Christina Maria Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer and ex-Mouseketeer who rose to fame in the late 1990s with her debut hit song Genie in a Bottle. She was born in Staten Island, New York, USA. Her first song recorded was in Japan, but she only caught the attention of Americans when she released the song reflection for the Disney animated production of Mulan. The video clip featured a young Christina with a bob hair cut, who did not know what was ahead of her young career. Catering to the fresh pop sound that was popular of the era, her career is still going strong in the year 2002, although her image has become increasingly sexual. In the year 2000 she emphasized her Latino heritage, following the Latino trend of the time, by releasing her first Latin album, Mi Reflejo. At this time she claimed to have been learning Spanish. By the year 2002, however, her previously heralded vocals were much overlooked as she began to change her fresh, youthful image into that of a highly sexualized woman with hip-hop and you porn-star influences. The video for her 2002 single Dirrty featured her writhing with members of both sexes including a female-only shower scene in which she was wearing only a thong and a bra. She claimed that releasing her first song had consequently catagorised her into the clean, squeaky, pop tart range and was not her. She added that she felt suffocated, and deliberately escaped from the media to return later on as herself, and expressing her voice. The Dirrty video also made the news when the government of Thailand banned the video from national television, because a pair of posters that appear in the background of the boxing ring advertise, in Thai language, the sex tourism and underage girls of Thailand. The producers and director of the video claimed to be ignorant of the meaning of the posters. She is currently banned from entering Thailand as it offended the Thai people. Her 2nd official English speaking album, Stripped, was ranked one of the worst albums to have been released by many charts, but fans beg to differ. Stripped features many interludes, one before the track, Infatuation, which features her speaking fluent Spanish. Aguilera's voice has been complemented with brilliance several times, and even in comparison to diva, Mariah Carey.