to manage her career.
[a] She released the single "Dirrty" which garnered a negative response in the media with Entertainment Weekly labelling her as "the world's skeeziest reptile woman" and both Conan O'Brien and Simon Cowell calling her a slut.
[38] The album's second single "Beautiful" received universal acclaim from music critics and contrasting media reactions compared to Aguilera's previous efforts.
[40] At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, Aguilera opened the show singing "Like a Virgin" and "Hollywood" alongside Spears and was later joined by Madonna whom they both kissed.
[45] This new image drew inspiration from actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, such as Bette Davis and Marilyn Monroe, to go with her then-upcoming fifth studio album's 1920s–1950s musical direction.
[46] Vice writer Hazel Cills opined that Aguilera's new image was a result of her marriage to Jordan Bratman and wanted to "hark back to a time when women were ladies".
[47] Aguilera released Back to Basics (2006) to positive reviews with Stephen Erlewine opining that the album was "all the more impressive" coming after the "near career suicide of Stripped".
[53] In a review of her greatest hits album, Slant Magazine writer Sal Cinquemani opined that Aguilera's legacy was attributed to her combination of Whitney Houston's vocals, Madonna's outspokenness and Mariah Carey's image.
[58] That same year, Aguilera also filed for divorce from her husband Bratman and began dating Matthew Rutler, a set assistant on her then-upcoming film.
[64][65] W writer Lynn Hirschberg opined that while the film was a "disappointment", it is "rare for a pop star to have success in musicals (for every Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues there's a Mariah Carey in Glitter)".
[66] Aguilera attributed the film's reception to a "tumultuous set" where the first-time director Steve Antin, clashed with his ex-boyfriend Clint Culpepper, the head of the studio.
[68] In February 2011, Aguilera omitted a few lines while performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XLV, which led to extensive media coverage.
[70] That same month, Aguilera performed a tribute to Aretha Franklin at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards alongside various singers including Yolanda Adams, Jennifer Hudson and Florence Welch.
[72] Entertainment Weekly writer Kyle Anderson opined that The Voice helped Aguilera "regain much of the cultural cache she lost in the latter half of the aughts".
[79] She also received negative press following her performance at the 2012 American Music Awards which Entertainment Weekly described as a "embarrassing mess that left Aguilera looking more desperate than anything, and it did nothing to move the needle on Lotus".
[101] In 2023, Aguilera appeared with American rapper Latto on an advertisement, for the online food delivery service Just Eat and its Australian-counterpart Menulog, which saw the two artists performed a Hip opera song titled "Did Somebody Say".
[102] An 18th century-inspired music video was released for the campaign and received media attention, particularly for Aguilera's use of whistle tone which saw her "bring the house down – or at least a crystal chandelier".
[102][103] Later that year, Aguilera partook in the "What's In Your Bag" viral TikTok challenge for Menulog promotional video, and was described as looking "unrecognizable" with some users confusing her new look for Kim Kardashian.
[114] She later referenced the feud at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards while introducing Whitney Houston alongside Britney Spears who mentioned Eminem, at which point Aguilera dismissed him.
[124] Conversely, Entertainment Weekly writer Kyle Anderson opined that Aguilera's diva image was often heavily negative noting that she "carries too much cultural baggage with her" and that she "often fails to come across as particularly likable in interviews".
[73] BET writer Michael Arceneaux noted that while being a judge on The Voice, Aguilera was often accused of being a diva which was a result of a "bad reputation" from her "Stripped days, still making her susceptible to those sorts of rumors".
[135] Her songs have also been covered throughout Disney media including "Genie in a Bottle" by Dove Cameron from the Descendants franchise,[136] "Beautiful" by China Anne McClain from an episode on A.N.T.
[139] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Aguilera appeared on the ABC television special, The Disney Family Singalong and its follow-up, where she performed "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" and "Remember Me" respectively.
[145] Aguilera has also campaigned for the awareness of HIV/AIDS,[106] and also spoke out against Proposition 8 in 2008 noting that " it just doesn't make sense to me why you would put so much money behind something that stopped people from loving each and bonding together".
[146] In 2019, Aguilera was awarded by the Human Rights Campaign for using her "platform to share a message of hope and inspiration to those who have been marginalized [...] bringing greater visibility to the LGBTQ community".
[161] In an interview with Glamour Aguilera noted that during the late 1990s and early 2000s, "the media's obsession with her weight was particularly painful", adding that when she "started to fill out" from her teenager body, her "self-esteem then was based on how skinny [she] was".
[171][172] Jon Caramanica, journalist from The New York Times, concluded that "Aguilera will be remembered for her glamour and her scandalous take on femme-pop",[173] while Janelle Okwodu from Vogue noted that she "has never been afraid to take a fashion risk [and] has filled her videos with jaw-dropping styles and risqué runway looks".
News writer Gabrielle Chung called the outfit a "risqué ensemble" topped off with a white cap which was "something that was all the rage amongst the fashionable peeps back then".
