Songoftheday 2/19/24 - After all you put me through you'd think I'd despise you, but in the end I wanna thank you 'cause you made me that much stronger...

 

 

"Fighter" - Christina Aguilera

from the album Stripped (2002)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 11

 

Today's song is from Christina Aguilera, whose second major album release Stripped had gotten off to a rocky start with the trainwreck of a lead single "Dirrty" but then was redeemed by one of her most beloved and successful hits in "Beautiful".  The third single from the record was the "rock" track from the album, "Fighter". Written by the singer with producer Scott Storch, the song's lyrics has Christina seemingly confronting a partner she's breaking up with for not only cheating on her but "stealing", which is a more rare one in these time of pop songs. Instead of hating them she's thanking them for inspiring the strength in her to become more self-assured (that's odd) and at least ready to see the signs in the next relationship. I mean, she does get a few jabs in the second verse with "Never saw it coming all of your backstabbing, and just so you can cash in on a good thing". By the end, there's no doubt there will be no reconciliation as she puts a close on that chapter. The production is the "safe pop" version of guitar rock, with the wall of sound that only she can compete with. And with a vocal performance that she's giving her all to, she pretty much succeeds. The music video is meant to be dark and almost Nine Inch Nails-like, but the result is more campy except if you have an aversion to moths...

"Fighter" became the second top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 from the album in May of 2003. On the radio, the song peaked at #5 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart, #28 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, and #37 on the nascent Dance Airplay list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the United Kingdom (#3), Canada (#3 Sales), Ireland (#4), Australia (#5), the Netherlands (#8), Hungary (#8), Poland (#10), and Croatia (#10). It also made the top-40 in Switzerland (#11), Belgium (#11 Flanders/#27 Wallonia), Austria (#12), Sweden (#12), Norway (#12), Germany (#13), New Zealand (#14), Italy (#15), Spain (#15), and Denmark (#15).

Christina and the Stripped album will be back to the series.

(7/10)

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Here's Aguilera on her tour behind the album...

And lastly, from her VH1 Storytellers episode in 2010....

Up tomorrow: The incarcerated felon gets reptilian.