Christina Aguilera, Koko, London <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fivestar -->
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Your support makes all the difference.Only a fool would bet against Christina Aguilera's successful return. If last month's cover for American GQ and lucrative deals with mobile phone companies were the prep for her latest campaign, her still sublime four-octave voice, and sassy, hook-laden new single, "Ain't No Other Man", should take care of the rest.
We're told that the 25-year-old's new double album is partly "a throwback to Twenties, Thirties and Forties-style jazz and blues", but it's not quite adieu to Xtina, the chaps-wearing minx who built up such a head of steam on 2002's Stripped. While Back To Basics pays musical homage to the likes of Etta James, and Aguilera's current look is pure Forties Hollywood glamour, tracks such as "Still Dirrty" are hardly coy. Were Aguilera to let her skirt balloon over an air-vent, she'd probably have nothing on underneath.
In person, she comes across as a charismatic, if diminutive character, her gold high heels taking her to about 5ft 4in. Most of this is legs, though - something you can't help but notice given Aguilera's tight-fitting black shorts. Joined by an ace cast that includes a horn-section and a troupe of sassy dancers, she opens with the single, and then dedicates "Understand", a powerful waltz-time ballad, "to a certain man in my life who I love very much". This is the music executive Jordan Bratman, her husband since November 2005.
Things get a whole lot sexier on "Candy Man", another new track somewhat reminiscent of Madonna's "Hanky Panky", but with tight, Forties-style vocal harmonies. Aguilera has now donned a white-and-navy-blue sailor's hat and set it at a jaunty angle. In some ways, it is more like watching a video-shoot than a gig, but there is a lot to be said for glamour, meticulous burlesque-style choreography, and a set that doesn't look like it was designed on the back of a fag packet.
Like the premature veteran she is (she had nailed every riff and note of Mariah Carey's "Vision Of Love" by the age of 10, remember), Aguilera owns her stage. "Oh Mother", she tells us, is about her own mother. "She got us out of a domestic violence situation at home," adds the singer, whose parents divorced when she was seven. "I've only sung this song a couple of times, and whenever I do, I have to stop myself from crying." Aguilera's set is finished in 30 minutes, but less is undoubtedly more. This was a pop-diva master-class.
A version of this review has already appeared in some editions of the paper
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