During the golden week, Shanghaiist published the rumor that world class diva Christina Aguilera (the artist formally known as X-tina) would be coming to Shanghai to belt out some of her latest hits. At the time of the announcement, Ms. Aguilera was awaiting approval from the Shanghai government censors, something Jay-Z is very familiar with. At the time, Shanghaiist was "praying on every dumpling" that the censors would approve the concert because we are big fans of her as well as fans of anyone remotely famous (other than Robin Gibb) coming to perform.

In the media coverage of Christina's upcoming concert there were clichés up the wazoo from several media sources. Reuters described the Chinese censors as "zealous culture guardians" because of their past censoring of the Rolling Stones and the outright banning of Jay-Z. Even Christina is being unfairly categorized as "raunchy", as sited in the headline of this article from the New Zealand media site, Stuff.co.nz. Clearly, they haven't paid any attention to Ms. Aguilera since the days of her multiple piercings, wild hair, and bold outfits. While fearmongering wasn't featured in E!'s coverage of the concert, their article entitled "Christina Aguilera Boards the Shanghai Express," was highly amusing, especially the end of the article:

The raunchy stage costumes of the past have been traded for vintage-inspired showgirl attire courtesy of her official tour designer Robert Cavalli, while the show itself pays homage to jazz and blues icons including Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin, by projecting their images onto a giant video screen.

Not that Aguilera has thrown in the pop tart towel completely. Her current act does include a semi-naughty rendition of "Dirrty," in which the singer perches astride a carousel horse, with gyrating pole dancers surrounding her.

We're guessing that little number might not fly in China.

Guess again. According to all of the articles, Christina and her entourage have "obtained all the necessary government approvals". Game on!

Video is of the opening number in her "Back to Basics" tour

Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics Tour in Shanghai
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 @ 7:30PM
Shanghai Grand Stage, 1111 North Caoxi Road
上海大舞台, 漕溪北路1111号
Tickets: (021) 6481-2938, (400) 707-9999
Ticket Prices (in RMB): 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1600, 2000