Christina Aguilera (Cosmopolitan Article)

Cosmopolitan Article

Someone on LD got the magazine.. here's the article:


On the Cover: The new Christina, Super Sexy Exclusive: “I spend my Sundays nude” & other love memos

She’s been through an emotional spin cycle – but now Christina’s emerged from the other side of Dirrty a very together lady indeedy.

Christina Aguilera has always had a retro quality, and when she shows up for her Cosmo interview, she looks like a 1940s Hollywood star, with platinum-blonde hair and bright red lips. But from the neck down, she’s all new Hollywood – in skinny jeans and a cropped cardi, which show off her tiny, yet curvy, frame.

The 25-year-old multiple Grammy winner seems stuck between two eras, which s coincidentally the theme of her latest album, Back to Basics. The daughter of an army sergeant father and musician mother, Christina’s parents divorced when she was seven, and she and her mum moved in with the grandmother. Before the split, Christina witnessed her father frequently abusing her mum – but she found comfort in singing. “I would…line up my toys and talk to them,” she says. “It’s the way I coped. I would lie under my bed singing and thinking to myself, “One day I’m going to get out of here and be a famous singer”.
And it wasn’t very long before things started happening for Christina; she began performing at local parties, and by age 12, she’d scored a role on the kids’ show The Mickey Mouse Club (her castmates were Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, who she still considers a mate). She moved to New York by herself when she was 15, and a record deal followed at 17). The first single off her self-titled first album, Genie in a Bottle, followed by another hit, What a Girl Wants, made her an overnight star.
Audiences loved her sound, but Christina hated the good-girl image her label was manufacturing for her. The backlash: her second album, 2002’s Stripped, which was a lyrical “screw you” to everyone who’d ever hurt her.
Christina attributes her new-found happiness (listen to her third album for evidence) to meeting and marrying her music exec husband, Jordan Bratman. Very sweet….

So Christina, you like to push the boundaries (she has seven piercings – one in an unmentionable place). But what’s the bravest thing you’ve done in your career?
Putting on those (buttless) chaps. I love that I did it and that I did it when I was young. I don’t know if I could put those suckers on now.

We think you could! Your body image – what’s the deal?
I think as you get older, you get more secure, but it can be hard. I have those days where I’m PMS-ing and bloated.

Please tell us that you pig out on fast food too!
I like fast food, but I’ve been trying to be a little healthier. I have a new trainer, and we’ve done a lot of muscle building. Over the last year, I’d go to the gym for an hour and a half a day before (work). But a lot of it is good genetics.

Do you reckon you’re fooling people with your glam new look? Are you still the sexy Christina we all know?
(My new song) Still Dirrty is my tongue-in-cheek way of addressing the things I’ve seen in tabloids about my “new image”. It’s me looking at these things and kind of laughing…”Oh, she changed because she’s in love!” Sexuality will always be part of the way I express myself artistically. I don’t think a woman should be afraid of her sexuality.

Your first album was your debut; your second, Stripped, was your rebellion, what about album number three?
This one is about me being happy. A lot of great things have happened. I’ve been with (Jordan) for four and a half years, and he’s my best friend in the whole wide world. I’m at peace. I’m content with life, and I’m finally at that place where I fell relaxed and can really enjoy what’s going on around me. Even the songs on this album that deal with hurtful things, like Oh Mother, have a positive twist.

Oh Mother is about your father abusing your mother. How did growing up in that kind of environment affect the choices you’ve made in your own life?
I don’t think it’s affected me relationship wise. I wasn’t one of those people who repeated the cycle of abuse and looked for other abusers, which can happen. But it has affected how I am, career-wise. I was going to succeed so I’d never feel helpless again.

Is it hard to put it all out there and expose yourself?
It’s therapeutic, but hard. Sometimes when I hear (one of my) lyrics, it chokes me up. I think that’s why people don’t make more of these records – it’s hard to put yourself out there.

We couldn’t help noticing that a lot of the new material is about Jordan…
He’s helped me heal a lot. Save Me From Myself really just means having that one person in your life who is able to pick you up and pull you out when you get in those dark spaces in yourself, and are dwelling on the negative. They get you to look at all the bright and beautiful things around you.

They say the first year of marriage is super tough…what do you reckon?
Yeah, I think it is. You’re surprised and disappointed by certain things in your first year. I think the biggest misconception is that everything is going to be perfect and nothing is going to go wrong. But we have a strong bond. I’m prepared to grow old with this man. We look forward to the ups and downs.

Does Jordan get intimidated by your success?
No, he’s not interested in the spotlight. He’s not trying to make an album or be on the covers of magazine. He’s 100 per cent in my corner supporting me, but he still has his own goals and ambitions. I’m attracted to that in a man.

So does that mean you’re a (kinda) normal couple?
We have taco night. We have naked Sundays. You just lie in bed all day and chill with each other (naked) and do the things that husbands and wives do. It’s important to take time for your spouse and nurture the relationship. We love our coziness.

Ever have a bad boy phase?
Yeah. I’d like to say that every girl is like that, but I could be wrong. I liked the tattoos and the piercings. That was another thing about Jordy…he didn’t have any of that. He got his first tattoo as my wedding gift. He got “I love CA forever” in Hebrew. For him, I got “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine”. (Another) wedding gift I gave him was this book (I made) called Our Love Through My Eyes, which was compiled from poems, pictures and diary entries I’d written from the day we first met, up until our wedding day.

We heard you love ping-pong. What else keeps you amused?
I like ping-pong. I like to sleep in. I go shopping when I can. What usually happens for me, though, is my assistants will go and grab things…that’s kind of how I shop most of the time. It sucks. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I get to do it (myself).

Lots of musicians cross over to acting…I do want to start looking at scripts seriously…and a lot of people who have crossed over to film kind of play themselves. I want to act. It doesn’t have to be the biggest role in the world; it’s just got to be a character I can sink my teeth into.

Which singers do you admire?
I think Kelly Clarkson has a powerful voice. Alicia Keys has a cool tone.

Do you feel you missed out on anything by growing up in the spotlight?
This is exactly what I’ve always wanted. If I didn’t (work as a teenager), I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. I had my college in terms of going out and being able to get drunk or whatever. I had it in my way, in my world. It was different for me, but I have no regrets. I could never imagine doing anything else in the world.

Name: Christina Aguilera

My favourite part of my body is:
a. My butt
b. My boobs
c. My abs
d. My legs
She wrote e. my mouth

I’ve been in love:
a. Once
b. Twice
c. Three times
d. More than three times
She said b. Twice

Before I go on stage, I always…
Get butterflies and say a prayer.

My worst habit is:
a. Eating junk food
b. Saying what’s on my mind
c. Swearing
d. Gossiping.
e. Other
She said a. Eating junk food & b. Saying what’s on my mind. She wrote next to be “but that’s NOT a “BAD” thing…)

I won’t leave the house without:
a. My Blackberry
b. Red lipstick
c. High heels
d. Jordan
e. Other
She said d. Jordan and wrote “my essential” next to it.

You won’t believe I’ve never….
Skied

I’d love to sing a duet with:
a. Madonna
b. Kelly Clarkson
c. Barbra Streisand
d. Mary J Blige
e. Other
She said e. Other “ Lauryn Hill”

The movie I watch again and again is….
Basquiat & Amadeus

I’ve always been attracted to:
a. Nice guys
b. Bad body
She said BOTH

My favourite song to sing is:
a. Dirrty
b. Beautiful
c. Fighter
d. Ain’t No Other Man
e. Other
She said b. Beautiful & d. Ain’t No Other Man

I wish I could stop….
Snacking at bedtime
…..but I seriously can’t help it!

My favourite song to work out to it:
Don’t work out to music. I work out to Oprah…