Now: Christina Aguilera

Known for her edgy style and soulful voice, Christina Aguilera has been making hit records since 1999, when she debuted with her self-titled album Christina Aguilera. Born in Staten Island, New York, to her mother who taught Spanish and her father, a native of Ecuador, Aguilera was destined to become a star from the beginning. She shows no signs of stoping with her upcoming fourth album, Bionic, due this June.

She made her first appearance as a contestant on the television show “Star Search” in 1990 at the age of 10 and went on from there to perform on the popular television program “The New Mickey Mouse Club” where she starred along with up-and-coming stars Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Keri Russel and Ryan Gosling.

From her initial album Christina Aguilera, three No. 1 singles made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, making the album extremely successful, selling more than 17 million copies worldwide and being named one of the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by The Recording Industry Association of America. By the year 2000, Christina Aguilera was a household name.

In 2000, Aguilera and producer Rudy Perez began recording her first Spanish album, Mi Reflejo, in which she was able to get back to her Latin roots.

When the hit movie Moulin Rouge! was released in 2001, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil’ Kim and Mya re-recorded Labelle’s famous song “Lady Marmalade” for the film’s soundtrack.

The single quickly rose to the Hot 100 and remained at the top for five weeks. At the Grammy Awards all four singers took home awards for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

In 2002, Aguilera released a new album, Stripped, and it was drastically different from the squeaky-clean image of her former album. The first single, “Dirrty” caused an angry outcry from many people, as Aguilera had changed her image by wearing less clothing and including more sexual lyrics than had previously appeared in her older songs.

Although some people weren’t happy with Aguilera’s new image, Christina herself was glad to take more creative control over her work. While putting together Stripped, Aguilera co-wrote 14 of her songs, including the hit singles “Beautiful” and “Can’t Hold Us Down." Aguilera received four nominations from the Grammy Awards and won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Beautiful."

In 2006 Aguilera released her album Back to Basics, which features a more soulful, jazz-inspired side. Back to Basics made it to No. 1 in the United States and 13 other countries, and went on to sell more than four million copies worldwide.

Now Aguilera has made her fourth album in the U.S. called Bionic, which is set to be released June 8. She finished the album nearly a year ago, but has said she put it on hold to finish work on her upcoming film debut Burlesque which she stars in along with Cher and Stanley Tucci. "You will see me dancing and singing and acting for my very first time," she told People regarding her part in the movie due out this coming fall. "I wanted to really open myself up to the character. Appreciate the art form and craft of acting. I didn't want to breeze my way through it. For every crying scene, I wanted to evoke the real tears. It was kind of an emotional roller-coaster ride. It was really challenging and hard for me to play with my emotions like that on such a quick, short notice basis."

Though fans will have to wait until Thanksgiving for Burlesque, they can see Aguilera on American Idol on the show's season finale May 26, where she's set to perform a week before she releases the new album.