What Happened To Christina Aguilera’s “Kimono Girl”?
Christina Aguilera celebrated the 10th anniversary of Bionic by finally making “Little Dreamer” available on streaming services. (It was previously an iTunes-only bonus track). That got me thinking about another song from the Bionic sessions, the borderline-mythological “Kimono Girl.” Another collaboration with Ladytron (“Little Dreamer” and “Birds Of Prey”), the unreleased bop was mentioned in interviews before the arrival of Bionic. The lyrics even made their way online, but — to my knowledge — “Kimono Girl” has never surfaced in full.
“She was a fan of our music and seemed very familiar, not just with the famous songs like ‘Playgirl’ and ‘Destroy Everything You Touch,’ but with the whole albums,” Ladytron said in a 2011 interview. “[Christina] wanted our kind of sound and luckily she just went straight to us as opposed to asking someone else to write and produce in our style, which has happened in the past.” The UK quartet also revealed that “Kimono Girl” was about Japanese culture, which isn’t really reflected by the lyrics.
“She comes from across the street, red lipstick on her lips,” the first verse allegedly goes. “She grabs all the attention, people know that she’s special.” That leads us to the chorus: “She is KIMONO GIRL! She comes this way!” What happened to the song? Maybe, Legend X feared a backlash. Dropping a tune called “Kimono Girl” is problematic in 2020, but this was before the general public woke up to cultural appreciation. In all likelihood, it was a dud or just didn’t fit the album. Nevertheless, I would still give my rent money to hear it.
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