Background and Release
Perry had written "Beautiful" long before she let anyone hear it. She considered the song very dear and personal to her and was insecure about sharing it with anyone else. At first she had let Pink hear "Beautiful" before anyone else during their Missundaztood sessions. Pink was so impressed with the song that she had asked Perry if she could record it for her album, but Perry declined, feeling that she wanted to save it for her own singing career. A few months later, while Aguilera and Perry were recording for the Stripped session, Perry also let Aguilera listen to the song. Aguilera also very much liked the song that while Perry was playing the piano for it, Aguilera took over the vocals for the song. After that, Aguilera told Perry that she needed this song on her album. Perry was both impressed by Aguilera and confused, because even though she was blown away by her rendition of the song, she still did not want to give it up. After Aguilera continued lobbying for the song, Perry was finally convinced that Aguilera matched the song perfectly and handed it over to her.
The song was to be the first single from the album, but Aguilera came into disagreement with her label to release the single "Dirrty" first, but after poor performance of that single, her label released "Beautiful" quickly as the second single, so as not to harm potential album sales. The song became a massive success, becoming Aguilera's fifth number one single worldwide, and her fifth Top 10 hit in America. In addition, the song topped over 20 charts worldwide. Aguilera performed "Beautiful" on various TV shows and on the following tours: Justified/Stripped Tour, Stripped World Tour, Back to Basics Tour. In America, the single was viewed as a comeback single, due to the slight underperformance of her previous single, Dirrty, on the American charts, both released on a 12" format. As with "Genie in a Bottle", which was re-recorded as "Genie 2.0" and performed at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, Aguilera has re-recorded "Beautiful" in an electronic style for inclusion alongside the original version on her greatest hits album Keeps Gettin' Better - A Decade of Hits with the name "You Are What You Are (Beautiful)".
"Beautiful" was released to American radio stations on November 16, 2003. The single was released as a 12" single, and released as a CD Single later in late 2003. "Beautiful" was released on February 24, 2003 in the United Kingdom also as a 12" single. Also, the instrumental version of the song were accompanied by a remix of "Beautiful" made by Peter Rauhofer. In addition, another CD Single was released in Europe in late 2003.
Read more about this topic: Beautiful (Christina Aguilera Song)
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