Christina’s kind of Christmas - SOUNDS FAMILIAR by Baby Gil

You really have to hand it to Christina Aguilera. The 19-year-old pop diva has not only stolen the march from chief rival Britney Spears by coming out with her first Christmas album this year. She has also taken on the formidable task of standing up to Celine Dion with song These are Special Times.

Christina’s new album is My Kind of Christmas and it is a melodic, pop/R&B, gospel-tinged concoction that will surely delight listeners. I know, she is not really original at times and that she still has those undulating Mariah notes. But her fuller tones, expressive delivery and the lush arrangements of the selections make for music that will be played again and again each Christmastime. And for an edge, there is that song, These are the Special Times.

It will be recalled that this same song was beautifully recorded by Celine Dion for her highly successful album also titled These are the Special Times two year ago. It is generally believed in industry circles that there exists an unwritten rule among artists to stay away from hit songs that were recently recorded by somebody of the same sex and whose style belongs to the same genre.

You do not think that Mariah would record any hit by Whitney? But R. Kelly might because, although he also sings R&B, he is male and the version would be totally different. Do you think that Celine would attempt to sing a Streisand standard? Not on your life although she was honored to do a duet.

This is why it is so difficult to imagine any female singer today attempting her own take of a Celine song even if it is the phenomenal My Heart Will Go On. Not Christina though. So These are Special Times, which was written by one of today’s hottest songwriters, Diane Warren, is one of the few new tracks in her album. Check both releases out to see if one does better than the other.

The rest of the album is made up of the immortal Christmas carols, Angels We Have Heard on High and O Holy Night, the Yuletide standards, This Christmas, Merry Christmas Baby, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and The Christmas Song with a dance arrangement, plus two more originals, Christmastime by Celebrity Status Ron Fair, the same people behind Christina’s big seller Come on Over Baby and This Year by the Matrix and Christina herself.

Like Britney, Keri Russell of Felicity and N Sync’s Justine Timberlake and JC Chasez, Christina was a regular in the TV show The New Mickey Mouse Club, Her big break came when she was drafted to sing the pop version of the song "Reflection" from the animated movie Mulan. This was followed by her self-titled debut album which produced the big single Genie in the Bottle. Christina was named Best New Artist by the Grammy Awards early this year.

Still on Christmas; The Christmas dance medley has been an integral part of the local Yuletide celebration eversince fun-loving Pinoys discovered that dance tunes can be sequenced nonstop in an album. No sense stopping to catch your breath after one tune on the dancefloor when the music can go on and on and on. So after the phenomenal Christmas Medley of 20 years ago, there has been an annual procession of albums with very similar characteristics. They are all made up of Christmas songs set to the popular dance hit of the moment and made for nonstop dancing.

This year, the must-have album in this category is the This is How We Do It Christmas Medley, Get, Get Down. As the title suggests this series to tunes is built around two current dance favorites. Thse are This is How We Do It by Solid Base and Get Get Down by Paul Johnson. So after a foot-inviting This is How We Do It you get snippets of The First Noel, Frosty the Snowman, Up on the Housetop and others. Likewise with Get Get Down portion, which includes God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The Little Drummer Boy, Give Love On Christmas Day and others.

Times, they say, are hard. And it is. But that has never stopped the Pinoy from making merry during the Christmas Season and I don’t think this year will be an exception. So get, get down, there are only 23 days to go till Christmas.