Pop icon Christina Aguilera received thunderous applause as she greeted 14,000 fans at Park Live on Thursday night with “Shalom!”
The Rishon LeZion concert marked the singer-songwriter’s first time in Israel and she appeared in love with the country, telling the crowd, “It’s been too long,” and “I am so happy to be with you tonight.”
The packed arena comprised a majority of 30-40 year olds, some who had probably waited much of their lives to see and hear her in person, and were hoping she would perform beloved hits. The concert gained momentum slowly, beginning with “Stripped” (from her 2002 album of the same name), and the lyrics: “I've waited a long time for this/It feels right now/Allow me to introduce myself/I want you to come a little closer/I'd like you to get to know me a little bit better/Meet the real me. This was followed by her dance hit “Dirrtty,” from the same album. By the time she broke into her iconic 1999 release “Genie in a Bottle,” it was clear that the star’s vocal range was still intact.
A few songs in, she stopped to apologize for being unable to include in the show everything she had hoped, due to an injury to her left knee sustained as she was packing to fly to Israel. She admitted to being in a lot of pain while on stage, but said that when it happened she decided “I am gonna get my ass on the plane” because “I wanted to be with you guys.”
Another 1999 favorite, “What a girl wants,” continued to reconnect fans to the pop idol they had grown up with. When her injured knee hurt her too much, she told them, “Your love helps me get through it, I couldn’t do this without you,” adding: “My heart is so full to see your beautiful country, I am so honored, so moved, so inspired.”
Although Aguilera didn't go into detail about what exactly her injury had forced her to dispense with, several fans, while sympathetic, couldn’t help voicing disappointment over not being able to experience her famed wardrobe changes and high kicks. However, the wild pyrotechnics and the curated backdrop, interspersed with live images and burlesque and LGBT-themed and other interludes (as well as the talented backup dancers and singers) and Aguilera’s directness with the audience about her injury and how she felt being in Israel, seemed to sooth any irritation at not getting quite what they had bargained for.
Eden Ben Zaken joins Aguilera on stage
They were rewarded with half a surprise (since they were expecting it): Aguilera, 42, had invited Israeli pop singer Eden Ben Zaken, 29, to perform a duet. Discovered in 2013 on X-factor Israel where she placed second with her rendition of Aguilera’s “Hurt” (from the 2006 album, Back to Basics). Although the song is no longer in her repertoire, the diva said she had decided to do it on this “special occasion and for all of you” in order to share the stage with Ben Zaken. As the duo sang, fans screamed.
Aguilera’s audience got into high gear with the 2001 version of (the 1974 R&B Labell hit) “Lady Marmalade,” from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and the 2006 uptempo jazzy “Candyman” had fans boogie-ing to the melody of a 1941 Andrews Sisters hit.
After a plug for mental health awareness for children, over the use of screens, in which her web address christinaaguilera.com appeared across the screen, the original LGBT champion broke into a poignant rendition of “Beautiful” with the accompaniment of thousands of voices who sang several lines of the song as the singer listened and glowed. She was happy and seemed genuinely pleased to be there.
As if wanting to make up for lost time with her Israeli fans, in this concert which marks her 25 years in show-business, Aguilera shared some personal feelings with her audience.
“I am so grateful to have had the opportunity [to become a pop star] so young,” she said, to “being on the journey,” saying that gratitude had made her more “humble.”
“Every day we think we can’t do things, or we are searching for answers, and we are looking for something, or looking to find it in another person,” she told her fans, “but things can be different; and it’s so important to be able to ride those times,” as she introduced “Say something” (from her 2013 collab with pop duo A Great Big World).
Aguilera said the song was “a prayer,” and that she wanted her fans to know that “You yourself can help you through the tighter times, don't second guess yourself, it’s so easy to feel insecure but you are stronger than you think you are. Answers will always come to you, and everything ends up having a greater purpose, you just have to wait for it and it will come to you.”
When it came to the 2002 anthem “Beautiful,” the entire 14,000 appeared to be singing along. As she approached the end of the song, treating fans to her top vocal pirouettes, she slipped an “I love you Israel,” into the middle of the last line, after “words can’t bring us down,” and before “today.”
“I have so much love for you and so much love for this country,” she said before closing out the evening with 2012’s “Fighter,” seemingly handpicked for Israeli audiences: “Makes me that much stronger/Makes me work a little bit harder/It makes me that much wiser/So thanks for making me a fighter/Made me learn a little bit faster/Made my skin a little bit thicker/Makes me that much smarter/So thanks for making me a fighter.”