US star Christina Aguilera has always had a killer voice, but now she's got killer songs.
The combination of her often soul-searching lyrics and always sky-scraping voice added power to her sold-out show at Rod Laver Arena last night.
Opening with Dirrty, the song which reinvented her career (and a video which was the most controversial around until Paris Hilton went a few steps further and gazumped her), Aguilera put most of her pop contemporaries to shame.
There's no miming, no complaining about trying to sing and dance at the same time and no baulking from the high notes.
With almost as many costume changes as Cher, Aguilera's refreshingly diverse Stripped album took the show from driving rock (Fighter) to stark, emotive balladry (The Voice Within) to gender-empowered R&B (Can't Hold Us Down).
It's now almost ridiculous to think Aguilera was seen as the poor man's Britney, especially when Aguilera breaks into a spine-tingling cover version of Etta James' At Last. You can't imagine Spears could even name an Etta James song, let alone sing one.
As well as reinventing her debut hit Genie in a Bottle as a rock track, and singing in Spanish, Aguilera's tour-de-force is her empowering No. 1 hit Beautiful, a song as powerful as her voice.
The influence of her personal lyrics and image over the dominantly female crowd was clear from banners stating "You changed my life", to the skimpy, flesh-baring mini skirts worn by many young girls.
But the diminutive singer put a coat over her provocative cat-suit before allowing herself to be photographed by the media, stripping down to more racier outfits once they'd left.
Delivering on the promise Stripped threatened, Aguilera has effortlessly moved from teen star to superstar.
(from: entertainment.news.com.au) |
