Christina Aguilera

Aguilera's parents met while her father, Fausto, was serving at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada. Her parents married when her mother was 20 years old and her father 31. Aguilera lived with her father and mother until she was 6 or 7 years old. When her parents divorced her mother took her and her younger sister Rachel to her grandmother's home in Rochester, Pennsylvania, a blue-collar suburb of Pittsburgh. According to Aguilera and Fidler, her father was very controlling, as well as physically and emotionally abusive, which was reflected in her songs, "I'm OK" in Stripped, and "Oh Mother" in Back to Basics. Since then, Fidler has married a paramedic named Jim Kearns, and has changed her name to Shelly Kearns. She attended North Allegheny.
At fourteen, Aguilera recorded her first song, All I Wanna Do, a hit duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi.
Aguilera's grandmother was the first person to recognize her vocal skills. Since Aguilera was a small child, she aspired to be a singer. As a child she performed at block parties and in talent competitions, where she defeated her opponents. Aguilera soon gained media attention, and was known as "the little girl with the big voice".
According to VH1's Driven, this label eventually backfired on her. When competitors learned they would be up against her in any given week, they immediately backed out, prompting insiders to claim it was "like sending a lamb to the slaughter." Her peers soon became jealous of her and would frequently subject her to ridicule, ostracism, and, in one gym class, attempted assault. Acts of vandalism around her house included the slashing of the tires on the family car. Eventually the family relocated and, by her own order, swore to secrecy about her talent lest another backlash occur.
On March 15, 1990, she appeared on Star Search singing Etta James's "A Sunday Kind of Love", but failed to win. Soon after losing on Star Search, she returned home and appeared on Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV's Wake Up with Larry Richert to perform the same song again. People remarked that the then 10-year-old "sounded 20".
Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey games, Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games. Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993 when she joined the Disney Channel's variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Rhona Bennett (who later became a member of En Vogue), Ryan Gosling, and Keri Russell. According to the documentary Driven, Aguilera's Mickey Mouse Club co-stars called her "the Diva". One of her most notable performances was of Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing". When the show ended in 1994, Aguilera began recording demos in an attempt to get signed to a record label.
In 1997 she represented the United States at the "Golden Stag" International Festival with a two-song set which included a Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross song.