Why did Christina Aguilera's career go straight down the shitter?

She got fat.

Is she still obese?

She makes me want to eat a hot dog real bad.

Because she is a FUCKING CUNT.

Poor attitude.

Apparently she suffers from the difficult to work with syndrome. Plus she's been working since she was 7 or something. Maybe she does what she wants now.

All the singing jobs were outsourced to Asia.

Her voice was very annoying.

Burlesque was on last week. That movie is like WeHo Showgirls! Love!! 💕

She is/was no Britney.

I swear I read that as

Why did Agatha Christie’s career go straight down the shitter?

I always thought she lost interest.

She definitely had the talent, but I never thought that she was fully in to being a pop diva. And the media always treated her like shit, asking her about Britney Spears in every single interview, which was totally unfair.

Because I love the shitter.

R11, because Agatha mysteriously disappeared for 11 days???

R10 I love them both.

Christina looks like she's about to sit on the shitter in that photo OP

Bionic was a huge flop and then Gaga came and stole her thunder. She never really recovered.

Plus, she's always suffered by following Britney. Britney hit first, and while Christina's first album did well, it's like she never became the pop culture phenomenon that Britney was. Remember the Madonna/Britney kiss? Nobody cared about Christina in that performance.

She aged.

R4 Is she Lea Michele levels of cunt?

R18, isn't that Twisted Sister???

As a singer, she is all paradoxes: she sings skillfully, but not beautifully. And her voice is low and shrill at the same time.

Almost all music careers have a shelf life of about 5-10 years.

The people who extend beyond that are either extremely exceptional, or else they figure out a way to hold the public's interest for longer...usually by keeping themselves constantly in the tabloids by fucking a series of other famous people, or by having mental breakdowns and other assorted sketchy or scandalous incidents.

Christina Aguilera is a fine singer, but she's not that exceptional. Other than briefly becoming a porker, and maybe the totally manufactured "feud" with Britney, she's been relatively scandal free. So, the public's attention went elsewhere, since the music itself wasn't good enough to keep their interest.

She had a pretty good run, all things considered. A 13-year span of hits is nothing to sneeze at, even though she was hard-pressed to come up with consistent, reliable hits after the first 6 years or so.

She's seriously underrated. Partly her own fault. I can post many great Xtina performances. But I'm bored with arguing on DL. She has a great voice and she also had great songs. Bionic should never have flopped. There's no accounting for bad taste. Kelly Clarkson is probably the best singer in the game, but she's not exactly on fire in her recording career. Respected for sure. Kelly is in a class by her own. Pop stardom is the most fickle thing in the world. Talent lasts forever. Xtina chased the pop machine a little too long, but let it be said far more invention and intention than most. Gaga did steal her thunder. And everything else from Aguilera. Love her or hate her, there's no denying her talent.

Why do people start these threads about singers whose heyday is long over? She was a 2000's pop act with a very good voice, who managed to build a nice career for herself during her decades in the business. I guess you still need #1s on the charts to be a success for DL? Im sure at 40 years old she couldn't care less about making another hit or fitting into another tiny outfit to sell an album.

What would you like for us to talk about instead, R24?

Pretty girl, pretty singing.

She was no Natalie Imbruglia.

R24 This website would be nothing if these bitches didn't talk about old hasbeen hags and their dried up careers.

She was no Cathy Dennis.

Her voice was too abrasive on most of her songs.

Her most successful singles — “Genie in a Bottle” and “Beautiful” — were songs where she actually showed some restraint.

A singer sings. Sometimes she pushed too hard for sure, but her vocal palette is extensive and her head voice is one of the prettiest around. Amazing vocal dexterity. I wish she hadn't pushed her voice down so much in her singing to give extra weight to her vocals, because her natural vocal tone is really beautiful.

Babies.

r25, singers from the 2000's whose careers ACTUALLY went straight down the shitter? There are many!

Xtina can still sing my friends. A little less voice, a bit more artistry. That's the way it's supposed to go as you age. Her voice is still beautiful.

Maybe because she is worth more money than God and just wanted to retire? You can hardly blame her. Pop acts rarely old up as "icons" as they age and time marches on.

Bionic felt impersonal and hollow after Back 2 Basics and Stripped which were both passion projects. Bionic also had lousy styling - she didn't look good imitating Madonna in the banal Not Myself Tonight. Lotus was equally ?? in the inage department. Sure, she'd gained weight, but there was no clear look. Branding and visual appeal matter in the pop world.

She's had really good collaborations in the last few years, but in her tour - a rickedy pale imitation of her former tours - fans want to hear her big hits....and are praying she can still manage some of the high notes and runs. She can't. Not like before.

Bottom line, mismanagement of brand, lackluster songwriting, weight gain and vocal decline. If she'd stopped trying to sing the way she did at 19, used a lighter touch and embraced a new image, something genuine and less diva, she'd be in a better place.

But let's remember, she seemed to put all her eggs into the basket of her marriage, which fell apart. That couldn't have been easy. And she was eating disorder thin for so long, it had to swing the other way at some point.

But she's a legend all the same. It was a HELL of a run. I miss her glory days. She was thrilling. I'm sure there will be more good songs from her now and again. Just A Fool and Fall In Line were both good.

I just hope she enjoys life and takes care of herself. Being a Cher or a Madonna for five decades seems torturous.

A combination of she took too long in between albums and she strayed away from the sound of her first two albums that made her popular.

So Good. Mind Blowing confidence and presence. Great singing.

Bionic was a good pop CD if maybe two years ahead of it’s time.

She was done in by GAGA after never being able to get out from Britney’s shadow.

She should have been marketed as the anti-Britney. But instead, she was marketed as the poor man’s Britney.

But the girl was always, ALWAYS in Britney’s shadow. A couple of times it seemed like Brit was always putting out an album just before or just after her Xtinas singles came out.

X also went too “dirty” and I don’t think she ever was able to shake that.

Britney is to Madonna what Christina is to Cindy Lauper.

No?

R11 That darn Archie. I’d be more interested in an Agatha thread to be honest.

Is that wig or extensions at OP?

Is she still grossly obese and packed into 4 size too small hooker clothing?

Because she refuses to take direction or listen to anyone else. If Mariah didn't have Tommy, she could have ended up just like Christina.

My problem with her is that she wanted to be known as the “sexy” singer which didn’t work well for her and made her look like a Britney rip off.

Everytime a new album was coming out, I’d think this will be the album where she focuses on her talents but then it’s seen each time she’s push the sexy angle instead.

LOL did someone really call Christina Aguilera a legend? She has maybe one song that is still remembered. I can't stand Britney's music but she has a much better claim to being a legend than Christina does.

It’s quite obvious, her Genie left the bottle. Or she’s been hitting the bottle. But yeah, it’s one of those definitely.

R46 um yes. I did. And its true.

One song? Seriously?

Beautiful, Ain't No Other Man, Dirrty, Fighter, Lady Marmalade, Genie in a Bottle.... that's five songs and a remake that any idiot on the street would immediately recognize from the opening bars.

How people in this day and age still say stuff like "Britney was better" or "she lived in Britney's shadow" amazes me. I don't know anyone who speaks about the two of them in the same breath. This thread is so bizarre...

Britney has been a drug addled puppet for years who famously lip synchs all her shows and can't sing for shit. She had a hell of a publicity machine behind her but that's about it. Oh and she danced well. But she has been a sad, sad mess for so, so long.

I definitely agree Gaga took the industry by storm, but it doesn't change Christina's body of work. She Sang, capital S, and had two huuuge albums and was seen as a Whitney-type successor in terms of ability.

She's a fat cunt who drinks way too much and is nowhere near as endearing as Lizha.

Christina has a drinking problem. It has fucked up her voice. I always liked her. Britney is fake. ...I mean I guess she could dance, but her "singing" was all about the technology. Christina has real talent. As GaGa and Adele became ascendant Christina faded. But long ago, I saw a concert she did with Justin TImberlake, and it was one of the best concerts I ever saw. In their prime they were amazing. Christina could really sing.

R40 um...no

She's still very much around. This is from the AMAs in 2019. And I think she performed at Kobe/Gia Bryant memorial..

Christina has a technically strong voice, but the way she uses it makes her impossible for me to listen to her for more then one song. Too many runs, too much guttural stuff.

Her style is to refuse restraint. This song, “Save Me From Myself,” is ironic in that respect—it’s restrained, and it reveals she has a lovely, emotive voice. It’s her choice to sing on one level and blow every syllable out of the water like a torpedo. It’s a choice I find off putting.

Some vocalists have less accomplished instruments but use them in far more nuanced and interesting ways. Christina Aguilera is like a one-woman nonstop oncoming train.

OK. Just one more. She sings with Herbie Hancock. Christina has substance. And I loved how bitchy she was on The Voice. I like Kelly Clarkson and some of the others, but Christina was just herself. She had that diva quality only a few have. Not saying she is at the same level as Aretha, but they were faily. LOL!

They were "family."

Not everyone can be as great as Madge.

She was like the white Whitney Houston.

Clive Davis even signed her to Arista the beginning

I don't disagree with you R53, but that's what makes her quieter moments so special.

R43 Whoever let Mariah and Christina perform, while 50 lbs overweight, crammed into those lingerie/leotards should be shot.

R45 I agree she was too obsessed with being sexy. She never came off as sexy though, just STD skanky and dirty looking.

Her sophomore Mariah Carey/Butterfly-esque album where she slutted it up turned off a lot of fans. Dirrty didn't even crack the top 40. Rebounded a bit with Beautiful but the damage was done.

Just when you think the Straight Down the Shitter Troll has safely disappeared down the shitter, he crawls out of the shitter.

F & F the misogynist OP who only trashes female celebrities he wishes he could be.

She's probably the most talented of that crop of pop tarts who broke in 99/early 2000s (although her vocal gymnastics are mostly annoying). But always came across as chasing trends, or she just had terrible timing. Her first album was a generic bubble gum blonde pop album that lumped her in with Britney, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore and all those other V-for-Virgin acts. She did a Spanish album in the middle of the huge Latin pop wave. Stripped felt like she was chasing Avril Lavigne and Pink! And Back to Basics just seemed bland compared to Amy Winehouse. Nothing ever felt authentic or original from her.

She had 4-year gaps in between her first 4 albums. The fact that she lasted 10 years (give or take) as an A-list pop star with that kind of absence is awesome. But she did do collaborations in between to keep her name out there.

Remember that one point where the three biggest female stars were from Pennsylvania: Pink, Christina and Taylor?

"She had 4-year gaps in between her first 4 albums."

No she didn't, unless you're not counting her Spanish or Christmas albums.

R66 Yes dear, we don’t those unless one is a Ronstadt or a Streisand.

Her oversinging is awful. She is the epitome of oversinging. Her artistic output is the equivalent of Cheesecake Factory mixed with Restoration Hardware.

Also, she went to a funeral with period blood dripping down her leg.

Burlesque is one of those movies that is so bad and yet so good at the same time. It probably would have sucked without Christina and Cher, but they make it amazing.

R68 ...it was spray tan, not blood.

Dirrty was a huge hit globally and a great song. US soccer Moms freaked out, but saw Britney and were all like "slave 4 u?" Sounds wholesome :)

Americans are weird hypocrites about sex.

How Beautiful does she feel now?

....do you guys seriously only respect women who have Eating Disorders? She was rail thin at the start of her career. Her mother had to step in because she was being so overworked by her label it was clear she wasn't going to be able to avoid a collapse.

A woman's body changes after she has a child. Deal with it. Jesus.

It really is a beautiful song with a great message, but of course you have to crap on her over her looks because she's gained weight, and then in the same breath crap on her for having been too sexy/skanky.

At least she owned her sexuality. Britney was told how to act and what to sing, and forced to sing with that breathy affectation, and to kiss Madonna, and carry the boa....and tease, tease, tease....

The songs on Christina's Stripped album were about empowerment. It was her talking about her sex life for real.

Listen again to Can't Hold Us Down with Lil Kim, Dirrty, Get Mine, Gets Yours.... Song is about a young woman embracing your sexuality. Hell, Carson Daly put her on the spot in an interview and asked if she was still a virgin and she had the balls to say no. Good for her.

[Quote] and maybe the totally manufactured "feud" with Britney, she's been relatively scandal free.

She did manage to slip under the radar when it came to fucking Sam Ronson while dating LiLo.

[Quote] Stripped felt like she was chasing Avril Lavigne and Pink! And Back to Basics just seemed bland compared to Amy Winehouse. Nothing ever felt authentic or original from her.

Pink was pissed off that Xtina worked with Linda Perry on Beautiful.

SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK

R72 So you are saying Christina carried the snake of her own volition?

[Quote] Hell, Carson Daly put her on the spot in an interview and asked if she was still a virgin and she had the balls to say no. Good for her.

I'm glad those types of questions wouldn't fly now.

R76 Neither would Carson Daly

[quote]She should have been marketed as the anti-Britney. But instead, she was marketed as the poor man’s Britney.

Which made no sense because Christina could actually sing unlike that other no-talent.

She went down that deadly "I'm a sex kitten" route. It failed and she never tried to change away from that. It's the same with Janet Jackson and others.

What was her last hit? Candyman?

R80, that Say Something song. I'm kind of amazed people are actually calling her a legend on here. Mariah, Whitney and Celine are legends. Christina? No. She's just an imitator who had like two years of big popularity and then declined further and further. She has maybe two or three remembered songs from her peak as a solo artist, one of which was a collaboration (Lady Marmalade). She had one very successful album and two that did OK. That's not a legend by any stretch of the imagination.

Oh come on now, I just know all y'all bitches were CRYsinging Beautiful into your mirror every night. That's enough to make her iconic!

R82 don't look at me.

I looove that Candyman video. The color palette is amazeballs!

R82, and that’s back when gays weren’t cool at all.

But instead of focusing on soulful songs like Beaitiful (where she seemed to thrive), she tried to go down the sexy route many were going for at the time and it turned people off.

She is smart though and I think has made tons of money.

She seems cursed with trying too hard though and that slightly keeps her out of the legends league.

The number with Herbie Hancock is TERRIBLE. I listened to most of the songs listed here, and didn't make it through one of them. She did it her way so good for her, but if she had a musical director she might have been great.

I'd like to hear more about this love triangle between Lilo, Sam Ronson and Xtina.....

Her resentment about other, less talented female singers eclipsing her always kind of shone through and she always seemed bitter to me.

She's another one who could have benefited greatly from a vocal coach. It may surprise people to learn that Frank Sinatra worked with a vocal coach regularly even in the autumn of his career. Yet Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Hudson and a lot of others feel like they don't need to. They're "artistes" and they have to have "their own" style. Hah.

[quote]She's another one who could have benefited greatly from a vocal coach

How do you know she didn't have one?

R89, Christina is notoriously someone who refuses to take direction. There's a reason her debut sounds so restrained--it was despite her, not because of her. Her producers said that they had to keep telling her not to oversing when recording. By her second album, she was more cocky.

I thought that was Lita Ford a minute. She's too much of a diva. People just don't want to deal with her.

R35 - exactly - she wants to take a breather. She has 2 kids - 12 and 6. She slowed down after the second one in 2014.

Britney isn't tearing up the charts either. Careers have ups and downs. She was a big pop singer for almost 20 years - which deserves respect.

She's fine - hopefully enjoying life and her kids.

She was dumb as hell to quit The Voice. That was the best thing to happen to her since her music career was over. Now she’s back at square one.

She (or her record label) was also stupid for not releasing the title track from Bionic as the first single since that was the best song on the album.

Hope she's saving some of that money. That lifestyle is not cheap.

"Beautiful, Ain't No Other Man, Dirrty, Fighter, Lady Marmalade, Genie in a Bottle.... that's five songs and a remake that any idiot on the street would immediately recognize from the opening bars."

Huh? No one but Christina fans remember Fighter, Ain't No Other Man, or Dirrty. The only songs of hers the average person would know are Beautiful and Genie in a Bottle

r8 No, she just over indulges. Her voice isn't bad but all those runs, rifts, and forced belting can ruin a song.

[quote] Huh? No one but Christina fans remember Fighter, Ain't No Other Man, or Dirrty. The only songs of hers the average person would know are Beautiful and Genie in a Bottle

Thank you. And this is why she is not a legend. She was also popular for like 5 years.

I barely recognized her in the clip at r34. Did she have work done?

Didn't she have a feud with Pink?

r100 yes, over Lady Marmalade. She tried to jump Pink at a club once. They made up on the voice.

LOL...

She did smaller venues and casinos on her tour a few years ago and a lot of complaints about her starting late and a mediocre show.

The oversinging was dreadful. She sounded the same on every song. You can't have a long career if you do that. Artists have to switch it up in terms of how they approach various songs.

I define agree she needed to pull back and show some restraint....but Bionic and Lotus had do few good tunes.

The bionic song was silly - "Bionic! So damn..... bionic?(hey!)" WTF is that? She stopped singing about life and her experiences and just started singing songs other people wrote that she hoped would be cool.

Again, her Duets the last 10 years have been better than almost all of her solo outings. Fall in Line, I'm Just a Fool, Moves Like Jagger, Say Something, Feel This Moment...all okay to good songs.

Of her solo efforts, only a couple have stood out. Your Body, Lift Me Up, Blank Page, Army of Me.... all good as well.

They had SO FEW good tunes, I mean

Also, she needs an image makeover. The fake Kardashian lips and slicked-back ponytail and bad pleather chaps as a callback to her dirrty days? No. Hell no.

Considering the strength and power of her instrument, if she did an album that was more soulful, more Adele, she would be better off for it.

Pink has definitely revitalized herself as a more soulful singer and I think it has done wonders for her career.

Christina sang at the memorial for Kobe and Gia Bryant at the request of the family. Vanessa, etc. And lest you queens go crazy, she sings the Ave Maria as a lament. It is very Latino. It is a particular style of singing and this is a classic interpretation of it. So yes, it's the Ave Maria, but done as a Latin lament.

I'm glad the announcer reminded us, 6 Grammys.

All the aging divas are looking for "nests." Aguilera had The Voice and Britney and others nail Las Vegas contracts.

True, r109. They want to fund their retirement, and are at an age where it's the end of the line for any interest the public might have.

I love her song and video for Hurt. I love a good 1920s circus. Was her dad in the vid Viggo Mortensen? He used to be a snack!!

Britney can't sing for shit.

Bionic was ahead of its time so it of course didn't fit with everything else she'd done up to that point. She also can be an excellent singer, as someone else said, when she shows restraint.

I think the problem with her is she was constantly being compared to Britney and that was a battle she wasn't going to win. She would have done better at fully throwing herself into Latin music in order to stand out.

Ultimately the very nature of pop music it makes it something that is constantly changing. Most of the acts from her time period aren't doing much these days. Hell, take a look back at her "classic" Moulin Rogue video. Mya & Lil' Kim are done. Pink still performs but she's nowhere near the same level of popular that she used to be. Even Missy disappeared for a while, reappeared with Katy Perry performing at the Super Bowl and had kids asking who the hell she was! She still makes music but she's still not as popular as she once was. At least she was influential enough that she gets a tribute occasionally.

[quote]Almost all music careers have a shelf life of about 5-10 years. The people who extend beyond that are either extremely exceptional, or else they figure out a way to hold the public's interest for longer...

Beyonce, Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and Taylor Swift come to mind.

Kelly had to diversify what she does. Gaga had to go into films. Beyonce changed her style. Taylor is constantly involved in one controversy or another.

r113, Taylor's just a cunt.

Bionic wasn't ahead of it's time, it came out two years after The Fame did and was released the same year as The Fame Monster. It was very much a product of the Lady Gaga mania that happened between 2009 and 2011.

**** HOW WAS BIONIC "AHEAD OF ITS TIME?" ****

r116, right? If R113 was around then, I'm surprised they don't remember that she was called out for copying Gaga. It was a product of its time, not ahead of it in any way.

Bionic seems to have no connection to her real life. When Christina emancipated herself with Stripped, we got songs about her sexuality, watching her mother get abused while growing up, being fed up with the double standard of sexism, believing in herself......everything felt like it was part of a confessional directly from Christina to her listeners. With Back to Basics, she decided to go with a musical theme and specific style and look, but the songs were still connected to her personal life, especially on the second half of the album where she sang about her concerns about getting married, and her fears about being in the spotlight and self-sabotage. Even though it was an homage to gospel music and soul music and vintage Hollywood glam, it was still about HER.

....I have NO idea what Bionic is about. I think she thought she could just rest on her laurels a little bit and get some fun people to collaborate with and sing on their songs and not confess anymore. Of course she had just had a baby, and I don't know exactly around what time her marriage started to go south so maybe that was part of it too. But nothing on Bionic sounded fresh or innovative. Calling the album "bionic" in describing it as a "fusion" doesn't necessarily mean the contents match the description.

I like the Birds of Prey song but I have no idea what the hell it's about. Not Myself Tonight was embarrassing both from a lyrical standpoint and with the copycat music video. Woohoo with Nicki Minaj was a bit silly, as was Vanity.

I think the only song on that album that seemed in any way to be her speaking to her real life was You Lost Me, and even with that...I don't know. The song suggests that her husband cheated on her, but I heard that she cheated on her husband. Whatever. It just felt like Christina didn't want to talk about herself anymore and just wanted other people to give her material to sing and that's when everything went south.

As much as her hey day was about well-produced pop, there was still a level of authenticity to her that made her appealing. She wasn't Brittany and she wasn't fake and plastic and manufactured. She could actually sing with the best of them. I just don't think she had the best material following Back to Basics and she definitely didn't have the best looks. The only time I was kind of proud to be a fan of hers after Back to Basics was when I would see her at some benefit dressed simply in a black jacket or gown with her hair tied up nicely singing something with heart.

People have been saying she should stop with the growling for years. Had she listened, song some more soulful stuff that was more comfortably within her range, and presented herself as classy, I think she'd be in a better position now. Unfortunately, a lot of her best songs are tied to her messier rebellious album, so in concert she has to keep putting on the assless chaps no matter how ridiculous it looks now at her age. And since she hasn't worked herself out in the gym for a hundred hours a day like Madonna did, she's aging more naturally and just doesn't look the part of a teen who wants to get dirty and get off and break the rules.

It's her career to do with as she pleases and again I think she's a remarkable talent and I am a fan, but nothing about what she's been doing the last few years has worked for her. I do agree her being a coach on The Voice was a smart move, though. But in terms of making and selling new music, I'm a bit baffled at her approach.

Thanks for your wonderful post R118. You said it all.

One of the best of her live tv performances.

[Quote] The song suggests that her husband cheated on her, but I heard that she cheated on her husband.

Open marriage.

So do we have a name yet for the relentless Christina Stan on this thread yet?

Xtinabot?

Xtina has lots of fans. Why shouldn't she?

R123, she sure did...in the year 2000.

Christina Aguilera has 17 million followers. Barbara Streizand has 600,000. It's all relative Nana R124.

R118 You have thought long and hard about this, and I'm impressed with how articulately you've stated your opinion. I'm convinced! Close this thread, Muriel. I need to read no more.

It all just became too much. She released two consecutive double albums - “Stripped” and “Back to Basics” - that would have benefitted immensely from dropping about nine songs each. Not to mention every single song is (over) sung to within an inch of its life.

She was also given too much creative control too quickly, essentially having free reign on “Stripped” despite only one hit record and no demonstrated ability as a songwriter. She really has Linda Perry and “Beautiful” to thank for extending her commercial peak another four years or so.

“Back to Basics” felt like the perfect niche for her to settle into, but again the thing was so overblown that some of her very best songs (“Candyman,” “Save Me From Myself,” “Makes Me Wanna Pray”) got lost in the mess.

Has anyone just directly put this question to her? And if so, what was her answer?

She was insanely ambitious and talented. Just too much everything sometimes. But a racehorse wants to run. She had that great big voice and she wore it out. Gorgeous girl too. She was fucking young. You can't compare her to Britney or Pink or Whitney. Nobody could really do what Christina was doing...until Gaga came along and made every performance so conceptual.

When she sang she inserted 20x more notes than what were written in each bar of music. People became exhausted listening to her.

Aww thanks r119 and r126 :)

R130 She was hardly the first to do this, but she was a definite serial offender.

I trace the overuse of melisma and "why sing one note with emotion and passion, when you can squeeze in ten notes and show off your chops?" as THE go-to style of singing in R&B back to the rise of Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men in the early 90's.

Before that, it was generally used sparingly. Aretha, Gladys, Stevie and Luther all did it occasionally, and more often in a live setting than on recordings. And they all had really, really substantial voices, with tremendous depth. The guys from Boyz II Men had nowhere near that kind of resonance of tone, and they constantly fluttered all around the melody lines, like "look at me, look at what I can do with my voice!". Mariah too, although her voice had a bit more substance to it, it was still annoying AF.

Mariah Carey didn't really start overusing melisma until the late 90s, after her voice deteriorated. It was a compensatory move. Listen to Vision of Love, I Don't Want to Cry, Emotions, Can't Let Go, I'll be There, etc. Christina wrote the book on abusing melisma.

Mariah always overused melisma, though she was once able to hit a note in the centre and hold it. We used to say that she sounded like she was singing into a fan. The kind that blows. Mariah understands nothing about shaping and building a song lyrically. She's kind of meaningless noise, though it was often astounding and quite beautiful noise. A long time ago.

Mariah sounds like a musical genius compared to the utter shit "singers" we have now. I was never a fan of Mariah's back in the 90s but when I hear her old songs now I have an appreciation for her that I didn't have back then.

R134, I disagree, this is the kind of song I think of when I think of early Mariah. This or "Without You".

This is a great version of one of her best songs. She builds the song and uses her full vocal palette, shading the lyrics while engaging her trademark melisma to beautiful effect. Christina's gorgeous head voice peeks through too. Those gorgeous high chest belts. People who don't like her, won't like this either - but it's raw, powerful and beautiful. Like Whitney, Xtina sang her songs a bit differently each time in concert. Because unlike so many others, Xtina sings LIVE.

I think she’s lazy. Pink went out and did international theatre tours then international arena tours and worked at it. She watched What’s Love Got To Do With It and hired Tina Turner’s Australian touring manager.

Christina couldn’t sell out a few tours and had increasingly poorly received albums and rather than recalibrating her expectations and continuing to work she did The Voice.

And she was constantly whining about Britney, Jessica, Beyonce, Gwen and everyone else the bad attitude is a turnoff.

Shame, because I listened to Bionic in Mykonos and it’s a very solid album.

Bionic is a very good album even when you're not in Mykonos. Xtina has some personal failings. I don't stan her as personality. I know a few things. She's not as lazy as Mariah, but Xtina did take her vocal talent for granted after early success and would accept little guidance, advice or training. She's quite egotistical. Which is too bad, because her vocal tone and power, range and agility make her the next great female DIVA voice after the Trinity. Kelly Clarkson has long surpassed her as a pure vocalist and singer of e v e r y t h i n g - there's nothing wrong with that. Kelly knows her voice, but always wants to improve. Kelly sings correctly but works her voice ragged. That recovers. Xtina used a lot of bad technique and affectations to make a WOW impression. And she blew out parts of her voice. It's not just high notes - there are pieces of her voice missing. Very similar to what happened to Mariah. They didn't have enough discipline to learn to sing, because they had such phenomenal natural gifts and great success from the word go. That said, Xtina still sounds beautiful within her limitations and vocal losses, while Mariah can't sing any better than Happy Birthday Mister President.

Kelly Clarkson is my girl, because her heart is right there in it and her voice is multi dimensional phenomenal. But Xtina was the last DIVA. Gaga ain't shit compared to Aguilera.

Britney can't sing for shit.

r139 Mariah had good technique just was unlucky with nodules. I am only baffled at Whitney who smoked frequently, that should have been straight up illegal for her

Lots and lots of singers have been smokers.

R141 You mean smoking crack?

I love Christina but she needed an editor and listen to a vocal coach. She takes herself way too seriously. But that said she has improved in her recent performances though her voice is probably damaged