Christina Aguilera Lives Out Her Dreams with Epic Hollywood Bowl Show

Christina Aguilera kicked off the first night of her two-show weekend at the Hollywood Bowl with an epic performance.

The “Beautiful” singer performed to a packed house on Friday night (July 16) at the open-air venue in Los Angeles, where she joined the LA Philharmonic for a set of her hit songs and some classic standards.

Christina noted how she lived out her dreams with this show, bringing up how she grew up around classical music thanks to her violinist mother who performed in symphonies.

“I’ve never at one time, I don’t think, been around so many amazing, incredible artists, musicians, writers, dancers, movers all in the same night. I have a lovely family of amazing incredible people, but tonight I wanted to thank the Hollywood Bowl and the LA Phil for inviting me to perform,” Christina said, adding a big thanks to the “legendary” conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Click inside to read the rest of Christina’s comments and see the set list…

“I hope I got all the tears out of the way,” Christina continued. “I’m a crier. This morning when I came in for rehearsal, we’ve already done the show at like 8am and I just had to be a spectator for a moment as they rehearsed. This is the moment of a lifetime because my mother’s a violinist and she traveled with a youth orchestra when she was 15 or 16 years old, so I remember all these images of her playing her violin every night in our living room and just being around classical music my whole life.”

Christina brought up how she was “originally inspired by the great Rodgers and Hammerstein and The Sound of Music, being the first thing that ever spoke to me musically. I wanted to be Julie Andrews on the hills. Tonight is that moment for me!”

“I’m so inspired by stories, and composers, from Danny Elfman and his work with Tim Burton… and there’s elements like that to creative pieces that have influences and inspirations that I’ve grown up loving that I’ve got to include tonight,” Christina added. She also credited Philip Glass and Moonlight composer Nicholas Britell as inspiration.

During the show, Christina performed her hit songs like “Dirrty,” “Can’t Hold Us Down,” “What a Girl Wants,” and “Lady Marmalade.” She even did a haunting version of “Genie in a Bottle” that was a highlight of the evening. Make sure to check out the full set list below!

There are still limited tickets available for Christina‘s second show and the LA Phil will be joined by stars like Cynthia Erivo and H.E.R. later in the season.

SET LIST
Opening Score
At Last/JB Intro/Ain’t No Other Man
Genie in a Bottle
The Voice Within
Peaches/Can’t Hold Us Down (orchestra tacet)
Maria
Twice (orchestra tacet)
Say Something
Dirrty
Xpress/Lady Marmalade (orchestra tacet)
Contigo (orchestra tacet)
What a Girl Wants (orchestra tacet)
It’s a Man’s World
Fighter
Encore: Beautiful

Make sure to see what Christina did to surprise fans ahead of the show!