Christina Aguilera, Real Vocalist, Doesn’t Care About The Charts

Mike Nied | July 3, 2018 2:53 pm

Christina Aguilera has a lot to celebrate in 2018. The icon ended a 6-year musical drought with the release of Liberation last month. Her latest LP signified a return to form and performed well on the charts. Landing at the number six spot on the Billboard 200, it moved 68,000 units (sales and streaming) in its first week. Since then, the 37-year-old has embarked on a revealing promotional tour. She performed a solo version of her Demi Lovato-assisted “Fall In Line” on The Tonight Show and expressed interest in reuniting with Britney Spears on TRL. Yesterday (July 2), she gave one of her most honest interviews to date in a feature for The LA Times.

In it, the icon reflected on her last few projects. In particular, she opened up about 2010’s Bionic and 2012’s Lotus. Both LPs struggled to find love on the charts and were widely viewed as commercial misses. However, when asked about them, she revealed that they still held a special place in her heart. “It is an amazing thing whenever things are commercially received and successful. I’ve had those successes with ‘Genie in a Bottle’ and ‘What a Girl Wants,’ and I was still miserable because I wasn’t connected to the music and wasn’t being able to change it,” she explained.

“I’ve done my share of that and I see a lot of artists get into that trap of chasing the charts. After I’m dead and gone, I really want the music paid attention to and not because of where I charted or how commercially successful it was but because the quality has stood the test of time.” She also explained that Liberation was an opportunity for her to explore all elements of her sonic creativity. “Because I am a real vocalist, I have always heard, ‘Why don’t you just stand and do a bunch of ballads?’ That’s just one element of what I do, but it’s not everything. I would be so bored if I sat on the stage and just sang ballad after ballad.”

Interestingly, Xtina also turned her attention to her tenure as a judge on The Voice. The hitmaker listed it as one of the reasons for such a lengthy gap between projects. When asked why the position got in the way she explained that it felt limiting. “It just wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing with my life. I’m not a spokesperson. I’m an artist.” She also shared some insight about her forthcoming tour and how music on the new album relates to the times. Check out the full feature here.

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