Miss White Soul Mama does it again! Not only has she paid flawless tributes to James Brown, Etta James (those other versions sound like characters on Sesame Street!), and Donny Hathaway — she now uses her golden pipes to honor the late-great Nina Simone. This immaculate performance proves that Christina Aguilera leaves dust in the tracks of all these other so-called singers.
The great thing about Christina’s tributes is that she really appreciates these artists. Not, “I wanna win an award! Oh! Let me sing that!” You can tell she grew up with this music and understands the importance, passion, and has great respect for the art form.
Besides Fantasia, Aguilera sings monsoons around any of these gals of this generation in mainstream music — Pink and Alicia Keys — all artists who can sing, but don’t want one single day from one of the most soulful artists of today. With all that said, Aguilera suffers from what most great singers suffer from today — just like Fantasia, her voice doesn’t translate well in the studio (J-Hud is another one). I could listen to Fanny and Chrissy sing live for hours, but I could never listen to either of their albums from beginning to end — I could do that with Alicia Keys and especially Pink.
Whatever the case, check out the performance from the former X-Tina singing Nina Simone’s version of “I Love You Porgy”! Nina was a hard woman to please, but I think even she would’ve been happy.
source: Clay Cane
