NEWS
Christina Aguilera performs on stage during the 2021 People's Choice Awards held at Barker Hangar on December 7, 2021 in Santa Monica, California.
Christopher Polk/E! Entertainment/NBCUniversal/NBCU Photo BankChristina Aguilera brought the heat to the 2021 People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday (Dec. 7), where she took to the stage to sing a medley of hits spanning her two decade-long music career. During the performance — which preceded her accepting People’s Choice’s first-ever Music Icon award — Aguilera paid tribute to her “Dirrty” look with the help of a quick outfit change.
Aguilera began her hits medley with a dramatic and haunting rendition of her first hit single, “Genie in a Bottle,” dressed in a black floor-length ruffled gown. The song then transitioned into the instrumentals for her Stripped classic “Dirrty,” marking the arrival of her alter ego, Xtina. She traded the black gown for a leather and lace-up detailed take of her iconic yellow and black “Dirrty” bra top and chaps costume, which she originally wore for a live MTV performance in 2002. (The outfit also appeared in red in the official 2002 music video.) Aguilera also brought back the black streaks in her blonde hair from the look, which has been one of her most memorable over the course of her career.
After singing a snippet of “Dirrty,” Aguilera transitioned into “Fighter” and “Can’t Hold Us Down” before closing out with a stunning display of vocal agility with “Somos Nada” and signature hit, “Beautiful.”
Later in the evening, Aguilera accepted the Music Icon Award and said that receiving the award was “an exceptional honor.”
“I have always strived for my music to communicate messages of empowerment, whether it’s speaking my own truths or giving voice to those unable to do so on their own,” Aguilera said in her acceptance speech. “My artistry has always been for the fighters in this world, for those who face adversity, for those wanting to evoke change, my music is for you.”
“Believing in yourself is often the biggest obstacle of all, and throughout the years I’ve heard your stories about the impact of songs like ‘Beautiful,’ ‘Fighter,’ ‘Can’t Hold Us Down,’ and yes, even ‘Dirrty.’ Thank you for your stories,” she continued. “Thank you for listening. And thank you for fighting. You inspire me every day.”
Watch Aguilera’s People’s Choice performance below, as well as the 2002 “Dirrty” video featuring the red take on the iconic outfit.
NEWS
No matter what you thought of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, there was only one undisputed winner by the end of it all: the reaction community in the worlds of streaming and YouTube. Your favorite content creators broke down the bars, reacted to all the most shocking moments, and helped this showdown become one of hip-hop's most culturally significant and resonant moments in a long time... For better or worse. See, the battle's technically not over yet, but only because the 6ix God's idea of victory is clearly quite different. In his federal defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group – his label – for releasing K.Dot's "Not Like Us," he named various content creators who allegedly helped boost the track's widespread popularity and, as a result, its supposedly defamatory nature.
Furthermore, the specific allegation that Drake brings up in this highly controversial lawsuit is that UMG "whitelisted" copyright claims for YouTubers, streamers, etc. concerning "Not Like Us." This means that they would be able to monetize their content without facing a copyright claim from UMG over "Not Like Us," and this isn't really an allegation because various creators have backed this up. But a few important (alleged) caveats that people are talking about online need to be clear. First, "whitelisting" supposedly happens on behalf of a record label behind a song like the West Coast banger, and UMG is instead the distributor of that track. Secondly, as rapper and online personality ScruFaceJean brings up as seen in the post below, tracks like "Push Ups" were also "whitelisted" by its team.
Along with Jean, many other of your favorite content creators spoke out against this Drake lawsuit. Zias! and B.Lou, for example, spoke with their lawyer about the possibility of countersuing for emotional distress, as they found the Toronto superstar's accusations and his implication of them very disturbing and misguided. NoLifeShaq also dragged The Boy through the mud, calling him "soft" and positing that, whether "whitelisting" happened or not, they would react to "Not Like Us" accordingly as they did to his own tracks.
In addition, it's important to bring up that many others fans have pointed to how Drake excitedly used streamers to generate hype and reaction clips for his own diss tracks against Kendrick Lamar. The most direct example is with Kai Cenat, whom he texted to "stay on stream" before dropping "Family Matters." Ironically, the Twitch giant appears in this clowned-upon defamation lawsuit as an example of what the OVO mogul's accusations and implications are. And one more thing: there is no direct link between monetization and algorithmic boosting on sites like YouTube. With all this in mind, content creators seem to feel almost insulted at the idea that they only reacted to the two biggest rappers in the world beefing with each other because one of them would allow them to make money. If Drizzy knew the first thing about the reaction community, maybe he wouldn't have included this...
