Christina Aguilera’s 17 best songs ranked – from Dirrty to Beautiful

Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: RCA 

17. Do What U Want (2013)

 
Lady Gaga’s worst-ever and most problematic single was somewhat redeemed by this Christina-featured remix: a dash of elegance in an otherwise lumbering affair that browbeats the listener. Best consumed via this The Voice 2013 performance: the pair’s crackling chemistry remains the show’s only justification for existence.

16. Not Myself Tonight (2010)

The chorus is fine, but this uninspired, forgettable dance number, and pivotal song is Christina’s journey, was a serious error in quality control. (But not unprecedented: a similar mishap, 2008’s disappointing Keeps Getting’ Better, preceded it.) A terrifying video painfully reminiscent of Gaga’s Bad Romance worsened matters.

15. Express (2010)

In a tonally messy year for Christina, 2010’s Back To Basics-lite Burlesque soundtrack followed – by mere months! – Bionic’s experimental futurepop. This glam big band number is the best thing on it, despite a meandering first minute and wall-to-wall shrieking. Under a different strategy, with fine-tuning, it might’ve been huge. Instead, it’s Ain’t No Other Man/Lady Marmalade’s underachieving sibling.

14. Your Body (2012)

Why didn’t this robust, EDM pop-dance anthem, turbocharged with wailing ‘woahs’, fare better? Well, Nicki Minaj’s all-conquering Starships did much the same, with more energy, earlier that year. What’s more, like many X-tina songs before it, Body goes for the sexual jugular – and as the law of diminishing returns dictates, even that gets boring in the end.

13. Candyman (2007)

Bluesy, soulful brilliance, or a sly exercise in disposable pop? Certainly, brain-dead, on-the-nose lyrics about “a sweet talkin’ sugar coated candy man” who makes “panties drop” do not warrant close inspection. But, with its galloping pace and deliciously layered vocals, this highly polished – …jingle? Is it a jingle? – is still worth a spin. Oh, and Alexandra Burke’s X Factor version was more than OK.com.

12. Reflection (1998)

The star’s off-forgotten debut single appeared on the Mulan soundtrack and is as finely crafted and by-the-numbers as any Disney call-to-arms. It’s fascinating to compare the gentler 1998 arrangement with Christina’s more authoritative 2020 re-record: pure nostalgia, with the wisdom and weightiness of a veteran star who’s been there.

11. Hurt (2006)

A departure from the broad brush stroke banality of the prior song, Christina’s classiest slowie is a high stakes confessional that looks grief square in the face. The star hits new heights of vocal control, and is uplifted by sweet strings and her trustry piano. When the percussion kicks in at the three-minute mark, things really step up a gear.

10. Come On Over (All I Want Is You) (2000)

The first version’s a tinny dud akin to an early Britney album track, but the single was the most fizzily poppy moment of Christina’s career, with a soaring melody and a cheeky rap hinting at the playfulness to come. Other songs of its ilk are stupidly infantile, but Christina’s self-possession shines throughout, and that towering voice was, less than two years in, still a massive shock whenever you heard it.

9. Dirrty (2002)
 

 
“Dirty, filthy, nasty…” Christina’s unignorable cultural reset/explosive rebirth as X-tina was ushered in by a horny-sounding Redman, and propelled by all-out hip, not to mention a crashing symphony of bizarre sounds. We don’t just mean her indecipherable shouting, either, of which no amount of hot lemon will soothe. But the beat, for example – is that a motorbike ignition? The shrill ring of a boxing bell? Why is someone woofing like a dog?
 
This floor-filler’s chaotic atmosphere, thick with sex and kink, was famously heightened in the video. (You sense an orgy’s taking place off-screen.) But break Dirrty down and it barely qualifies as sexy, let alone sex-positive, because it’s not really about sex. Basic AF lyrics about “sweat dripping over my body, dancing, getting just a little naughty” are pure ode-to-the-dancefloor territory, and what exactly that incomprehensible rap is about (or, indeed, that double ‘rr’ in Dirrty) we don’t know.

 
8 Say Something (2014)

Her most-played track on Spotify by a mile, Christina’s work with musical duo A Great Big World is a rare latter-day smash from a one-time hit machine, and an emotive piano ballad as unexpected and unorthodox in the star’s discog as Moves Like Jagger was predictable and calculated.

Why? Because she’s under-singing, for a start. On her Maroon 5 duet, she steals the show at the eleventh hour with good old-fashioned belting; on Say Something, she sings in unison with Ian Axel, never taking the spotlight but blending their voices and refining her own to an unrecognisable degree. It literally doesn’t sound like her. Gorgeous, even if the song itself is inert.

7 Can’t Hold Us Down (2003)

Those who judged Christina’s scantily clad Dirrty image were served food for thought upon commencement of Stripped. A spoken-word intro teases something monumental, but then Can’t Hold Us awakens at its own funky, unhurried pace. A perfectly pitched ‘f**k you’ that relishes in dancehall grooves and sharp, spat-out observations about sexual inequality, it was an accessible entry into conversations around misogyny for teens.
 
You don’t notice initially, but the effect by the song’s end is one of scorched earth, and in another hip-hop detour from her pop roots, Christina’s sometimes hysterical diatribes are complimented by a nonchalantly delivered rap from Lil’ Kim, who takes aim at gross men with glorious indifference.

6 What a Girl Wants (2000)

A gushing tribute to a perfect boyfriend, Christina’s second smash is lyrically less interesting than its predecessor, but does boast an utterly bizarre, antiquated bridge – underscored by a medieval scene in the video – that was thrilling at the time; the height of avant-garde to this then-13-year-old. (Re: the video, it also features a gaggle of annoyingly attractive d***heads who look to be hanging out in a converted East London warehouse circa 2022, because the 90s are back.)
 
A spluttering drum machine weaves achingly cool, almost chilly verses with a chorus of unbridled warmth and adulation. Christina sings passionately to a level few could match, as the song fades out over rich harmonies and fab vocal inflections that leave you wanting more.

5 Lady Marmalade (2001)

Jagger’s tried and tested formula was established here: a vocalist you thirst for, withheld until the midway point, and then… utter uninhibition. Of course, this Labelle cover’s value is in the more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts magic of Christina, Mya, Pink, and Lil’ Kim collectively: all four sound like the individuals they are, with Mya crooning, Pink growling, Kim issuing a punchy lesson in defiance and Christina singing like her f***ing life depends on it, naturally.
 
In fact, Christina’s unrestrained, camp vocal is positively eccentric, and all the more addictive for it. It’s a caricature of burlesque that no doubt led to her and Cher’s movie nine years later.

 
4 Ain’t No Other Man (2006)
 
Christina had earned the right to an operatic vocal run or 10 by her third era – well, by What A Girl Wants, really – and so begins this joyously jazzy and brassy pop song: with an elongated “haaaaaayyyyyeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy-eeee-ohhhhhh” that stops listeners dead in their tracks with its range and clarity.

From honking horns to the scratching of a record player, the song, and its soul-heavy parent album, put an up-the-minute spin on throwback sounds. Aided by a series of colourful, high-gloss videos, Back To Basics is a satisfying chapter in Christina’s story, and should have sold far better.

 
3 Fighter (2003)
 
After Dirrty’s “arrival”, and Beautiful’s about-turn, Christina flipped the script and hopped genres once more with Stripped’s third single: an angry serving or pure rock, which she delivered with more ferocity than any of her peers. (Nickelback’s ‘How U Remind Me’ was the world’s biggest-selling single the year before, FYI…)
 
With so many successful pop songs built around lyrical repetition – Beyonce’s Run the World’ (Girls) for one – the language here is hyperverbal; diaristic in how it tumbles out, but like a story in its length and how effectively it paints its villain.

2 Genie In a Bottle (1999)
 
Christina’s disparaged her “cookie-cutter” first album (1999’s Christina Aguilera), and while Stripped was undeniably her artistic emancipation, the unimprovable Genie is nearly her best song. In curious contrast to Britney’s breakout …Baby One More Time, which starts with snarling keyboards, this opens with ominous piano, before slipping into another dimension via an accelerated drum loop that stays in overdrive throughout.

There’s a mysteriousness to the music, but the song is unambiguously about the (reluctant) desire to lose one’s virginity. Indeed, there’s a critical urgency to the conundrum. Nakedly direct lyrics lament “hormones racing at the speed of light”, of being “locked up tight for a century of lonely nights.”

Genie’s sensuality exceeds Dirrty’s and generated much controversy. That said, it’s really about chastity (“my heart is saying no”), with Christina emboldened by awareness of, and control over, her sex appeal. Here, she’s a transfixing, siren-esque vocal presence, only hinting at, for better or for worse, the melismatic vocal gymnastics to come.

1 Beautiful (2002)

Christina’s signature song was written by 4 Non Blondes’ Linda Perry and deconstructs a deadly serious topic through sheer vulnerability: the heinous impact of societal beauty standards. Christina’s scratchy, imperfect vocals, as she’s many times explained, are a metaphor for the song’s theme of self-acceptance.

Interestingly, it truly is the whispered intro (“don’t look at me”) and the gentle ad libs that follow that prove Beautiful‘s most appealing moments, even over that climactic roar. Simplicity was the order of the day, with Dirrty’s squelchy bells and whistles switched for a no-frills strings-piano-percussion arrangement: sweet, but raw, and miles from schmaltzy balladeering.
 
The music video deserves additional analysis for ‘wokeness’, apparent long before the word was a twinkle in the patriarchy’s eye. It explored social injustice while uplifting the oppressed, even lovingly spotlighting a trans woman applying make-up: extraordinary queer visibility for a 20-year-old cultural artefact. For many young LGBTQs, this was also their first time seeing a same-sex kiss on-screen.
 
Watched today, another image stands out: that of a young weightlifter scrutinising his slim body. This acknowledgement of toxic masculinity – of the reality that men, too, suffer with feelings of inadequacy – was forward-looking, a point powerfully made, and in the same era as blazing feminist anthem Can’t Hold Us Down, to boot. It illustrates how Christina’s music, and legacy, matters.

Christina performs at Brighton & Hove Pride this Saturday 6 August.