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Christina Aguilera: A Star is Made: The Unauthorized Biography

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Before buying this book, be aware that this is not your average biography of a pop singer. Pier Dominguez has written a well-researched, detailed, up-to-date and intimate biography of one of pop music's biggest superstars, Christina Aguilera. The book is filled with interesting information and anecdotes about Christina Aguilera, covering her life up to late 2002. It covers topics that those glossy fan books do not, including the abusive tactics of Christina's father, information about the Britney/Christina rivalry, intimate details about Christina's ex-boyfriend Jorge Santos, the complete story of Christina firing her longtime manager Steve Kurtz, and so much more. If you want a book that exposes the media hoopla and tells the truth about Christina's life, then this is the perfect book for you.

This is the first and only current biography of one of pop music's most controversial ladies, Christina Aguilera. I recieved this book as a Christimas present and eagerly devoured it in two days. I found it to be a quick, yet balanced and imformative biography. The book itself isn't one of those fan guides stuffed with pictures- it's more like a behind-the-scenes look at Christina Aguilera's life up to 2003. In it, you'll find information about her early years singing, her days on The Mickey Mouse Club, her determination to become a singing star, how she got a record deal, the story behind Christina's transformation from a sweet innocent girl to an independant young woman, the story behind her controversial romance with Jorge Santos, and much, much more. This book does not always chronicle Christina as a perfect robot, it shows us that she has faults and feelings, too. You'll even get to read about the making of "Lady Marmelade" and Christina and Britney's "rivalry." This book allows you to take a peek and see what Christina's life really is as a pop star. If you are looking for a detailed, up-do-date, intimate, and well-researched biography of Christina Aguilera, this would be the book to turn to.

Biographies of singers are suppose to be short, quick, exciting, yet informative and straight to the point...Just as its publicity states, this is certainly NOT one of your average short, to the point, insta-biographies that have become so popular. It chronicles the rise of a star while demonstrating how the music industry constructed Aguilera. In the best tradition of the thorough, unauthorized biography, this book is more than the life of the star.

"Christina Aguilera: A Star is Made The Unauthorized Biography" is a rare find in pop star biography. So many times in the past, I've ordered a book that ended up just being a bubbly fan book filled with nothing but glossy photos and elementary-level writing. This book is a true biography that chronicles Christina's life. It is the only serious biography available of any pop star. The writing is deliciously readable and immediately engages the reader and I was hooked until the final page. This is no puny book and I was able to read it one weekend because I was so caught up in the action of Christina's life. It is an obviously well-researched, fair biography that neither exploits Christina nor leaves out anything that the reader needs to know in order to understand her rise to fame. Sprinkled throughout the book as well are commentaries and "mini-biographies" about the music industry and many of the key players involved in any singer's rise to the top. This book left me with the feeling that I knew who Christina was and I hope that they start to publish more high-brow books about pop stars like this one.

I'm so glad I chose this book when I was looking for a book about Christina Aguilera. It was informative, intelligent and easy to read. I enjoyed the whole book from cover to cover. If you want to get a good idea of what Christina's like, this is the book to read. I love Christina and I admire her for all the struggles she went through to get to the top. This book is the best!

Christina Aguilera is anything but boring. For her entire decade plus spanning career, the pop diva's garnerned attention for her powerhouse vocals, outrageous fashion choices, and aggressive sexuality. Biographer and freelance pop culture writer Pier Dominguez explores the life of a young woman who, although now only 30 years old (22 at the time of the book's release), has been through enough turmoil and drama to fill a number of lifetimes.

Dominguez takes it all the way back to the beginning when Fausto Aguilera, an Ecuadorian U.S. Army sergeant, met and fell in love with Shelly Fidler, a young Irish Catholic Spanish interpreter. Christina Maria Aguilera, their first born daughter, arrived on December 18, 1980 and the family lived everywhere from Texas and New Jersey to Japan. According to both Christina and her mother, Fausto had a nasty temper and physically, emotionally, and verbally attacked his wife on a fairly regular basis. To escape the violence in her home, little Chrissy would go upstairs to her room and belt out songs from her favorite movie The Sound of Music. After the birth of Christina's sister Rachel, Shelly packed up her kids, fled to her mother's home in Pittsburgh, and divorced her husband.

During this time, Christina sang along to her grandmother's Billie Holiday and Etta James' records, connecting to the pain she heard in their songs. She also fell in love with Whitney Houston's music and absolutely worshipped Mariah Carey (who's influence can be seen and heard in everything from Christina's melisma-laden singing and finger waves to her heady whistle notes), performing in local talent shows under the billing "the little girl with the big voice".

Music once again became her refuge from the intense bullying she suffered at school: Being nearly physically assaulted during gym class, having her mom's tires slashed, and receiving threatening phone calls. The abuse forced Christina's family into therapy and away to the small, nearby town of Wexford, where she flourished. At 13, she landed a spot on The New Micky Mouse Club alongside future stars Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Ryan Gosling. Britney and Christina (both the babies of the group) were inseparable until the show's cancellation in 1994.

Things get really juicy after Aguilera's record deal with RCA and the recording of her debut album. Label execs molded Christina into a cutesy blonde-haired, blue-eyed pop princess, an image she didn't care for from day one. She saw herself as more of an R&B diva with the chops to kill ballads. Alot of coverage is given to her fueds with Eminem and Fred Durst (just a few of many artists who didn't have anything nice to say about the singer) as well as the exhaustive, chaotic touring schedule that led to the firing of her original manager Steve Kurtz. More light is shed on her relationship with former backup dancer and first love Jorge Santos, the short-lived reunion with her estranged father, and her transformation from the sweet girl next door to the Dirrty diva who Stripped herself bare and sparked alot of controversy.

Dominguez really knows his subject. His research is thorough and the writing is entertaining from start to finish. 34 black and white photos document Christina's evolution. The only thing I didn't like was the author's constant, many times unfair, criticism of Britney Spears. While it's true that Christina has the better voice, Dominguez makes it pretty clear he's an Xtina fanboy and does nothing to hide his dislike of Spears.

It's been nearly 10 years since the publication of A Star is Made and Christina has experienced much more: marriage and divorce from music marketer Jordan Bratman, the birth of son Max, the unfortunate flop of 2010's Bionic and the Super Bowl mishap, along with her reemergence on the NBC singing competition show The Voice. I'd like to see a new biography from Pier. Until then, read this one and enjoy.

"Christina Aguilera: A Star is Made" is one of the best biographies ever written about a singer. This is not one of those glossy books with tons of pictures and inaccuarate info, but a wonderful, detailed look at the singer's life. In this book, Christina's childhood is vividly described. The book tells about how she has always loved to sing, the places she's had to move to as a child, things she enjoyed doing, how kids at school were jealous of her singing talent, and of course, her time on the New Mickey Mouse Club. This book goes on to tell how Christina got signed to a record deal, her days as a teenager, and much more. Not only that, but this book outlines Christina's entire singing career up to the release of "Stripped". It also describes her transformation from girl-next-door to a "dirrty" music superstar. Plus, the book includes information about Christna's so-called rival Britney Spears, and a photo gallery featuring photos of Christina from when she was a child all the way up to today. Overall, this is a wonderful biography, and truly one that Christina fans will love. The book is so detailed and includes such good info, you won't even believe it's unauthorized!

While many unauthorized biographies are being made more each day on famous artists few can capture the essence and beauty of their work like Pier Dominguez. This national bestseller carefully goes chapter by chapter giving the progression and transgression of how Christina Aguilera surpassed, and rose to fame so quickly and with such determination. It was no easy ride to reach stardom. Pier Dominguez describes it in such an organized, and carefully crafted way definitely appealing, entertaining, and insightful!

The years are from Christina's early childhood all the way until her "Lady Marmalade" performance, awards, and video. The Stripped Album is only put in the very end in the Discography and implied toward the last chapter. The entire reading takes an approach that is objective, non-suggestive, and definitely marked by much facts, great analogies, and much insight. It was very apparent many people were interviewed, much research was done on her music, and a lot of passion was present by the author.

My most memorable readings would have to be when it's mentioned that Christina had many problems in school and lots of the kids were jealous of her. It was in that chapter that I realized that songs like "Beautiful" and "Fighter" may have inspired her down-the-line.

Also, quite impressive was her reaction to life's throwbacks. While many would crawl up and shrivel, Christina didn't. On one instance, it was mentioned that when her dad [as she was a child] would yell at her mom she would go to her room and sing. It was her escape from the negativity and turmoil. In the Star Search challenge she lost, in her school dilemmas, in her loss to Shakira in the Latin Awards, in her break-up to Santos, in Eminem's bashing, and the list goes on, Christina never looses her focus to put her music first, to learn from her losses, and to gain knowledge, experience, and spread it along through her writings and music.

When her first impression by the artist, Pink [Lady Marmalade time] was not good but later it changed to the point she was introduced to the song-writer that would create many smashing hits in her future albums it became obvious that Christina never gives up the challenge to win people by letting them get to know her as a person and not the first impression. Which to me made me see how more songs in the future had arisen from that. She puts messages in her music that are positive, inspiring, and gives hope by sharing her life experiences --which are totally revealed in this book to a certain degree.

All her albums were analyzed, talked about extensively and included sales ranks, chart positions, and awards. All relating to the beginning eras and not including Stripped. Her love life was very much scrutinized with Fred Durst, Jorge Santos, and a few others. There were no gossip stories or tabloid type writings. I enjoyed the comparisons with Britney, Mariah, Madonna, and others. There were many revelations not known to me like how Christina demands a certain amount of light bulb to her dressing rooms in tours, certain foods, and much more. It gave a clear cut picture on who Christina was as a child, as a young teenager, and as a young adult. The chapters are carefully crafted to have everything in chronological order by putting each album, single, and life event by year --making it much easier to understand and enjoy. There are black and white photos in the middle from her beginnings, Lady Marmalade, Ricky Martin and her, and Stripped Era.

Astonishingly, there were many facts on other artists [Mariah Carey] that were unbelievable. It has a compare and contrast approach I found very much insightful and extremely diverse as compared to other writers. There was much mentioning of how she planned to do her album Stripped with a much more personal style, less control by her producers, and changes. Although, the album name wasn't mentioned it was specifically talked about as a project that Christina was working on with hip-hop artists to give it a much more R&B edge. She did not want to have a pop type sound but more of a soulful, R&B, pop blend. It was definitely a great book and I highly recommend it for fans, book lovers, and just anybody interested in learning about the music business and how to go about it. The details on how Christina started and got into the music business and acting were analyzed, explained, and given much merit. Overall, if you want to buy an unauthorized biography that has the complete package with regards to music, personal, and professional information of Christina this is for you!

Has lots of information about song releases and dates etc. Lots of quotes by Christina also.
Goes into quite a lot of depth in some places that maybe didn't need to, but otherwise is an easy read.
He did a good job showing fans how Christina's career started and the good and bad things that happened to her along the way.
I have no problems reccomending this book. It's a good guide to Christina, just a shame it wasn't authourised by her.

This is a great Christina autobiography! It's up to date, informative & entertaining. Me, being a huge fan, I had to get it & I'm glad I did. She went from teen sensation to pop music icon with her phenomenal vocals, flamboyant fahsions, sassy attitude & impressive performance skills. This is the Dirrty Diva's story!