70

Beautiful
Christina Aguilera
2002

For every one of these selections, there are some of you who get it and then there are some of you who scoff.   The group changes song-to-song; naturally, some like certain tracks opposed to others.  Fine.  So upon seeing Christina Aguilera's name here at #70, some of you get it and others immediately rolled their eyes.  I'm going to address the eye rollers here for a minute.

When you think about the top female vocalists of all time, we're usually in one-name territory:  Whitney.  Mariah.  Aretha.  Well, just make sure you put Christina with that group.  She has the bonafides, and for my money is in the top 10 female vocalists, ever (no, I do not have a list going, how much do you want from me?).  So, dismiss her because of her Mouseketeer background or her bubble-gum pop music (Genie In a Bottle, What a Girl Wants, etc.) at your peril.  The woman can flat-out sing.  (And she can also do some amazing impressions of others singing, as evidenced here.)

Case in point:  this little number here.  This is a, ahem, beautifully-written, beautifully-arranged, and, dare I say, a masterclass vocal performance that it just had to not only crack the Top 100 but reside comfortably within it.  The song was written by Linda Perry, she of 4 Non Blondes fame (What's Up, anyone?) and probably better known now as a producer.  That part I knew.  What I didn't know, until this little project, is that the vocal track that you hear on this song is Christina's demo, which is craaaaaaazy y'all!  It also finally explains the whole "don't look at me" at the beginning of the song, which I never understood.

Anyway, this song is fire, but let me get a little sappy with you here for a hot second.  I'm not generally a lyric guy (I think I've said that too many times now to invalidate my point), but the lyrics in this song?  Yeah, I'm a fan.  I love the message, about empowerment, about being who you are and being authentic.  This song just gets you in all the feels and I am absolutely not ashamed at all for this one.

Other Songs Considered:
This is the one.