Reviewed March 02, 2008
Christina Aguilera Back to Basics: Live And Down Under
by Ron Hollywood

Hamish Hamilton directed this great 95 minute live DVD of Christina Aguilera’s best album and tour Back To Basics from Australia. It’s a great representation of the tour with no songs deleted and the setlist in it’s proper order. The main thing is that this tour is much brighter and happier than her Stripped tour. Everything from the lighting, costumes, and ever smiling dancers brings a joyful mood.

Christina and her dancers make their way down an illuminated staircase while she belts out Ain’t No Other Man wearing a white suit and fedora hat. What’s really entertaining is how she sings and moves with her dancers on Back In The Day and Slow Down Baby. This girl can sing like no one else and the long blond hair looks great. To show her maturity as an artist she’s revamped two of her teen pop songs. There’s a 30’s jazz style for Come Over Baby and reggae flavor beat for What A Girl Wants. The horn section has some great moments in between songs too. Makes Me Wanna Pray is a total highlight where an old fashioned juke joint church is resurrected. To show she still has some X-tina in her she has a sexy video interlude for I Got Trouble where she cavorts in a bathtub stimulating masturbation. The three large screens come in handy all night. On Slow Down Baby and the closing Fighter it’s Hammish Hamilton’s cinematography that makes things look like 3-D with white lines and cursive wording. Very impressive to watch and did not have the same effect when I saw the tour last year.

It’s the second half of the show where the real production comes out in the form of a circus. There’s a tent, flame throwing, jugglers, and Christina sings dressed as a Ringmaster for Welcome. She humps on a carousel horse for Dirrty. The highlight has to be Nasty Naughty Boy, where she brings an audience member on stage. He’s then strapped down to a wheel while Christina and her dancers serenade him complete with whips and a pyrotechnic ending. Hurt is just brilliant in it’s vocal deliverance. It all comes to end end with a two song encore of Beautiful and Fighter.

1. Intro: Back To Basics
2. Ain’t No Other Man
3. Back In The Day
4. Understand
5. Come On Over (Jazz Version)
6. Slow Down Baby
7. Still Dirrty / Can’t Hold Us Down (Medley)
8. I Got Trouble (Video Interlude)
9. Makes Me Wanna Pray
10. What a Girl Wants (Reggae Version)
11. Oh Mother
12. Enter The Circus
13. Welcome
14. Dirrty
15. Candyman
16. Nasty Naughty Boy
17. Hurt
18. Lady Marmalade
19. Encore: Thank You (Video Interlude)
20. Beautiful
21. Fighter

Special Features 33:26
The special Features section is really just a listing of interviews. It’s nice to see how everything and one from musicians to make-up to Christina herself helped make the whole tour come together. It would have been a bit better to include some footage from Australia like sightseeing since this DVD is labeled Down Under.

Dancers 3:44
The male and female dancers Monique Slaughter, Gilbert Saldavar, Tiana Brown, Paul Kirkland, Niki Tuazon, Marcel Wilson, KiKi Ely, Dres Reid talk about everything from the 10 hour rehearsal days to working with fire or stilts for the first time. There’s lots of admiration towards Christina and how much of a hard worker she is. Marcel mentions this tour is a dancers dream because there’s so many different styles of dance from tap to hip-hop and more.

Wardrobe 2:26
Simone Harouche shows the outfits Christina and the dancers wear for each segment. It’s cool how she explains the origin of the feather skirt Christina wears for Lady Marmalade.

Stephen Solitto 2:20
Here Stephen Solitto talks about Christina’s skin and features. He goes into details on creativity ideas from Christina and the style of old Hollywood like darker eyes for the stage. He also explains the chaos of what goes on behind stage.

Musicians 3:39
Four musicians Ethan Farmer (bass), Brian Frasier Moore (drums), Miguel Gandelman (trumpet), and Ray Yslas (percussion), and talk about how long they’ve played with Christina and how much their musicianship comes into play. Bassist Ethan jokes about how he’s not just playing bass but dancing on this tour.

Background vocalists 3:13
The three vocalists Erika Jerry, Sasha Allen, Sha’n Favors discuss about being inspired on working with Christina as a vocalist and performer. They even talk about the singing techniques and how hard it is to sing while someone’s pregnant.

Musical director Rob Lewis 7:56
Rob Lewis talks about how he auditioned with his band. He goes in depth on how the musical evolution of Christina’s music has happened. He talks about how Christina could be feeling burlesque one day and he’ll have to learn how to be into that. He details on exact musical ideas between him and Christina from performing at the MTV awards or new vocal arrangements for old songs.

Jordan Bratman 4:48
It’s nice to see a guy we don’t hear much about finally in an interview. He talks about how their relationship went from a friendship to marriage. He talks about seeing Christina in her pyjamas without make-up and this is the woman he loves. There’s a lot of details about how their relationship works so well and when he joined the tour because she was pregnant. He says he’s never met anyone who works harder then she does and details that fact.

Christina Aguilera 6:44
Here Christina herself talks about how while she’s recording she thinking about the tour from costumes to dancing. She explains about creating an entertaining show and an escape for fans from what’s going on in their lives. Once she goes through different inspirations she gets on phone with other collaborators like Jamie King to get ready for the tour. She jokes about having great interaction with her dancers from different moments in the show. There’s some very inspiring moments about about becoming better artists and human beings. Again discussion about her pregnancy during the tour. She ends with a great statement “There’s no stopping me.”

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Previously: Nelly Furtado: Loose The Concert

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