Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera are two female pop star contemporaries who rose to global prominence at the turn of the millennium. Both singers got an early break working on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (1989-1994) TV series, before becoming chart-topping solo artists in their teenage years.
Both Spears and Aguilera are considered two of the most iconic musicians of their generation, helping to define the culture of the early 21st century, with extensive public interest in their personal lives as well as their music. As is often the case with celebrity and tabloid journalism, especially in the early 2000s and for women in particular, Spears and Aguilera were pitted against one another in the press, portrayed as rivals.
What has Christina Aguilera said about Britney Spears’ upcoming memoir?
Much of the two musicians’ lives, Spears’ in particular, has been up to significant public speculation. Spears was under an involuntary conservatorship from 2008 to 2021, which significantly reduced her free speech with regard to telling her own story on a public platform.
Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me, is due for release on October 24, 2023. The memoir will mark the first time that Spears has talked about several significant events in her highly-publicized personal life and career, in particular, her personal thoughts on various people and relationships. Until the memoir is published, it is difficult to say where Spears and Aguilera’s relationship actually stands.
However, Aguilera spoke publicly about Spears’ upcoming book on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday. When asked by the talk show host about whether Spears reached out to her about possibly being featured in the memoir, Aguilera responded “Dude, I don’t know. I don’t know,” laughing but keeping mum on the subject.
“Am I hoping [that I’m featured]? I’m hoping that everything is all good with her. Everything’s beautiful. The future should be celebrated.”
When pressed by Kimmel if she would like to be featured in The Woman in Me, joking that he would be featured also, Aguilera responded, “Maybe you will be in it. Listen, I’d rather it be you than me. So hopefully you’ll be in it. You’ll make the book.”
If there is one main takeaway from Aguilera’s comments, it seems that she holds no ill will towards Spears, and supports her in her new life free from the restraints of her conservatorship, as well as Spears’ recent divorce. However, her reluctance to appear in the memoir could perhaps allude to details of since-quashed beef that Aguilera does not want to be published for all the world to read.
Do we have any evidence that Christina and Britney had a feud?
During their early music careers, Spears and Aguilera were constantly compared to one another in the media. Speaking in 2018 about the experience, Aguilera told Cosmopolitan “I remember being hurt by these commercials on MTV, pitting Britney as the good girl and me as the bad girl. It’s like, if I’m going to be demure and innocent, that’s okay. But if I’m going to just be myself, I’m trouble.”
In 2003, Aguilera told Blender that Spears was “distant” as an adult. “Every time I tried to start a conversation with her—well, let’s just say she seemed nervous the whole time. She seems to me like a lost little girl, someone who desperately needs guidance.”
Responding in the same publication shortly after, Spears remarked “A lost girl? I think it’s probably the other way around. I can’t believe she said that about me.”
Later, Aguilera took another pop at Spears, comparing her engagement ring from her relationship with Kevin Federline to one from the bargain shopping channel QVC. The singer added, “[Britney]’s not trailer trash, but she sure acts that way.” Ouch.
However, the pair seemed to cool things off in 2005, after Aguilera sent Spears gifts to celebrate the birth of her first child, as revealed by Spears on her blog at the time. Spears wrote that she would “love to be close with Christina again.”
Aguilera said little about Spears’ highly-publicized mental health struggles in the years following. Speaking after Spears’ conservatorship ended in 2021, Aguilera told The Enrique Santos Show that she “couldn’t be happier” for her contemporary’s newfound freedom.
While Aguilera has made some hurtful comments about Spears in public during their early adult careers, any strong feelings of resentment, on Aguilera’s end in particular, seem to be resolved. Fans of Spears will know more about her side of the story when her memoir is published.
Published: Oct 17, 2023 08:13 pm