Christina María Aguilera ( AG-il-AIR-ə, Spanish: [kɾisˈtina maˈɾi.a aɣiˈleɾa]; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Referred to as the "Voice of a Generation", she is noted for her four-octave vocal range and signature use of melisma. She is recognized as an influential figure in popular music, having been credited with paving the way for pop artists who incorporate controversial themes such as feminism, sexuality, and LGBT culture into their music.
Aguilera rose to fame in 1999 with her self-titled debut album. Its singles "Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants" and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)" reached the top of the US Billboard Hot 100, and Aguilera won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. She found continued success with Mi Reflejo (2001), Stripped (2002) and the critically acclaimed Back to Basics (2006). The latter two constituted a departure from her teen idol image, with Stripped becoming one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. She also amassed numerous international hits, including the number-one single "Lady Marmalade", as well as "Beautiful", "Dirrty", "Can't Hold Us Down", "Fighter", "Ain't No Other Man" and "Hurt". Throughout the 2010s, Aguilera featured on the successful singles "Feel This Moment", "Say Something", and "Moves like Jagger"; the latter reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Aguilera one of the few artists to reach the top spot over three decades.
Aguilera was a cast member of the television show The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (1993–1994) as a child. She recorded "Reflection", the theme for the 1998 animated film Mulan, and later re-recorded the track for its 2020 live-action remake. In 2019, for her contributions to the Walt Disney Company, Aguilera was honoured as a Disney Legend. In 2010, she starred in Burlesque and contributed to its soundtrack. Her subsequent ventures included a role in the series Nashville (2015), roles in the films The Emoji Movie (2017) and Zoe (2018), becoming an ambassador for the World Food Programme (WFP), performing a concert residency and serving as a coach on the reality competition show The Voice (2011–2016).
Aguilera is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 100 million records sold worldwide. Considered a pop culture icon and a triple threat entertainer, she has been named one of the greatests vocalists of all time by publications such as Rolling Stone and Consequence of Sound. In 2009, Billboard named her the twentieth most successful artist of the 2000s, she and was ranked the eighth greatest woman in music by VH1. Aguilera is regarded as one of the most influential Latin artists in the entertainment industry. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, two Latin Grammy Awards, six ALMA Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards (VMA), one Billboard Music Award, one Guinness World Record, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
