Xtina on Madonna, Britney and the Kiss in Blender Magazine
In the current issue of Blender Magazine, Christina Aguilera as the magazine’s woman of the year, discusses “the kiss”, Madonna and Britney. Here’s what she says in the article by journalist Nick Duerden.
Christina Aguilera has a favorite word right now, one she employs with the frequency of an addict: edgy. It pops up in many of her conversations, sometimes with purpose, other times at will. She describes herself, for example, as an “edgy” artist, and she admires the “edgy” acting of Angelina Jolie. The reason she responded to Madonna’s last-minute invitation to appear alongside her and nemesis Britney Spears at MTV’s Video Music Awards back in August, meanwhile, was because it sounded, you guessed it, edgy. It turns out, however, that in the end the performance didn’t quite live up to Aguilera’s high expectations.
“The VMAs were so, so vanilla,” she says. “So safe, so predictable, no edge. Apart from Madonna, Mary J. Blige and myself, I cannot think of another female performer who had her mic switched on. That is very disappointing to me. I agreed to do it in the first place only because Madonna had told me that it was mandatory to sing live.”
Something palpable happens to Aguilera when she talks about Spears. She loses eye contact, focuses on her cuticles and grows visibly uncomfortable, as if wary of saying too much. But her dissatisfaction clearly needs a voice, and she duly gives it one. She suggests that although Spears sang live during rehearsals, when the show went on the air, she was lip-syncing.
“Who knows what happened, exactly,” Aguilera says, sighing. “She was supposed to, but somewhere along the line.”I don’t know. Maybe some money changed hands under the table” She trails off awkwardly, then changes tack. “I’d much rather just wash my hands of the whole nonsense, actually. These people aren’t artists, they’re just performers, fake and superficial, like the entire event. I’m very disappointed with MTV. Just look at the way they handled the kiss.”
What she’s referring to, of course, is the kiss. Mid-song, Madonna swapped saliva with both singers, diving into both mouths tongue-first. The following day, however, it was her smacker with Spears that made the front pages. Aguilera’s barely got a mention.
“MTV didn’t even screen my kiss properly, they cut away instead for Justin reaction shot. How predictable, let’s see the ex-boyfriend’s response. Pathetic.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Spears and Aguilera’s lips never came into contact.
“Actually, I was up for kissing Britney,” Aguilera says, “but Britney wasn’t. She was, she seemed very distant, even during rehearsals. Every time I tried to start a conversation with her well, let’s just say she seemed nervous the whole time. I wanted to reach out to her, because I feel she needs somebody in her life right now to help guide her.”
And Aguilera, the woman who has just spent the summer on a joint tour with Timberlake, is ideal for the job?
“Well, I feel I’ve grown a lot this year, and we did used to be friends once, after all. She seems to me like a lost little girl, someone who desperately needs guidance. But who knows? maybe I’m not the right person to offer it. We’re very different people, aren’t we? In our world, there are different types of entertainers. You have your artists and you have your regular performers. I’m an artist, and, well…”
As another sentence about Spears goes unfinished, she permits herself a private smile. Later, she will complain about the press insistently keeping the apparent rivalry alive, as if she herself plays no part in it. But she often seems to fan the flames.
Article by Nick Duerden
Source: Blender Magazine