User Rating: / 6
PoorBest 

Monday, 04 April 2011 15:07

Written by Scott Mervis

One might expect that a Christina Aguilera teleconference with the print media could get a little messy right now. Over the past year, there was the flop album, the divorce, the National Anthem mishap at the Super Bowl, the public intoxication arrest...

But Wexford's own Aguilera, in promoting her role as a coach in the NBC show "The Voice" (premiering April 26), was nothing but graceful and articulate in touching upon some of those issues. She even joked with the reporter asking about the Super Bowl, saying "what hiccup?" before laughing and going on to say that she will use it as a teachable moment in the show.

She talked about a tweet she wrote supporting Britney Spears' new album release, saying that given the state of the music business right now, artists have to support each other especially when they're old friends.

At one point, someone asked her opinion of Rebecca Black, to which she said, ""I'm sorry. I live under a rock ... I have no idea who Rebecca Black is."

I figured it was my duty to think locally, so I asked her what she remembers about her vocal coaching/mentoring while growing up in the Pittsburgh area and how she may have used it later.

She was less than flattering about her musical upbringing here:

Oh, that’s a loaded question for me. I hate to say it and I don’t want to come across negative, but I really didn’t have a lot of support. There were people who did support but it was extreeemely few and far between.

Where I grew up, it’s a very sports-driven town, which, if you’re there, you know. The town I came from was very sports-driven and there wasn’t a whole lot of support for the arts, in my experience. It wasn’t until I went to, I think, the Mickey Mouse Club where I was first able to, I felt, breathe as a kid who loved performing and singing ... and dance. You got to do all those things with these amazing, talented people which needless to say are now some of the biggest, brightest stars of today [including Britney and Justin Timberlake]. So it was amazing to be on that show and connect with, simply, a school for super-talented kids. I felt lucky in retrospect to be a part of such an amazing and creative talented energy, but at the time we were just a bunch of kids having fun and it was the first time that I was really with other kids who I felt were like me and shared the same passion for performing that I did at such a young age.

That was my first real experience with it, but growing up in Pittsburgh, I think that really gave me... I would start maybe around 6 or 7 performing at local block parties, pool parties, then graduated into doing weddings and things like that, then graduated into doing the National anthem, performing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Steelers and Penguins.

So, [laughs] that was basically where I got my starting point, but I didn’t get ... maybe grandma honestly was probably my biggest support and mentor. Other than that I didn’t have any vocal or formal training. That’s actually what scared me a little going into this. Like, I’m not a vocal coach. I sing and I do what I do, but it just comes out of me. I don’t have any formal training, but I guess you get into it and you realize, I’ve been doing this for so many years, I know exactly what to say and do...

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by LarryZ, April 04, 2011 - 05:52 PM

"Like, I’m not a vocal coach. I sing and I do what I do, but it just comes out of me. I don’t have any formal training.."

And THAT'S the problem with these tv talent singing shows with judges w/no formal singing education who are critiquing singers. Jennifer Lopez giving advice? What a joke.

• 
• +1
• 
•