Christina Aguilera

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Web posted on:
Thursday, September 16, 1999 1:10:03 PM EDT

From Sherri Sylvester
CNN Entertainment News Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Christina Aguilera is rubbing music listeners the right way with her No. 1 album and No. 1 single "Genie in a Bottle" ("I'm a genie in a bottle / Got to rub me the right way, baby").

"Seeing my name in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart has always been a dream of mine," she says.

The 18-year-old isn't new to the spotlight. Aguilera ("a-ghee-LE-ra") starred on "The Mickey Mouse Club" at age 12, with future star Britney Spears, whose claim to fame is the pop album "... Baby One More Time." In 1998, Aguilera sang the theme song to the animated Disney feature "Mulan." Today, she has a record deal with RCA and a write-up in Time magazine, a sister Time Warner medium to CNN.com.

Aguilera says Time "reviewed me as the next Mariah Carey, and to be compared to someone as great as she is ... I have idolized her forever."

She's also made an appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno." "I was just upstairs getting my hair done," Aguilera says, "and Jay comes in, and he's like, 'Oh, how nice it is to meet you,' and I was like, 'Oh my God. It's Jay Leno.'"

Promoting "Genie in a Bottle" does have its downside, Aguilera says, like reinterpreting the lyrics for those who think the song is overtly sexual. "It's playing up to the 'genie in the lamp' theme, and it's a very cool twist on words. But also it's a song about self-respect and fun."

In the future, this chart-topper plans to enter the Latin market. Aguilera says her father is from Ecuador, "so being half-Latina, I really want to dig into my Spanish roots, release a Spanish album and pursue acting someday."