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Main >> Article ID 55
 The Right Note | Type: Newspaper Article |
| | The Right Note | Jul 30, 1998 | by Rebecca Sodergren
Wexford Teen Lands RCA Records Contract And A Deal To Sing Hit Song For 'Mulan'
Talk about overnight success. In the span of one day, Wexford teen Christina Aguilera both signed a contract with RCA Records and was hired by Disney to sing the pop version of "Reflection," the hit song from "Mulan."
Last December, her managers were parading her before different record companies. At the same time, Disney was searching far and wide for someone to perform the song for their movie-in-works. They asked RCA for suggestions and though the company hadn't yet signed Aguilera, it suggested her.
Disney wanted someone who could belt out - not just sing in falsetto - a high E above middle C. To prove that she could do it, she grabbed a cheap tape recorder, recorded a song with the note they wanted a full strength, and sent off the tape.
Disney flew her to Los Angeles, she sang the song a couple of times, and within 48 hours of the initial call, Disney officials were telling her, "Congradulations, you got the deal."
It took about a week to record the song. "You'll mess up, and things will happen, and you'll have to start over," Aguilera said. In fact, because she had to sing so "belty," as she put it, for so long, she recieved her first-ever voice lesson that week. "After singing and singing and singing, it just gets so tiresome."
She was scheduled to fly home the day after the recording ended, but the she got wind the a 90-piece orchestra would be arriving to record the accompaniment for the song. She begged to stay to hear it.
"It's enough to bring tears to you eyes, hearing a 90-piece orchestra playing your song. It was amazing."
Aguilera, now 17, has been on the road to stardom from childhood. She started singing in public at age 6 or 7 in neighborhood block parties.
Jude Pohl, director of Pittsburgh theater company Pohl Productions, remembers Aguilera from local talent showcases he used to run. "This 8-year-old girl was the undefeated champion," he said. "The thing about her was that she wasn't just a cute little girl with a big little girl's voice. She was a little girl with an adult voice."
National television discovered her around the same time, when she was the junior vocalist on "Star Search."
At ages 12 and 13, she sang, acted, and danced on the Disney Channel's "Mickey Mouse Club."
More recently, she recorded a duet and video with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi, and she also performed at the Golden Stag Festival along with Diana Ross and Sheryl Crow.
But she continued to want more. "My dream has always been to record an album before I was out of high school."
Considering she has another year of high school, it looks like she's going to fufill that dream. RCA wants her to record her first full, solo album by September, before the "Mulan" hype ends. "That's scary - usually it can take a year to record an album," she said. But she and her managers are already choosing songs for the pop/R&B style album in the vein of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston. The album is expected to be released in January.
Aguilera has been tutored since her freshman year of high school so she could be free to travel. Similarily, her mother traveled at a young age, playing violin at age 16 on a European tour with the Youth Symphony Orchestra.
"I can use it against her now," Aguilera said, laughing.
She's uncertain about her future, thinking she might leave college on the back burner for now. "I definetly want to take this singing thing as far as I can - it's always been my dream."
In fact, she won't even talk about her career in terms of "deciding" to be a singer. "I don't think I even decided," she said. "My love for it alone has carried me to where I am now." |
 Source: Pittsburg Post-Gazette | |
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