After initially emerging in the late 90s as a bubblegum teenage pop star, Christina Aguilera took control of her career and embarked on a voyage of reinvention. Released in 2002, Stripped saw her ditch her all-American look to sing about sexual emancipation and empowerment. Two decades, many hairstyles, five Grammys and some 43m in record sales later, she is a 41-year-old mother of two and an LGBTQ+ icon. Her huge audience demographic includes face-painted teens, women from their 20s to their 40s, couples, tattooed blokes and – in this Yorkshire seaside town at least – curious low-flying seagulls, one of which invades the stage.
The show itself is an 80-minute audiovisual extravaganza that takes in most of Aguilera’s complexities. The music spans a spectrum from bubblegum to Latin pop via soul and funk and elements of rock and hip-hop, while always sounding identifiably Aguilera. There are steam and confetti cannons, lasers, Star Wars-type lightsabers, fireworks, a mixed-gender dance troupe and a regular supply of costume changes. Meanwhile, Aguilera’s bewildering array of eyewear runs from reasonably conventional dark sunglasses to silver Cybertron shades and the sort of heavy-duty goggles more usually seen on industrial welders.
