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Christina Aguilera took to social media to take her fans on a walk on memory lane. The Latina singer is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her fourth studio album, Stripped.
“My favorite memory was just, I mean, the freedom to finally do what I wanted to do,” the star wrote on Twitter alongside a video montage. “As an artist, telling my stories, my personal messages for the first time. It was so important to me on my sophomore album that I truly made music that represented who I was.”
According to Aguilera, the album helped her explore her creativity as never before and showed a different side of her personality. “Stripped gave me the strength and freedom as an artist to tell my story the way I wanted. Thank you to all of my fighters around the world for amplifying that strength and giving me the space to continue to share myself in my truest forms, #20YearsOfStripped more to come,” she said.
Stripped was released on October 22, 2002, by RCA Records, as part of Aguilera’s transition from teen pop styles to a woman with more creative control over her albums. The project also established her alter ego, Xtina, and incorporated a mix of pop and R&B with influences from soul, rock, hip-hop, and Latin music.
Aguilera began discussing self-respect, sex, and feminism in her lyrics, receiving mixed reviews from music critics. Despite comparisons and negative reviews from music experts, Stripped debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 330,000 copies. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it five times platinum.
Stripped received multiple Grammy Award nominations, including one win. The album has sold over 12 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. Among the most memorable song of the albums, we can enlist “Dirrty,” “Fighter,” “Can’t Hold Us Down,” and “The Voice Within.”