Christina Aguilera, Dirrty | Controversial Tunes 😈🎶

In the 18^th edition of Controversial Tunes (2023), we explore the controversy behind the song, “Dirrty” by Christina Aguilera. 

Bring on the controversy! Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 is a column that provides background information and insight into songs that raised eyebrows and totally stirred the pot.  The records that grace Controversial Tunes are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  In the 18^th edition of Controversial Tunes (2023), we explore the controversy behind the song, 🎵 “Dirrty” by 🎙 Christina Aguilera.

🎙 Christina Aguilera got dirty.  Well, precisely, she got 🎵 “Dirrty”. “Dirrty” was the promo single from her sophomore album, 💿 Stripped (fourth album overall counting 💿 Mi Reflejo and 💿 My Kind of Christmas). The 16^th track peaked at no. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 – modest to say the least.  Notably, on this sexed-up cut, which is a reason for the controversial label, X-tina is assisted by rapper 🎙 Redman. Here, the ‘innocent’ pop star moves from being a 🎵 “Genie in the Bottle” and singing about her 🎵 “Reflection” to singing about S-E-X 😱!

Focusing on the song lyrics themselves, Aguilera does quite the about face from 1999, ha-ha.  For one, she’s “Sweatin’ ‘til my clothes come off,” and, apparently, she’s horny! “No question, time for some action.” Former teen pop stars aren’t allowed to be horny 😈, especially in 2002 🤣! Actually, it’s the second verse where the eyebrows raise more as Christina encourages ass moving and sings about “Tight hip-huggers (low for sure).” Of course, in the chorus, they’re “Dancing, getting just a little naughty / Wanna get dirty, it’s about time for my arrival.”  Lyrically and thematically, Christina is a grown woman who wants to have fun.  She is a sexual being and she’s not going to hold back. In the 2020s, this is incredibly tame, just to show you how much more explicit music has become.

“Dirrty” earned most of its controversial label from the music video 🎶📼.  Sure, the lyrics represent a dramatic shift for Christina Aguilera, but that video – that erased the Disney Channel star really quick! There was a petition to ban the video from MTV. Some of the controversial things include her attire – well – the  lack of…. Furthermore, her backup dancers are ‘liberated’ too. The dancing is highly sexual. The shower scene is… you just have to see it.  These happenings in a boxing ring (🤣) clearly suggests a sexual afterparty if you catch my drift 😈. Of course, it’s not just the women.  We couldn’t fail to mention those fit 🏋️‍♂️, hot 🥵, hunky, sweaty-bodied shirtless men, who dance (and grind) on Aguilera – incredibly hedonistic. Notably, the video was banned in Thailand due to signs regarding sex tourism, written in Thai, that appear in the background of the video 🤯. 🎵 “Dirrty” wouldn’t be controversial today, or at least to the same extent, but back in the early aughts, it earned its fair share of negative attention!

🎙 Christina Aguilera • 💿 Stripped • 🏷 Sony Music Entertainment • 🗓 2002

Christina Aguilera, Dirrty: Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 No. 18 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sony Music Entertainment; Anand Kulkarni, Aykut Bingül, Luân Phan, mohammadreza merhvand via Pexels; Anna, Gordon Taylor, harshahars from Pixabay; christian buehner on Unsplash]