Christina Maria Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer. Also known as Xtina, she is most notable for her vocal abilities as well as her unorthodox fashion sense. Her vocal skills have been compared to those of singers such as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Christina Aguilera has been classified as a spinto soprano and she has a 4 octave range.[ citation needed] She has achieved four number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as two top five albums in the United States. Aguilera is now married to record executive Jordan Bratman.
Christina Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York but grew up mainly in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wexford, Pennsylvania, after living in various places around the world such as Texas and Japan. Her father, Fausto Aguilera, is a U.S. Army sergeant of Ecuadorian descent, and her mother, Shelly Loraine Fidler (now known as Shelly Kearns), was a Spanish translator and violinist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and of remote Irish and German descent. Aguilera's parents met while Fausto was serving at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. Aguilera lived with her father until she was six or seven years old, when her parents divorced and her mother took her and her younger sister Rachel to her mother's home in Pittsburgh. According to Aguilera and her mother, her father was very controlling, as well as physically and emotionally abusive.
Christina's grandmother was the first person to really notice her beyond-her-years mature voice. Since Aguilera was able to talk, she set a goal to become a professional singer. She grew up as a fan of artists such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Judy Garland, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey. As a child she performed at block parties and in talent competitions — defeating opponents with little effort. Aguilera soon gained media attention, and was known to some as "the little girl with the big voice".
