MANILA, Philippines - It really isn’t the best time to be Christina Aguilera. After a failed attempt at a comeback (Bionic), less than blockbuster numbers for her campy movie debut (Burlesque), and a surprising divorce, she seems to have taken the Amy Winehouse route to personal life problem management, allegedly drinking it up around town and looking like Snooki’s lighter-haired half-sister.
There have already been attempts at a comeback, of course. The coveted Super Bowl National Anthem slot she snagged last month was supposed to remind everyone what a formidable talent she still is. Instead, what was supposed to be a triumph ended in a lyric flub and, even more troublingly, bad singing, with Christina ending on a particularly screechy note.
She got that comeback a week later, when she participated in an Aretha Franklin tribute at the Grammy’s. Flanked by some of the industry’s best voices—everyone from Jennifer Hudson to a Machine-less Florence—she delivered a masterful, if overly showy, rendition of Aretha’s eternal ballad Ain’t No Way. But, of course, in what is fast becoming an Aguilera trend, she sabotaged her own comeback by tripping on the stage, falling on her ass when she should’ve been triumphant. If this happened a few Grammy’s ago, people wouldn’t even notice. But because this is in the thick of her unraveling, it was all anyone talked about—well, that and her weight gain (“Did Jennifer Hudson and Xtina trade bodies?”).
This week, she seemed to be making great strides to Lindsay Lohan territory, arrested for public intoxication, putting her house up for sale, and then getting sued for allegedly stealing the hook of her 2006 hit Ain’t No Other Man from a 1968 latin soul tune. This was all punctuated by the cover of gossip rag Star, showing a double-chinned Aguilera and the headline “Christina Aguilera’s Booze & Food Binges… ROCK BOTTOM.”
It’s funny how things can go from bad to worse. For a while, Xtina was widely-regarded as one of this generation’s best stars, feted by heavyweights like Mick Jagger and Etta James as one of their own. A child of divorce and domestic abuse who willed herself to stardom on the back of a big voice and even bigger ambition, she was the counterpoint to both Britney Spears and Beyonce, readily revealing battle scars and childhood trauma while others reveled in their precise and studied performances, portraying a clean image devoid of anything vaguely uncouth and, in effect, anything with real personality. She triumphed on the basis of these differences. Things went wrong the moment she obliterated these differences and tried to play catch-up with younger stars like pop culture juggernaut Lady Gaga and the inexplicable success that is Ke$ha.
The personal problems, from where I’m standing at least, are a bit exaggerated. Who wasn’t enjoyed a drink or two (dozen) after a break-up?
But to be relevant again, at least in the professional sense, Christina Aguilera might need to do something she’s never done in her life: Stop singing so damn loud. The problem with someone with outsized gifts is that they tend to use their talents as a crutch. Bad song? Do a billion melody-destroying vocal runs to give it some life. Formidable duet partner? Throw in a dog whistle to kill the competition. Christina Aguilera needs to learn how to sing again, how to tell a message through a song instead of using the song to show off her multi-octave range.
Her biggest triumph, after all, was Beautiful, a three-hanky pop ballad about loving yourself, a kind of Beatles meets Bette Midler ballad that stays on the collective consciousness almost a decade on. While that song gave her some room to belt, it was the song’s simple but piercing delivery that made it a classic.
She’s the classic example of someone who thinks being talented is enough. She’s that kid in class who thinks, just because she was born gifted, the world will fall at her feet. And just like that self-satisfied smart kid, Christina will learn that if she doesn’t try harder, by studying the new landscape, utilizing her talents better, and acquiring some humility, she’ll never make it to the top of the class again.