Beautiful (Christina-Aguilera-Lied)
"Beautiful" is a single by American singer Christina Aguilera, the second from her second album, Stripped. Released in late 2002 (see 2002 in music), the single peaked at number two on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming Aguilera's sixth top ten hit. Due to the song's success following the failure of its predecessor, "Dirrty", it is generally believed to be her first comeback single. The single also became her fourth UK number-one single, and her first in Australia. It is generally considered to be one of Aguilera's signature songs.
Song information
"Beautiful" (written and produced solely by Linda Perry) is considered one of Aguilera's signature songs. In this cello-driven, classically flavored ballad, Aguilera deals with hurtful statements made against her which cause her to feel insecure and have low self-esteem; however, she does not let others' negativity get the best of her, causing her to proclaim proudly, "I am beautiful no matter what they say, words can't bring me down".
American Idol judge, Simon Cowell was so impressed with the song that he even went so far as to proclaim it one of the best pop recordings ever. [1]. Ironically, the song almost did not reach its prominence, as Linda Perry had originally wanted to save the song for herself. However, with Perry's career as an artist floundering, but her career as a producer a success, she decided to switch gears permanently, and gave the song to Aguilera. (This song along with P!nk's "Get The Party Started" are most known for helping to further Perry's career as a producer.)
The song was only recorded on one take, the original demo of the song. Aguilera expressed concerns that she had hit some notes too flat and some too sharp, but Perry insisted that she leave them in. To her it represented the theme of "Beautiful", about how we are not perfect, but each day we face life one step at message and time, and that Aguilera's imperfect vocal performance resonanced the theme of the song's vulnerability. The single's music video garnered much attention, as it touched on the subjects of anorexia nervosa, homosexuality and cross-dressing.
Elvis Costello covered the song for an episode of the television program House. It was also covered by Gloria Gaynor in the British television program, Hit Me Baby One More Time, where she performed a disco version of the song.
Chart performance
After the failure of "Dirrty", Aguilera's management quickly released the follow-up single "Beautiful" to prevent the descent of Stripped on the charts. The song succeeded in its task, peaking at number two on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot 100 Airplay. However, the track failed to chart on the Hot 100 Singles Sales (largely due to the fact that single was released as a 12" maxi single, and at the time, the sales of this format could not compete with those of the regular CD/CD maxi singles). The single was also an across-the-board number-one hit, topping many Billboard charts. Elsewhere, the single received just as much success as in the U.S., topping the charts in the UK (for two weeks), Australia (for one week) and Canada (for five weeks).
Charts
"Beautiful" debuted at number sixty-two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It remained on the chart for twenty-seven weeks, and was ranked sixteen on the Hot 100 Year End Charts (2003). It was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, her fourth on both the Top 40 Tracks and Top 40 Mainstream charts, and her first on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Beautiful" was also Aguilera's fourth number-one on the UK Singles Chart and her fourth on the Canadian Singles Chart.
| Chart (2002) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #2 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales | Failed to Chart |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | #2 |
| U.S. Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales | #15 |
| U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play | #1 (1 week) |
| U.S. Top 40 Tracks | #1 (3 weeks) |
| U.S. Top 40 Mainstream | #1 |
| U.S. Rhythmic Top 40 | #13 |
| U.S. Adult Top 40 | #9 |
| U.S. Adult Contemporary | #1 (5 weeks) |
| U.S. Latin Pop Airplay | #38 |
| U.S. Latin Tropical/Salsa Airplay | #25 |
| World Chart Show | #1 (3 weeks) |
| UK Top 40 Singles | #1 (2 weeks) |
| Canadian Billboard Hot 100 Singles | #1 (1 week) |
| Australian ARIA Top 50 Singles | #1 (1 week) |
| Brasil Top 100 Singles | #17 |
| New Zealand Top 50 Singles | #1 (1 week) |
| 'Tokio Hot 100' | #63 |
| Switzerland Top 100 Singles | #7 |
| Germany Top 100 Singles | #4 |
| Indonesia Chart | #1 (2 weeks) |
| Austria Top 75 Singles | #5 |
| Netherland Mega Top 100 Singles | #4 |
| Sweden Top 60 Singles | #3 |
| Ireland Top 50 Singles | #1 (4 weeks) |
| Italy Top 50 Singles | #8 |
| France Top 100 Singles | #27 |
Awards
| Year | Award show | Award |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Channel [V] Thailand Music Video Awards | Popular Female Video |
| 2003 | HX Awards | Dance Song of the Year – Peter Rauhofer Mix (Peter Rauhofer) |
| 2004 | Grammy Awards | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance |
| 2004 | Groovevolt Music & Fashion Awards | Song of the Year |
| 2004 | Groovevolt Music & Fashion Awards | Video of the Year |
| 2004 | Musicnotes | Song of the Year (Linda Perry) |
| 2004 | Rolling Stone Music Awards | Readers' Top Ten Singles (#2) |
| 2004 | Rolling Stone Music Awards | Best Video, Readers' Pick (#2) |