Inside Christina Aguilera And Pink's Feud
When you think of early 2000s pop music, a few different names loom large. Both Pink and Christina Aguilera dominated the shift into the millennium, offering powerful vocals and alternative images that placed both of them in opposition to the juggernaut that was Britney Spears. But while P!nk and Xtina shared a similar space in pop culture, these two were anything but buddies — and they still really aren't.
Even though at first glance the two singers may seem to have more similarities than differences, the overlap in their careers established them as rivals rather than collaborators. The conflict first reared its ugly head in 2001 when the two singers actually collaborated on what would become a modern classic. While creating their cover of LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" for the movie Moulin Rouge!, the two young singers clashed, with the feud even turning physical at one point.
While the feud seems to be behind the two singers, that hasn't stopped rumors from continuing to fly.
Christina Aguilera and Pink clashed when recording 'Lady Marmalade'
Pink has a reputation for always being willing to speak her mind, and that characteristic was on full display during the recording process for "Lady Marmalade," a Missy Elliott-produced track that featured vocals from Pink, as well as Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil' Kim. In the recording booth, Pink still remembers Ron Fair, a producer and Aguilera's mentor, walking to the studio and immediately rubbing her the wrong way.
"He didn't say hi to any of us and said, 'What's the high part? What's the most singing part? Christina's gonna take that part,'" Pink explained on Behind The Music. "I stood up and I said, 'Hi. How are you? So nice of you to introduce yourself. I'm Pink. She will not be taking that part.'"
While the two ultimately split up the parts pretty equally, it wasn't the only time songwriting led to an issue between the two singers. Pink felt betrayed when her mentor and songwriting partner, Linda Perry, opted to work with Aguilera after helping Pink with much of Missundaztood, the album that cemented her sound. After Perry penned "Beautiful" for Aguilera, Pink took it personally, saying, "I don't think imitation is the highest form of flattery. I think it's annoying."
Who tried to punch who?
Tensions between Pink and Christian Aguilera came to a head one night in a club, and both women have a different version of events. For Pink's part, she claimed that Aguilera threw the first punch. In 2017, Pink prefaced her story on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen by saying, "We were super young... I'm used to taking my altercations physical, and she's used to having them verbal. We just are very different." Despite Pink claiming the position of the more physical of the two, she maintains that Aguilera swung first, which Pink found "hilarious."
Aguilera has a pretty different memory of events, however, and said that the night in question began with a game of spin the bottle. Aguilera told Cohen she was excited to kiss Pink, but the other singer put her hand up in front of her mouth. As for the punch, Aguilera seemed to not recall. "Look at her, look at me. I wouldn't swing on her," she said on Watch What Happens Live in 2019. "She could beat my a**. Are you kidding me? She could really beat my a** then!"
Pink and Christina Aguilera have since buried the hatchet
Although Pink and Christina Aguilera had issues in the past, it seems that they have buried the hatchet since their beef nearly two decades ago. On Watch What Happens Live, Pink told Andy Cohen, "She's a really sweet person. We made up on The Voice." Pink thinks the feud is funny now and explained, "We became moms. We grew up. We hugged it out. It's that simple, and I feel so good about that," adding that they did a song together.
While Aguilera explained to Andy Cohen how intimidated she was by Pink back in the day, especially on the set of the "Lady Marmalade" video, she is over whatever happened in the past. "She's a different person now," she told Cohen. "She's a mom. She's cool." The two both seem to recognize that they were just immature at the time of their beef. Even if they're not close friends now, it appears that they realized how trivial their issues really were and have grown into supportive women and artists.