Mi Reflejo: Profound, Touching, Stunning...Simply Perfect

Christina Aguilera is half Ecuadorian (from her father's side) and says she grew up speaking Spanish until her parents divorced when she was a child, leaving her to follow her "Anglo" side. She later starred in the Mickey Mouse Club with future rival Britney Spears, and "Justin" and "JC" - soon to be of 'NSync fame. But it wasn't until she recorded the song, Reflection for the soundtrack of the Disney movie, "Mulan" that she was offered a record deal.

When she came out with her self-titled debut album last year, selling over 10 million records, she was dubbed as a Britney-clone - much like Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore to name a few - partly because she was young, pretty, blonde. She almost got rid of the comparison when she won a "Best New Artist" Grammy earlier this year…quite an accomplishment if you forget that Milli Vanilli won in this category too.

What does Aguilera do to follow the success of her first album? She takes advantage of the Latin explosion and records, Mi Reflejo - pronounced "mi re-fle-ho" - an album in Spanish. Music pundits call this a reverse crossover. I call it pure brilliance. This puts Aguilera in a class of her own, finally separating herself from Spears, who followed her first album with the predictable Oops...I Did It Again, an album very much like her first.

1999 was a big year for Latin crossovers. For course, I am speaking of the successes Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, and Marc Anthony. Already famous in their native countries, they went out to create English-speaking albums with great success. But what about crossing over from English to Spanish? This is almost unheard of - until teen singing sensation Aguilera did it.

Mi Reflejo debuted #1 in Billboard's Latin Top 50, making her the highest female debut of all time. The album also debuted at #27 on Billboard's Top 200.

Aguilera's all-Spanish album is beautiful, soulful, and mature. Her striking voice is what makes the songs in the album so great. Anyone who has listened to her first album knows that the girl can sing. But something changes this time around, as if a totally different Aguilera shows herself.

The album was produced by Latino mega-producer Rudy Perez, who has the names Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel, and Jose Feliciano to his credit. Although she doesn't speak Spanish anymore, she interprets each song so perfectly that no one is know any different.

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