WINNIPEG - They grow up so quickly, don't they?
It seems like only yesterday that dirrty-diva Christina Aguilera was dancing suggestively in dingy sex clubs, firing off sound bites about her penchant for body-piercings, and posing naked on the cover of Rolling Stone with just a strategically-placed guitar to cover her naughty bits.
But the Aguilera on display during last night's show at MTS Centre was every inch the lady, not to mention a completely class act.
At just 26, Aguilera has already morphed from cheesy teen pop-tart to scandal-courting sexpot to her latest incarnation: a '40s-inspired, R&B-influenced glamour-puss. But regardless of what she's wearing (or not wearing), she's always been careful to keep her most prized asset in the spotlight -- that would be her voice, silly -- and last night was no exception.
Dressed head-to-toe in white (cuz she's a good girl now, get it?), Aguilera gave her sultry pipes a workout with the big-band-influenced Ain't No Other Man, after making an appropriately splashy entrance from atop a rolling white staircase.
Flanked by a bevy of backup dancers, and supported by a stellar band of blazer-clad horn players, Aguilera left little doubt that -- even in a sea of Britneys, Jessicas, and J-Los -- she'll always be remembered as the one who can actually sing.
It helps, of course, that she draws inspiration from the best, as was made clear when she flashed a video montage of old-school legends like Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye and John Coltrane while belting out a powerhouse version of Back In the Day.
ONSTAGE PROWESS
After that number, Aguilera made her first of a planned 10 costume changes, returning to the stage looking like Marilyn Monroe in Seven Year Itch mode. But unlike a lot of her contemporaries -- who use wardrobe as a means of distracting attention from their lack of vocal ability -- Aguilera's glitz served only to enhance her impassioned, fully athletic onstage prowess.
Some Moulin Rouge projections gave the tune Understand a bit of Parisian flair, Makes Me Wanna Pray turned into a juke-joint rave-up (complete with a red-sequined Xtina cavorting on top of a piano), Welcome saw the singer cast as the star of her own three-ring circus, and on Still Dirrty, Aguilera used a vintage-looking newsreel to address media pre-occupation with her raunchy-to-respectable transformation.
"This one's for all the women out there who are sick and tired of double standards," she proudly proclaimed, drawing yet another round of screams from the sold-out crowd of mostly female fans.
The ode-to-inner-worth Beautiful was yet to come, but earlier in the show, all of Aguilera's grrrl-power vibes were nearly undone by openers the Pussycat Dolls, a thinly-disguised (and barely dressed) burlesque act whose musical sensibilities are negligible, to say the least.
The group is a sextet, but lead singer Nicole Scherzinger does all the heavy lifting, leaving the others to writhe around on stage, strike sexy/skanky fashion poses, and do their best to make it look like they're singing along to what sounded suspiciously like a canned background track.
Compared to Christina -- a certifiable talent who doesn't need to trade on her looks -- they didn't even rate.
