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"The last time I interviewed Christina Aguilera for Glamour, it was in October 2006 and she was gearing up for her Back to Basics world tour. After I watched her grueling rehearsal, we sat down in her dressing room for a late-night chat. At the time, she was a confessed workaholic with a penchant for severe red lips, towering stilettos and perfectly manicured nails. She rarely met my eyes during the interview--a technique, she told me at the time, that helped her gather her thoughts--and while she was articulate, she seemed to choose her words very carefully. Almost two years later, I meet a very different Christina: The first thing I notice is that she looks me directly in the eyes--a nice improvement. She&amp;#x27;s relaxed and eager to talk about life with her six-month-old son, Max, and her husband of nearly three years, music exec Jordan Bratman. Her appearance is softer too. She wears her hair in a tousled ponytail and apologizes for her unmanicured nails. But as we talk about her career, it&amp;#x27;s clear that Aguilera&amp;#x27;s focus is as razor-sharp as ever: She&amp;#x27;s been working out 90 minutes a day to get back to her prebaby body, not to mention launching a new perfume called Inspire, promoting a jewelry line with designer Stephen Webster and working on an album that&amp;#x27;s set for release later this year. (Oh, and the woman&amp;#x27;s still a night owl: We meet at 10 P.M. at a West Hollywood lounge because she wanted to spend a full day with baby Max.) What else is new in this 27-year-old&amp;#x27;s life? Read on! GLAMOUR: You&amp;#x27;re obviously back into fighting shape, so let&amp;#x27;s discuss this workout of yours: boxing, running backward on a treadmill while going uphill, crunches, weights, pull-ups--it sounds brutal. CHRISTINA AGUILERA: [Laughs.] I hate working out--I have to mentally push myself through it. I can get very whiny, saying things like, &amp;quot;I can&amp;#x27;t do it!&amp;quot; GLAMOUR: Does your trainer crack the whip when you get like that? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: No--I can&amp;#x27;t deal with having someone barking at me. Mean training is not motivating to me at all; I like to be comforted [through my workout]. All my trainer has to do is say nicely, &amp;quot;I want you to do 200 bicycles; go right through it and don&amp;#x27;t stop.&amp;quot; Then I&amp;#x27;ll know she&amp;#x27;s serious and I&amp;#x27;ll do it. I started out not being able to do man push-ups; pull-ups were a big one too. Now I can do five in a row. GLAMOUR: You look great, Christina. How quickly did you notice a change in your body? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Being the perfectionist that I am, my attitude was, this had better hurry up--I want results! My trainer kept saying, &amp;quot;Give it time, you&amp;#x27;re looking great.&amp;quot; Everyone around me was saying they could see a difference, but, you know, you&amp;#x27;re hardest on yourself. I did see my stomach get flatter and tighter and more muscle definition. GLAMOUR: What did you like the least about your postbaby body and what did you like the most? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Well, I was OK with the booty and the boobs! [Laughs.] My stomach was really where I carried my weight. Toward the end of my pregnancy, I felt really big--I gained about 40 pounds, which is a lot for my size. My hips also changed significantly. And my feet grew from a size 5 to a size 7 in flats--thank God they [went back to normal]. I would have been so depressed if I had to get rid of my shoe collection! GLAMOUR: Let&amp;#x27;s talk about your new album: Can we expect to see you reinvent yourself as you did for Back to Basics? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: I just started recording it, but I can tell you that this record is all about fun. I&amp;#x27;ll be referencing Pop Art, Andy Warhol&amp;#x27;s art. So it will [sound] fun and fast-paced, and visually, it will be full of color, which is how it&amp;#x27;s going to tie in with my new fragrance, Inspire [in stores next month]. GLAMOUR: So Warhol, Pop Art--will it have a sixties sound to it? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: I want it to be a surprise! But there&amp;#x27;s also going to be a modern element to it that comes from my love of Tokyo. GLAMOUR: I used to live there! CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Really? [Jordan] and I vacation there. There&amp;#x27;s such excitement and energy. It&amp;#x27;s just a zillion people walking around--it&amp;#x27;s an incredible place. GLAMOUR: How do people react to you in Tokyo? They must go nuts. CHRISTINA AGUILERA: You know what&amp;#x27;s great? I&amp;#x27;m a pretty petite person, so I just put on a hood or a hat and blend in. GLAMOUR: What? That does not seem possible! Has being a new mom influenced your music? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Absolutely--my little boy breathes new life into me. That&amp;#x27;s one of the reasons I decided to go in a playful direction with this album. I&amp;#x27;ve spoken openly about the domestic violence I experienced growing up. GLAMOUR: Now that you&amp;#x27;re a mom, is it even harder to grasp the concept of child abuse? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Yes--even watching the news when you hear about babies being shaken. Of course you have compassion for children, but when you have your own, you feel it on a much deeper level. So I&amp;#x27;m motivated to speak out even more; to do more charity work; to help children find [safe] homes. GLAMOUR: Despite your tough childhood, you grew up into a solid person. What do you think when you see people in your industry, like Amy Winehouse, self-destruct? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: I&amp;#x27;m not a judgmental person, so I can&amp;#x27;t comment on someone else&amp;#x27;s background. [As for me], I think I&amp;#x27;ve always had a strong sense of self. My mom brought me up to believe that my talent is a gift and a blessing. But I have definitely made some mistakes that I would never do again. GLAMOUR: Like what? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: When I was 21 and made Stripped, I was pretty distraught about some personal issues coming up from my past. I was going out and partying a lot--as people do at that age--and did some very unhealthy things to deal with the pain. But I was able to say, &amp;quot;OK, hold on.&amp;quot; GLAMOUR: But for some reason, you weren&amp;#x27;t caught on camera doing it. CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Thank God! [Laughs.] GLAMOUR: You probably couldn&amp;#x27;t have gotten away with that now. CHRISTINA AGUILERA: I don&amp;#x27;t think so. [It wasn&amp;#x27;t until] the wave of reality TV that [our culture&amp;#x27;s] obsession with celebrity got so crazy. I think a lot of people thrive on that stuff. GLAMOUR: So how do you manage nowadays to avoid paparazzi? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: A lot of people go out of their way [to be photographed]; I make a conscious effort to keep me and my family out of the limelight. The other day a paparazzo actually pulled up to my husband on the street and said, &amp;quot;Geez, I know the new house is big, but I&amp;#x27;ve been trying to get a picture of you for months--you never leave the house!&amp;quot; And it&amp;#x27;s true: I&amp;#x27;ll go out at night after spending time with my son, but [during the day] I just hang out on my grounds, taking him for walks in the stroller in the backyard where we won&amp;#x27;t be seen. GLAMOUR: Has having a child changed your relationship with your own mother? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: It&amp;#x27;s given me a deeper understanding of the things she went through. She had a difficult childhood, and I think she wanted to make sure [I didn&amp;#x27;t go through that]--[yet] she ended up marrying an abuser. My mom was so giving, almost too much, that she almost forgot about herself many times. So I&amp;#x27;m careful to make time for myself. Rather than change who I am for Max, I bring the life lessons I&amp;#x27;ve learned to the table. GLAMOUR: How do you manage to make time for yourself? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: Obviously I didn&amp;#x27;t do anything today--you&amp;#x27;re not allowed to look at my nails! GLAMOUR: How has your relationship with Jordan changed since the baby? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: It&amp;#x27;s brought us closer--we&amp;#x27;re bonded together for life. Relationships and great marriages are a whole learning and growing process. We&amp;#x27;re just great teammates. GLAMOUR: So, how do you guys keep things sexy these days? CHRISTINA AGUILERA: We make sure we have Mommy and Daddy nights out. Our child comes first, obviously, but there are certain things you can do: Once we know he&amp;#x27;s in good hands, we go out late at night and have a few drinks. Then we&amp;#x27;ll come home, dim the lights and do our thing--and I&amp;#x27;m not going into any more detail than that!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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