This summer will mark 25 years since Christina Aguilera’s first single and debut album arrived to transform the pop paradigm. Since then, she’s gone retro and futuristic; been both a Disney darling and a champion of chaps. Now 43, Aguilera—who admits when we speak that she’s been a workhorse since childhood—has built a legacy on a voice and reinvention cycle that consistently pushes the boundaries. And this year marks a triumphant new era for her: She shares with Vogue that she’s making progress on her next album as she zips back and forth between LA and her new residency in Las Vegas. (After a short break, her show continues in early February.)
Despite battling the flu, Aguilera is warm and energized when we speak, still on a high from her opening weekend at the Venetian’s new Voltaire theater. The cabaret-style venue allows fans an intimate experience with the artist, and the show is a celebration of her impressive body of work—the classics (“Fighter,” “Genie in a Bottle,” “Beautiful”) and the cult-favorites (“Not Myself Tonight,” “Lady Marmalade”).
“The biggest challenge working with Christina is that she has done everything,” her stylist, Chris Horan, tells me of collaborating on looks for her new show. “So the question was, How do we do something that feels new?” Avoiding anything “too showgirl,” the two worked together on custom pieces by Thierry Mugler, Yogie Pratama, and Asher Levine. The result: She looked as spectacular as she sounded. “When you’re in that room, you could just feel that she knows that she is killing it,” Horan says.
Vogue caught up with the star to chat about her new chapter.
Vogue: Congratulations on your new residency! I got to see the show, and it was incredible.
Christina Aguilera: We had such an amazing opening week, and it just couldn’t have gone better. I was so proud of my band and my dancers. Everyone kind of gave up their holiday to put on the show by New Year’s. I was so appreciative of everyone’s time on it and dedication to the project. It’s a more intimate, immersive show where I get to do these songs up close and personal, which I never really get to do. This is a different opportunity for me to build this creative, storytelling show and do songs I don’t normally do. It’s been fun.
This year will be 25 years since your debut album, Christina Aguilera, came out. How does it feel to be where you’re at right now, looking back at the scope of your career?
It’s a beautiful thing. I’ve always had so much respect and admiration for artists that have different chapters that represent stages of their life, and the growth that they have with their audiences and their fans. I couldn’t be more grateful to have that kind of career for myself, and to keep doing it and pushing and challenging myself in new ways. It’s a blessing. I am truly lucky to do something that I love and that I feel I am born to do, and it’s really great when you can look back at a body of work that you’re proud of.
You rang in the new year on stage during the second night of your show. Is there a word that represents 2024 for you?
So, after my show on New Year’s Eve, will.i.am comes backstage and my daughter’s there [Summer Rain, 9]. She’s so enraptured by the world behind the scenes and the production of everything, and she loves the band and the background singers. She wants to take drum lessons—she is about it. She gives me so much love and support. Before I go on stage, she knows I get nervous, and she’s like, “You’re going to do great, mama.” My manager will be like, “She’s coming for my job!” And on the way to school the other day with her dad, she said, “When I grow up, I want to either be mama’s photographer or mama’s manager.” It’s so funny. So we told will.i.am that, and he was like, “Oh my God, she’s your daught-ager.” So daught-ager is the word of the year. It’s just so cute. I’ve never felt so loved by probably anyone in my life as I do my little angel face. She’s just so supportive, such a light.
I love that term, daught-ager.
That’s 100% what she is. If I’m running late for something or have an appointment, she’s like, “You know they’re waiting, mama. We need to go.” It’s hilarious. I was working with someone who predicted her birth to me, a very intuitive person, and she said, “You’re going to have a daughter, and she’s going to be your protector. She’s going to be on this earth to watch over you and protect and support you.” And I’m like, Oh, really? And literally she’s embodying that, and it’s just the most beautiful…. I could cry thinking about it. I don’t want to cry today! [Laughs.] She marches to the beat of her own drum, and she’s just a little firecracker.
What was the creative process of designing this show like? Did it teach you anything new about yourself?
I feel like this is a chapter in my life where I’m more in tune and focused on exactly what I want to do. I’ve always been a very open artist as far as wanting to create things I haven’t tapped into yet, discovering more about myself, and the next area of growth I want to pursue. My mom actually got diagnosed with lupus early on, and thank God I have the means to be able to support her. But I want to make sure that I do everything to stay activated in my mind and my body, and creatively as an artist. I think it’s easy for people to get complacent or comfortable.
For this show in particular, I was able to create something very special and unique that I haven’t been able to tap into before. I was drawn to doing a show like this from the ground up. When you release an album, you base the creative off that. But since we don’t have that, I based it off this particular venue. It’s this club, Belle De Nuit, named for the flower that blossoms at night. I leaned into building the show around this moody, intricate, intimate space. Diamonds are also an intertwined theme. I sing “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey. I knew the song, but I’ve done a deep dive on her, and oh my God, she has such a big, powerful tone and voice, and it’s really fun embodying that song on stage and getting to tap into her and her greatness. Then closing with “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” that classic Marilyn nod, and really living up this alter ego and living out your fantasies on stage and deserving nothing but the best and everyone having that inner diamond in them.
The theater is very intimate, and it was so fun to see you move around the seats and interact with fans.
That’s partly what drew me to doing this show in particular, the fact that it only allows a certain capacity. Doing that old Mae West song, “A Guy What Takes His Time,” bringing it back from Burlesque—I’ve never performed that song live just because it doesn’t really translate from a distance on stage. But vamping it up in the audience, serving drinks and taking Polaroids with people, and playing up this tongue-in-cheek character is super fun for me. It’s an era and a character that I tap into very comfortably.
There are many incredible looks throughout the show. What was the process of creating the costumes?
At the opening of the show, I had to get over my fear of heights to stand up on this lift that’s underneath my Dawna Oak dress. I envisioned the dress parting and dancers coming out from underneath it, so that was a fun technical piece that we had to create, almost as a prop. With belle de nuit as the flower, we wanted to play that up with the costuming. Having this huge floral piece was something we spoke about early on, and Nicole and Felicia came through with that so beautifully. What else is my favorite? I love the Mugler. It comes in white typically, but they custom-made this one in black for us, and I love wearing that. I was a little worried it would be too loud because the strands coming off of it are very stiff and they make a little rustling sound when you move, but that adds to the fun of it. Asher Levine made this dress that glows at the finale of the show for “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” where I’m whipping around these diamonds on a long chain. That’s a really fun piece too, because it can be operated with the production lighting system and controlled from backstage. Everyone just brought it together and brought it to life, the vision I had for the show. So, super proud of it. And super proud of the team.
Your work has been ahead of its time for a lot of your career. Stripped received mixed reviews on its 2002 release, but is now considered iconic. And your 2010 movie, **Burlesque, **was a huge hit on Netflix last year and is being adapted as a stage musical.
Oh, thank you. I never really go by what’s popular. I go with the core of things that really resonate with me on a deeper level, which sometimes isn’t for the masses, or it’s discovered a lot later. So I’ll take “ahead of its time” any day. [Laughs.] With Stripped, I was fighting double standards with sexuality, and backlash from these messages that depicted real-life situations. [Stripped featured themes of female empowerment and domestic violence; the 2002 video for “Beautiful” included trans and gay people, bullying, and body dysmorphia.] Those were messages that weren’t easy at the time for people to digest, especially having just known me as this pop star with the first album. So to be able to be myself and stand by that and face the backlash—maybe people don’t get it along the way, but they eventually do. I’m really proud of those things, more so than getting certain successes and [being] recognized out the gate. It’s almost more special when things become timeless, and then are looked back on as these amazing moments in my body of work. Another thing to be grateful for after 25 years.
This interview has been edited and condensed.