It’s summer 1999 and things are bright. The color pink is unironically everywhere, from spaghetti-strap tank tops to low-slung track pants.
Julia Roberts is dominating the box office with two fizzy rom-coms. The laugh track is in its imperial phase, as Friends, Will & Grace, and Frasier gear up for new seasons.
We haven’t yet reached full-on Y2K hysteria, and in the air, an optimism about what a new millennium might bring. And on every Top 40 station worldwide, a 3-minute 36-second confection blares, “You gotta rub me the right way.” The song, of course, is “Genie in a Bottle.” The singer?
An 18-year-old rising star named Christina Aguilera, who would go on to become one of the most important pop stars of the 21st century.That formative song—and the subsequent self-titled album it appeared on—turns 25 this year, which is why I found myself on a recent Friday in Aguilera’s Los Angeles home.
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