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Baby Jane

Thanks to that wonderful Web creation YouTube, I finally, finally was able to see the music video of Christina Aguilera's new single Ain't No Other Man, as well as her MTV Movie Awards performance of that song.

Way before Xtina became a fixture in the pop music world, we all know that she rendered her version of that Mulan theme song Reflections. I didn't like it, though I confess her version is part of my karaoke repertoire. There was something too hard-edged about her voice that didn't seem to fit the tenderness of the song. A girl with a big voice, her relatives would describe her, and back then she perhaps didn't quite know how to control her gift.

I was first blown away by her four-octave vocal skills in the song I Turn To You. By the time Come on Over Baby was released, my excitement went through the roof. Loved the song, loved the video, loved her voice. (And she won the Best New Artist Grammy Award at 18!) Then came her duet with Ricky Martin, Nobody Wants To Be Lonely, a slightly lackluster song that didn't showcase her talents well enough. Despite that, I vowed to get her next album.

Unfortunately, her follow-up album Mi Reflejo came and went in my consciousness. (I wanted to hear her sing English!) But when Stripped hit the music store shelves, I was quick to get a copy. And the more I saw and heard her--in Lady Marmalade and Car Wash--I asked myself if she'd rightfully replace Madonna as my favorite pop diva.

With her video Ain't No Other Man, Christina Aguilera is in my mind Madonna's true heiress, an artist who's not afraid of reinvention, and is very much attuned to her sexual powers. Yes, Madonna did the whole classic big-band thing in her 1990 collection I'm Breathless (Songs Inspired by Dick Tracy), but Xtina can undobtedly sing. Otherwise, Andrea Bocelli wouldn't have her on his album.

I'm getting Back To Basics, even if it's two CDs! *gasp*

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