pen&kev
Aug 2nd, 2000, 05:35 PM
First of all I'd like to thank Shelly for coming to livedaily. Here you go:
Charlotte asks: Did Shelly ever push her daughter to be in the music business or did Christina just really, really wanna do it herself?Also, what does Christina do to refresh her voice when it's hoarse after a long concert?
Shelly: Heaven's no! It was actually the opposite. If more than a week went by with no little block parties or talent shows or local things going on when Christina was little, she'd start bugging me to try and find something "fun" for her to sing in. As for what she does to rest her throat, NO TALKING or using her voice at all for periods of time. Plus drinking warm teas with honey, etc. , helps.
SteveNJujuKickAss asks: How does it feel to have seen your daughter from the very beginning and go to such a successful career?
Shelly: It’s the most wonderful yet bizarre feeling in the world. You dream about it with her for so many years…you see it getting closer, and it all of a sudden happens. It’s amazing. For me, I often get flashes of her when she was so little-about 4 years old in pigtails. Then I snap out of it and see her so happy and with people cheering her on. …makes me cry every time!
Jay2069 asks: How you feel about Christinas 5 nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards,and do you know if Christina will be performing there?
Shelly: How do I feel? Proud!! It’s just so exciting when your child is being recognized as a talent, to think that she is even nominated for such things is wonderful. They haven’t chosen who will perform at this year’s award’s show yet, so we don’t know if Christina will be on the list of artists performing or not.
Sohail asks: Hi Shelly.its me Sohail.it was fun talking to you when you were online for the fans i hope you still remember me. First i wanted to thank you for the time you spent with me when you were online. Thank you so much. I wanna apologize if anything i might have said had hurt you or anything. I'm sorry for that. And my question to you is is there any other e-mail address to which i can write to you or any other way to contact you?please let me know. give my love to Christina and i love you lots 2.
Shelly: Hi Sohail! Yes, I do remember you. How are you? Actually there is no other email address other than the fanmail@christinamail.com address for contacting us. All of Christina’s online communication is done through that address alone. She doesn’t even IM anyone or have ICQ or anything, so that’s pretty much the only address to reach us through. Thanks so much for your kind words and for the support. It means quite a bit to both Christina and I.
glitter_jess asks: Is Christina still planning on being the spokesperson for Coca-Cola? If so, when?
Shelly: Yes! Very soon you’ll see commercial ads, etc. She just had to wait until her schedule was free enough to do photo and other shoots with the Coke people. That is going to be done within the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes open for cool things involving Christina and Coke.
peanutzip asks: How proud are you of Christina? Can you give me an explanation because i know that you obviously are!
Shelly: Wow! How can you possibly put that into words. Actually, to be honest, I think that you won’t really, truly grasp what it could be like until you become a parent yourself. Then on top of that, to have tried so hard to help your child to reach the only dream they ever had and then poof! It suddenly becomes reality, it’s just hard for those of us in her family to even grasp that it’s real. It’s wonderful.
AguilerasDaBest asks: Does christina gets lot of pressure being compared to Whitney and Mariah sometimes??if yes what does she thinks about it?
Shelly: Pressure? Well, no, not really. I mean, she’s always been compared to them, but it doesn’t seem to really make Christina feel overly pressured. She’s always been thrilled to think that someone would even compare her to those two---her idols. I think in order to be stressed over something like that you’d have to feel as if you’re competing in some way, and that’s a laugh! There is NO way Christina ever puts herself in the same category as if to compete with either one of her idols.
98DegreesChick asks: What is your favorite memory of Christina as a child?
Shelly: Wow. No one’s ever asked me that one before. Let’s see….. I don’t have only one. That’s the problem. I can see her clear as day right now in my mind..opening Christmas gifts and SO excited over it all. I can remember being so touched during times when things were very hard, and she once caught me crying, and came and hugged me and told me things would be fine, and other sweet encouraging things concerning the circumstances that made me love her to death. Rachel is just like that, too. Very sensitive, compassionate people. I’ve been really blessed. And I remember watching her actually teach herself to ride a bicycle! That girl was 5 years old and would NOT give up, no matter how many times she’d fall. It worked! She learned within a few days..about 3 days or so. Oh, there’s a lot of wonderful memories.
ariel23 asks: Shelley has always seemed to be a warm genuine person, and I hope she enjoys it here. What do you think is Christina's best quality?
Shelly: How sweet!! Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Christina’s best quality? There are several things that always make me smile and make me proud of Christina. One is her zest for life. I always tried to teach her to grab onto life and enjoy it, and to be true to herself. I can honestly say that in her life and in her music, Christina is Christina. As anyone being truly themselves in life, some people hate it and some love it. I never want her to become a confused, miserable person who’s lost touch with who they are and what really makes them happy in life, all because they are bending themselves into such pretzels trying to fit into everyone’s image of what they should be, rather than simply being themselves. I also admire Christina’s determination and love of performing. She keeps on going, rising above the bad things, enjoying the good things, and never losing sight of what needs to be done. She has a great work ethic. Not a lazy girl at all.
matt182 asks: I would ask her if she was really happy, not just happy with her career but with life in general? I think her happiness is most important.
Shelly: Are you asking about my happiness, or Christina’s? If it’s directed toward Christina, that is among the first things I ask her without fail in every single phone conversation we have. She tells me when she’s not happy. It’s not a totally glamorous life to be famous. It’s a ton of hard work and is stressful, but her love for this business seems to rise above it all and keeps her quite happy. Oh she has her moments, here and there, bad days, good days, just like anyone else. But all in all, she’s happy. As for me, the same exact thing. I’ve been blessed with a daughter who’s dreams of fame actually came true, and I get to enjoy all the fun that comes along with it. I’ve been blessed with the comfort of knowing that she’s got the best management team in Steve Kurtz and everyone else around her that anyone could want, so I don’t have to worry about that end of things. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful daughter in Rachel who is the best friend and most talented, sweet, and compassionate daughter a woman could ask for..I’ve got the most sweet, loving and supportive husband in Jim and the cutest, most wonderful gift of a son in little Michael…oh goodness. My list could go on forever. What in heaven’s name would there be for me to be unhappy about? I’m very happy. God’s been very good to me.
genie_girl asks:What was your reaction, and how crazy was it in your house, that night when Christina's name was called for BEST NEW ARTIST?
Shelly: Well, I was sitting in a livingroom chair, Jim was by our fireplace, Mikey was running around totally oblivious, and Rachel was on the couch. You could have cut the silence with a knife just before the winner’s name was announced. But when they said her name, I yelled and covered my mouth (which was open quite wide at the time) and just began to cry. I glanced at Rachel. She was crying. I glanced over at Jim. He was crying. Mikey was running around saying “what’s the matter?” lol. All within a split second I felt elated and also so upset that I got sick and couldn’t go! She won and I missed it! But soon enough, within seconds, the sheer joy of it all erased any sadness that we weren’t there. When the phone rang later and it was her, you should have heard the house. Everyone wanted to talk. It was the most joyous occasion we’d had in the house for quite awhile. That is a night that I think we’ll always remember.
CA all the way asks: Hey Shelly! On Christina's Official website, it mentions something about the Christina Foundation? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Shelly: Yes. The Christina Foundation was created by Christina in her desire to help abused kids. It’s relatively new, so I’ve not actually asked what things they are doing. But it raises money to help children involved in abusive homes and relationships. I’ll try and find out more specifics for you all.
christinarox123 asks: Shelly-Hi! First off, let me say I think you and your daughter are amazing! You're both so hard working! You're both real inspirations! Secondly, my question: since Christina and you seem to enjoy the holidays so much, I was wondering, do you have any holiday traditions? Thanks much and good luck!
Shelly: Thank you so much!! I appreciate that. Oh yes, we definitely have holiday traditions! There’s this one that started because Christina was so excited to know how many days until Christmas when she was tiny. She was too little to understand how many days “one week” was, or even “three days”. So I thought I’d make a way to “show” her how many days were left. I took green and red strips of construction paper and together we glued the ends to form loops, and linked them in a long red and green paper chain. The number of loops in the chain equaled the number of days left till Christmas. Every morning when she got up, I let her tear off one loop. She watched as the chain became shorter and shorter, and she was able to actually understand better how long she had to wait. We still do this to this day. It’s not Christmas without the paper chain. We also bought one ornament that pretty much sums up the most special event(s) of our past year for each individual in the family. We used to go out, just me, Rachel and Christina, to shop for this ornament. I miss being able to do that now. Anyway, our tree has a lot of memories. For example, years ago, Christina loved the guitarist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She chose a chili pepper ornament for herself that year, seeing as everything to her throughout that year was about the chili peppers. We, of course, have certain dishes for the Christmas meal each year. I’m not covering any of the other holidays. Oh! Halloween! For the years before little Mikey’s birth, you should have seen our basement/family room area. We worked and turned the whole thing into the coolest working haunted house you’ve ever seen, complete with separate rooms and sound effects, each one of us taking a different role as characters playing out parts in each room. It was so much fun!!
Aguilera#1FANatic asks: I would like to ask a two part question. First off, how does Christina deal with all of the negative press about her supposedly "nasty" attitude. It seems like Christina is just assertive and she tells people what she wants and things, and that may have been misinterpreted a few times, and now people have just jumped on the bandwagon making up these stories about her "attitude." I would like this rumor that I don't believe squashed. I read somewhere that when Christina was recently in Australia that she refused to look anyone in the eye who she deemed "unimportant." I will never believe such garbage.. this may be one you want to add to the rumor mill.
Shelly: That’s one of the hardest things to deal with in this business, and it’s made much harder if you happen to be a teen female who is strong and confident. Whether people are willing to look at the situation closely enough to admit it or not, confident females are still pretty much looked upon as “b__tchy” in society. For a guy, it’s cool. He’s supposed to have strong opinions, etc. We, more than anyone, would love to have all those lies squashed, but sadly, especially if you’ve got a pretty girl who is really talented and among the leaders in her chosen field and who actually has opinions instead of saying only what she’s robotically expected to say, people are going to get unnecessarily threatened by it-especially peers. Next thing you know, they are saying all kinds of nutty things about her being nasty to people. I’ve never seen Christina rude to fans. That’s one area where I know she loves her fans! She’s known to go out of her way more than most! Bottom line, insecure people are everywhere. This world would be so wonderful if everyone would be happy for everyone else, and not thrive on feeling the panicky need to push successful people down-even through lies-just to try comfort themselves, feeling bigger and better by trying to squash down others who threaten them. Shoot, if all the insecurity of the world would be gone, half the media would go out of business, because people wouldn’t care about idle gossip anymore. They would find it offensive and tacky instead of interesting.
Priscilla asks: Hello! I’m priscilla and i will see christina in chicago on august 19th. (my birthday is the next day) my question is... Is christina going to have an official book about her? And will she ever do a live concert on HBO?
Shelly: Thanks! Actually yes, I’m writing a book. I’ve been writing it for about…geez, about a year now. I’m taking my time, because I’ve got a lot to say. Christina was asked to write a book as well, but I’m not sure if she will or not. I haven’t asked her. As for HBO, maybe! It’s certainly a possibility. Keep watching the appearances on the website and perhaps one day it’ll pop up there! And by the way, happy birthday on the 20th!!
Pen&Kev asks: One of the biggest discussion that always surfaces around LiveDaily is regarding the Christina/Britney rivalry debate. Can you put it to rest and explain their relationship? Are they friends or rivals?
Shelly: Oh I know! That has to be THE craziest thing! I was visiting Christina about a month ago in Los Angeles, and while I was there, Britney left a message on Christina’s cellphone, returning a call. It’s insane!! It’s like so many people absolutely refuse to accept even the idea that they are good friends! Why, I have no idea. But truly, they are good friends and there is no evil war or hatred between them, as the media constantly insinuates. They’ve been great friends for years.
FRosalin asks: How are Christina's ticket sales doing for her tour? i am a great fan and i hope well because she deserves the best."
Shelly: From what I’ve been told, they’re going really well. Thanks so much!
What does Christina like to collect?? (ie stuffed animals, etc.)
Shelly: She collects anything that catches her eye, much like me, actually. If it’s odd, pretty, or just plain fun, she’ll like it. She does collect Hello Kitty, though, and cool notebooks. She and her sister, Rachel, are very much alike in their taste and in the things they collect. We went out today and Rachel saw a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff, and I knew instantly that “here we go again”.
I know as a singer it can be hard on your vocal chords when you have to perform everyday, so how does Christina take care of her AWESOME voice??
Shelly: Actually, oddly enough, the vast number of interviews and meeting people, etc. that she does is harder on her voice than the singing itself. She has to do so many interviews in between everything each day that she often becomes hoarse and has to rest her voice completely. It doesn’t seem to affect her singing voice though. But what she does is basically rest her voice as much as possible, when possible, and she drinks warm teas with honey…things like that.
#1HowieDfan asks: What was the very first song that Christina sang that made you realize that she gifted with an awesome voice?
Shelly: I think that it was either something from the Sound of Music (at 2 and 3 years old she’d run around the house singing songs from that movie), or else the Sunday School songs I’d teach her and play on piano while she sang. She was about 3 years old.
Lou (a.k.a. dajuce) asks: Hi Christina & Shelly! I'm so happy that I get to ask you a question! Anyway, here it goes, I was wondering if there are any plans of a South East Asian major or promo tour for you next year. I live in the Philippines
and i'm telling you that you've got a huge fan base here! Enough to hold a major concert! I'd really like to see you perform live and in person one day! You are the best! Keep up the good work and good luck on your tour! By the way, us here at LiveDaily are making a website just for you! I hope you'll be able to see it one day when its done! Peace!
Shelly: That’s wonderful! I’m not sure, as I haven’t really gone over any of her plans for touring outside the U.S. much with her manager or anything. I’ll pass on the suggestion to him, though! Sounds like a wonderful idea to me. And you’re making a website? That’s awesome! I can’t wait to see it! Thank you so much.
MDZ61384 asks: My question pertains to Christina and her father (biological). I was wondering if Christina or Shelly’s views toward males changed at all after she moved away from her father, and if so, how they did?
Shelly: Well for a good while, yes, our views had changed just in that we became much more suspicious and careful. But meeting my present husband Jim, Christina’s stepfather, has healed all our fears concerning men, etc. Plus, Christina’s biological father has very much made amends and is really there for her now, and is quite supportive and very respectful of her success, calls her, goes to her shows, etc. Things are much better-much healthier than ever before.
Dan asks: When Christina sang the National Anthem at Pirates, Steelers and Penguins games, how many sports fans were listening to her? She has a lovely voice.
Shelly: Oh wow! I have no idea of the exact number, but there were thousands, between those present at the many, many games she sang for at the sports arenas and those listening on radio and tv. She began singing for those teams at around age 10, when people representing them heard her at various little local things around Pittsburgh, and asked her to sing for their games. She became a regular. Especially for the Penguins. She , to this day, has the record unbroken that every home game she’s ever sung the anthem for, the Penguins have won. Pretty cool! We were told by staff at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh that Christina held the record for the youngest anthem singer to perform there.
votechristina asks: Hey christina! Well I'm dying to know how it feels to be currently on your first headlining tour after having such a succesfull year? Thank you christina I love you!
Shelly: I spoke to Christina tonight and we were talking a bit about it all. She’s so very excited. She was on the tour bus going to the next place while we talked. It’s still like yet another phase of her dream coming true. I personally can’t wait until she comes to Pittsburgh. Her grandmother is 80 years old and her biggest fan of all, and she’ll see Christina perform for the very first time since she’s become famous. The other times, she couldn’t travel because she’s too old and frail. So you can imagine how special this tour is to us.
bale339 asks: As a mom, what has been the coolest thing for you to see Christina do
personally or professionally?
Shelly: One of the coolest things to me-two, actually-was to see Christina perform for the President of the United States and to watch her stand alongside B.B.King. Here I was watching this on tv, while all the while I pictured her singing and riffing at age 9 and 10 to his music in our livingroom. She was so little, she just told me to put on the “fun music”, as she didn’t realize it was actually called “blues”, and I’d put on B.B King, and she’d riff her little butt off. At age 9 and up. And there, years later, I sat in my livingroom and watched her sing with this great man. The other thing that gave me chills was seeing her alongside Sting at the Men Strike Back concert. I mean, all these huge stars that are legendary-Tom Jones, Sting…etc. Geez!! That’s my baby up there! It’s really hard to grasp as something that is real. The grand finale was watching her accept the Grammy. THE GRAMMY!! OH MY GOSH!!Forget it! There’s no words to describe that. On a personal level, the coolest thing for me to see her do has been and still is watching and seeing how much she loves her sister Rachel and little brother Michael, and how they interact. It’s absolutely priceless.
sp@rkle* asks: Being that you and Christina has had a taste of military life, how has this influenced both of you?
Shelly: Well, it helps you to appreciate things more, I think, just because it’s hard. You’re better able to just put on a smile while having to put up with unpleasant things, because you’re used to it. Having to pick up and move is very difficult if you do it often.
*musicgirl* asks: I can see Christina is very dedicated to her work and fans. Is there any way we (the fans) can get closer to Christina besides the fan club.
Shelly: Christina lives for you guys. I’m serious. She’ll be having a bad day and then go out and , if the energy is really high and she can feel the love there, it works magic on her. Actually, that’s why I do things like this. If I could, I’d go back to having my own personal accounts just for talking to fans like I used to. That awful hacker put a stop to that. But anyway, I try to keep as much in contact as possible just because it’s Christina’s direct link to you guys, and yours to her.
Plus, don’t forget emailing her. You can’t get more direct than that! A lot of people don’t know how it works, and get upset if they don’t hear back…thinking she doesn’t answer her mail. But she does! You see, there are over 30-40,000 emails in the account and Christina receives about 700-1,000 emails every single day. Think a second about how well you could keep up with answering them all-ALL BY YOURSELF. Now picture doing it only in the time you’ve got that’s squeezed in between a typical LONG and very packed workday. Phew!
Well, I sort all the mail that comes through, which means I forward all the actual fan letter meant for her to the folder that she answers mail from. Then, I take all the letters asking rumor questions, and forward them to the webmaster for posting some on the rumor mill. The rest are just blank emails, silly things that aren’t letters at all, just people fooling around, obscene things.etc. and I trash those, of course.
Basically, given the amount of mail Christina gets and her schedule, it often takes her a LONG time to answer. And of course, one person who is buried under thousand and thousands of letters is not going to be able to answer every single one of them, so some won’t get a reply. But she does answer her mail. So people, feel free to write in!! She loves it! Just please be patient and understand that she’s not at all ignoring you-she’s just writing back as fast as she can.
[This message has been edited by Richard Tafoya (edited August 02, 2000).]
Charlotte asks: Did Shelly ever push her daughter to be in the music business or did Christina just really, really wanna do it herself?Also, what does Christina do to refresh her voice when it's hoarse after a long concert?
Shelly: Heaven's no! It was actually the opposite. If more than a week went by with no little block parties or talent shows or local things going on when Christina was little, she'd start bugging me to try and find something "fun" for her to sing in. As for what she does to rest her throat, NO TALKING or using her voice at all for periods of time. Plus drinking warm teas with honey, etc. , helps.
SteveNJujuKickAss asks: How does it feel to have seen your daughter from the very beginning and go to such a successful career?
Shelly: It’s the most wonderful yet bizarre feeling in the world. You dream about it with her for so many years…you see it getting closer, and it all of a sudden happens. It’s amazing. For me, I often get flashes of her when she was so little-about 4 years old in pigtails. Then I snap out of it and see her so happy and with people cheering her on. …makes me cry every time!
Jay2069 asks: How you feel about Christinas 5 nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards,and do you know if Christina will be performing there?
Shelly: How do I feel? Proud!! It’s just so exciting when your child is being recognized as a talent, to think that she is even nominated for such things is wonderful. They haven’t chosen who will perform at this year’s award’s show yet, so we don’t know if Christina will be on the list of artists performing or not.
Sohail asks: Hi Shelly.its me Sohail.it was fun talking to you when you were online for the fans i hope you still remember me. First i wanted to thank you for the time you spent with me when you were online. Thank you so much. I wanna apologize if anything i might have said had hurt you or anything. I'm sorry for that. And my question to you is is there any other e-mail address to which i can write to you or any other way to contact you?please let me know. give my love to Christina and i love you lots 2.
Shelly: Hi Sohail! Yes, I do remember you. How are you? Actually there is no other email address other than the fanmail@christinamail.com address for contacting us. All of Christina’s online communication is done through that address alone. She doesn’t even IM anyone or have ICQ or anything, so that’s pretty much the only address to reach us through. Thanks so much for your kind words and for the support. It means quite a bit to both Christina and I.
glitter_jess asks: Is Christina still planning on being the spokesperson for Coca-Cola? If so, when?
Shelly: Yes! Very soon you’ll see commercial ads, etc. She just had to wait until her schedule was free enough to do photo and other shoots with the Coke people. That is going to be done within the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes open for cool things involving Christina and Coke.
peanutzip asks: How proud are you of Christina? Can you give me an explanation because i know that you obviously are!
Shelly: Wow! How can you possibly put that into words. Actually, to be honest, I think that you won’t really, truly grasp what it could be like until you become a parent yourself. Then on top of that, to have tried so hard to help your child to reach the only dream they ever had and then poof! It suddenly becomes reality, it’s just hard for those of us in her family to even grasp that it’s real. It’s wonderful.
AguilerasDaBest asks: Does christina gets lot of pressure being compared to Whitney and Mariah sometimes??if yes what does she thinks about it?
Shelly: Pressure? Well, no, not really. I mean, she’s always been compared to them, but it doesn’t seem to really make Christina feel overly pressured. She’s always been thrilled to think that someone would even compare her to those two---her idols. I think in order to be stressed over something like that you’d have to feel as if you’re competing in some way, and that’s a laugh! There is NO way Christina ever puts herself in the same category as if to compete with either one of her idols.
98DegreesChick asks: What is your favorite memory of Christina as a child?
Shelly: Wow. No one’s ever asked me that one before. Let’s see….. I don’t have only one. That’s the problem. I can see her clear as day right now in my mind..opening Christmas gifts and SO excited over it all. I can remember being so touched during times when things were very hard, and she once caught me crying, and came and hugged me and told me things would be fine, and other sweet encouraging things concerning the circumstances that made me love her to death. Rachel is just like that, too. Very sensitive, compassionate people. I’ve been really blessed. And I remember watching her actually teach herself to ride a bicycle! That girl was 5 years old and would NOT give up, no matter how many times she’d fall. It worked! She learned within a few days..about 3 days or so. Oh, there’s a lot of wonderful memories.
ariel23 asks: Shelley has always seemed to be a warm genuine person, and I hope she enjoys it here. What do you think is Christina's best quality?
Shelly: How sweet!! Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Christina’s best quality? There are several things that always make me smile and make me proud of Christina. One is her zest for life. I always tried to teach her to grab onto life and enjoy it, and to be true to herself. I can honestly say that in her life and in her music, Christina is Christina. As anyone being truly themselves in life, some people hate it and some love it. I never want her to become a confused, miserable person who’s lost touch with who they are and what really makes them happy in life, all because they are bending themselves into such pretzels trying to fit into everyone’s image of what they should be, rather than simply being themselves. I also admire Christina’s determination and love of performing. She keeps on going, rising above the bad things, enjoying the good things, and never losing sight of what needs to be done. She has a great work ethic. Not a lazy girl at all.
matt182 asks: I would ask her if she was really happy, not just happy with her career but with life in general? I think her happiness is most important.
Shelly: Are you asking about my happiness, or Christina’s? If it’s directed toward Christina, that is among the first things I ask her without fail in every single phone conversation we have. She tells me when she’s not happy. It’s not a totally glamorous life to be famous. It’s a ton of hard work and is stressful, but her love for this business seems to rise above it all and keeps her quite happy. Oh she has her moments, here and there, bad days, good days, just like anyone else. But all in all, she’s happy. As for me, the same exact thing. I’ve been blessed with a daughter who’s dreams of fame actually came true, and I get to enjoy all the fun that comes along with it. I’ve been blessed with the comfort of knowing that she’s got the best management team in Steve Kurtz and everyone else around her that anyone could want, so I don’t have to worry about that end of things. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful daughter in Rachel who is the best friend and most talented, sweet, and compassionate daughter a woman could ask for..I’ve got the most sweet, loving and supportive husband in Jim and the cutest, most wonderful gift of a son in little Michael…oh goodness. My list could go on forever. What in heaven’s name would there be for me to be unhappy about? I’m very happy. God’s been very good to me.
genie_girl asks:What was your reaction, and how crazy was it in your house, that night when Christina's name was called for BEST NEW ARTIST?
Shelly: Well, I was sitting in a livingroom chair, Jim was by our fireplace, Mikey was running around totally oblivious, and Rachel was on the couch. You could have cut the silence with a knife just before the winner’s name was announced. But when they said her name, I yelled and covered my mouth (which was open quite wide at the time) and just began to cry. I glanced at Rachel. She was crying. I glanced over at Jim. He was crying. Mikey was running around saying “what’s the matter?” lol. All within a split second I felt elated and also so upset that I got sick and couldn’t go! She won and I missed it! But soon enough, within seconds, the sheer joy of it all erased any sadness that we weren’t there. When the phone rang later and it was her, you should have heard the house. Everyone wanted to talk. It was the most joyous occasion we’d had in the house for quite awhile. That is a night that I think we’ll always remember.
CA all the way asks: Hey Shelly! On Christina's Official website, it mentions something about the Christina Foundation? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Shelly: Yes. The Christina Foundation was created by Christina in her desire to help abused kids. It’s relatively new, so I’ve not actually asked what things they are doing. But it raises money to help children involved in abusive homes and relationships. I’ll try and find out more specifics for you all.
christinarox123 asks: Shelly-Hi! First off, let me say I think you and your daughter are amazing! You're both so hard working! You're both real inspirations! Secondly, my question: since Christina and you seem to enjoy the holidays so much, I was wondering, do you have any holiday traditions? Thanks much and good luck!
Shelly: Thank you so much!! I appreciate that. Oh yes, we definitely have holiday traditions! There’s this one that started because Christina was so excited to know how many days until Christmas when she was tiny. She was too little to understand how many days “one week” was, or even “three days”. So I thought I’d make a way to “show” her how many days were left. I took green and red strips of construction paper and together we glued the ends to form loops, and linked them in a long red and green paper chain. The number of loops in the chain equaled the number of days left till Christmas. Every morning when she got up, I let her tear off one loop. She watched as the chain became shorter and shorter, and she was able to actually understand better how long she had to wait. We still do this to this day. It’s not Christmas without the paper chain. We also bought one ornament that pretty much sums up the most special event(s) of our past year for each individual in the family. We used to go out, just me, Rachel and Christina, to shop for this ornament. I miss being able to do that now. Anyway, our tree has a lot of memories. For example, years ago, Christina loved the guitarist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She chose a chili pepper ornament for herself that year, seeing as everything to her throughout that year was about the chili peppers. We, of course, have certain dishes for the Christmas meal each year. I’m not covering any of the other holidays. Oh! Halloween! For the years before little Mikey’s birth, you should have seen our basement/family room area. We worked and turned the whole thing into the coolest working haunted house you’ve ever seen, complete with separate rooms and sound effects, each one of us taking a different role as characters playing out parts in each room. It was so much fun!!
Aguilera#1FANatic asks: I would like to ask a two part question. First off, how does Christina deal with all of the negative press about her supposedly "nasty" attitude. It seems like Christina is just assertive and she tells people what she wants and things, and that may have been misinterpreted a few times, and now people have just jumped on the bandwagon making up these stories about her "attitude." I would like this rumor that I don't believe squashed. I read somewhere that when Christina was recently in Australia that she refused to look anyone in the eye who she deemed "unimportant." I will never believe such garbage.. this may be one you want to add to the rumor mill.
Shelly: That’s one of the hardest things to deal with in this business, and it’s made much harder if you happen to be a teen female who is strong and confident. Whether people are willing to look at the situation closely enough to admit it or not, confident females are still pretty much looked upon as “b__tchy” in society. For a guy, it’s cool. He’s supposed to have strong opinions, etc. We, more than anyone, would love to have all those lies squashed, but sadly, especially if you’ve got a pretty girl who is really talented and among the leaders in her chosen field and who actually has opinions instead of saying only what she’s robotically expected to say, people are going to get unnecessarily threatened by it-especially peers. Next thing you know, they are saying all kinds of nutty things about her being nasty to people. I’ve never seen Christina rude to fans. That’s one area where I know she loves her fans! She’s known to go out of her way more than most! Bottom line, insecure people are everywhere. This world would be so wonderful if everyone would be happy for everyone else, and not thrive on feeling the panicky need to push successful people down-even through lies-just to try comfort themselves, feeling bigger and better by trying to squash down others who threaten them. Shoot, if all the insecurity of the world would be gone, half the media would go out of business, because people wouldn’t care about idle gossip anymore. They would find it offensive and tacky instead of interesting.
Priscilla asks: Hello! I’m priscilla and i will see christina in chicago on august 19th. (my birthday is the next day) my question is... Is christina going to have an official book about her? And will she ever do a live concert on HBO?
Shelly: Thanks! Actually yes, I’m writing a book. I’ve been writing it for about…geez, about a year now. I’m taking my time, because I’ve got a lot to say. Christina was asked to write a book as well, but I’m not sure if she will or not. I haven’t asked her. As for HBO, maybe! It’s certainly a possibility. Keep watching the appearances on the website and perhaps one day it’ll pop up there! And by the way, happy birthday on the 20th!!
Pen&Kev asks: One of the biggest discussion that always surfaces around LiveDaily is regarding the Christina/Britney rivalry debate. Can you put it to rest and explain their relationship? Are they friends or rivals?
Shelly: Oh I know! That has to be THE craziest thing! I was visiting Christina about a month ago in Los Angeles, and while I was there, Britney left a message on Christina’s cellphone, returning a call. It’s insane!! It’s like so many people absolutely refuse to accept even the idea that they are good friends! Why, I have no idea. But truly, they are good friends and there is no evil war or hatred between them, as the media constantly insinuates. They’ve been great friends for years.
FRosalin asks: How are Christina's ticket sales doing for her tour? i am a great fan and i hope well because she deserves the best."
Shelly: From what I’ve been told, they’re going really well. Thanks so much!
What does Christina like to collect?? (ie stuffed animals, etc.)
Shelly: She collects anything that catches her eye, much like me, actually. If it’s odd, pretty, or just plain fun, she’ll like it. She does collect Hello Kitty, though, and cool notebooks. She and her sister, Rachel, are very much alike in their taste and in the things they collect. We went out today and Rachel saw a bunch of Hello Kitty stuff, and I knew instantly that “here we go again”.
I know as a singer it can be hard on your vocal chords when you have to perform everyday, so how does Christina take care of her AWESOME voice??
Shelly: Actually, oddly enough, the vast number of interviews and meeting people, etc. that she does is harder on her voice than the singing itself. She has to do so many interviews in between everything each day that she often becomes hoarse and has to rest her voice completely. It doesn’t seem to affect her singing voice though. But what she does is basically rest her voice as much as possible, when possible, and she drinks warm teas with honey…things like that.
#1HowieDfan asks: What was the very first song that Christina sang that made you realize that she gifted with an awesome voice?
Shelly: I think that it was either something from the Sound of Music (at 2 and 3 years old she’d run around the house singing songs from that movie), or else the Sunday School songs I’d teach her and play on piano while she sang. She was about 3 years old.
Lou (a.k.a. dajuce) asks: Hi Christina & Shelly! I'm so happy that I get to ask you a question! Anyway, here it goes, I was wondering if there are any plans of a South East Asian major or promo tour for you next year. I live in the Philippines
and i'm telling you that you've got a huge fan base here! Enough to hold a major concert! I'd really like to see you perform live and in person one day! You are the best! Keep up the good work and good luck on your tour! By the way, us here at LiveDaily are making a website just for you! I hope you'll be able to see it one day when its done! Peace!
Shelly: That’s wonderful! I’m not sure, as I haven’t really gone over any of her plans for touring outside the U.S. much with her manager or anything. I’ll pass on the suggestion to him, though! Sounds like a wonderful idea to me. And you’re making a website? That’s awesome! I can’t wait to see it! Thank you so much.
MDZ61384 asks: My question pertains to Christina and her father (biological). I was wondering if Christina or Shelly’s views toward males changed at all after she moved away from her father, and if so, how they did?
Shelly: Well for a good while, yes, our views had changed just in that we became much more suspicious and careful. But meeting my present husband Jim, Christina’s stepfather, has healed all our fears concerning men, etc. Plus, Christina’s biological father has very much made amends and is really there for her now, and is quite supportive and very respectful of her success, calls her, goes to her shows, etc. Things are much better-much healthier than ever before.
Dan asks: When Christina sang the National Anthem at Pirates, Steelers and Penguins games, how many sports fans were listening to her? She has a lovely voice.
Shelly: Oh wow! I have no idea of the exact number, but there were thousands, between those present at the many, many games she sang for at the sports arenas and those listening on radio and tv. She began singing for those teams at around age 10, when people representing them heard her at various little local things around Pittsburgh, and asked her to sing for their games. She became a regular. Especially for the Penguins. She , to this day, has the record unbroken that every home game she’s ever sung the anthem for, the Penguins have won. Pretty cool! We were told by staff at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh that Christina held the record for the youngest anthem singer to perform there.
votechristina asks: Hey christina! Well I'm dying to know how it feels to be currently on your first headlining tour after having such a succesfull year? Thank you christina I love you!
Shelly: I spoke to Christina tonight and we were talking a bit about it all. She’s so very excited. She was on the tour bus going to the next place while we talked. It’s still like yet another phase of her dream coming true. I personally can’t wait until she comes to Pittsburgh. Her grandmother is 80 years old and her biggest fan of all, and she’ll see Christina perform for the very first time since she’s become famous. The other times, she couldn’t travel because she’s too old and frail. So you can imagine how special this tour is to us.
bale339 asks: As a mom, what has been the coolest thing for you to see Christina do
personally or professionally?
Shelly: One of the coolest things to me-two, actually-was to see Christina perform for the President of the United States and to watch her stand alongside B.B.King. Here I was watching this on tv, while all the while I pictured her singing and riffing at age 9 and 10 to his music in our livingroom. She was so little, she just told me to put on the “fun music”, as she didn’t realize it was actually called “blues”, and I’d put on B.B King, and she’d riff her little butt off. At age 9 and up. And there, years later, I sat in my livingroom and watched her sing with this great man. The other thing that gave me chills was seeing her alongside Sting at the Men Strike Back concert. I mean, all these huge stars that are legendary-Tom Jones, Sting…etc. Geez!! That’s my baby up there! It’s really hard to grasp as something that is real. The grand finale was watching her accept the Grammy. THE GRAMMY!! OH MY GOSH!!Forget it! There’s no words to describe that. On a personal level, the coolest thing for me to see her do has been and still is watching and seeing how much she loves her sister Rachel and little brother Michael, and how they interact. It’s absolutely priceless.
sp@rkle* asks: Being that you and Christina has had a taste of military life, how has this influenced both of you?
Shelly: Well, it helps you to appreciate things more, I think, just because it’s hard. You’re better able to just put on a smile while having to put up with unpleasant things, because you’re used to it. Having to pick up and move is very difficult if you do it often.
*musicgirl* asks: I can see Christina is very dedicated to her work and fans. Is there any way we (the fans) can get closer to Christina besides the fan club.
Shelly: Christina lives for you guys. I’m serious. She’ll be having a bad day and then go out and , if the energy is really high and she can feel the love there, it works magic on her. Actually, that’s why I do things like this. If I could, I’d go back to having my own personal accounts just for talking to fans like I used to. That awful hacker put a stop to that. But anyway, I try to keep as much in contact as possible just because it’s Christina’s direct link to you guys, and yours to her.
Plus, don’t forget emailing her. You can’t get more direct than that! A lot of people don’t know how it works, and get upset if they don’t hear back…thinking she doesn’t answer her mail. But she does! You see, there are over 30-40,000 emails in the account and Christina receives about 700-1,000 emails every single day. Think a second about how well you could keep up with answering them all-ALL BY YOURSELF. Now picture doing it only in the time you’ve got that’s squeezed in between a typical LONG and very packed workday. Phew!
Well, I sort all the mail that comes through, which means I forward all the actual fan letter meant for her to the folder that she answers mail from. Then, I take all the letters asking rumor questions, and forward them to the webmaster for posting some on the rumor mill. The rest are just blank emails, silly things that aren’t letters at all, just people fooling around, obscene things.etc. and I trash those, of course.
Basically, given the amount of mail Christina gets and her schedule, it often takes her a LONG time to answer. And of course, one person who is buried under thousand and thousands of letters is not going to be able to answer every single one of them, so some won’t get a reply. But she does answer her mail. So people, feel free to write in!! She loves it! Just please be patient and understand that she’s not at all ignoring you-she’s just writing back as fast as she can.
[This message has been edited by Richard Tafoya (edited August 02, 2000).]