Composition
"What a Girl Wants" is a teen pop-R&B track with some similarities to her debut single "Genie in a Bottle". Written in the key of A-major the track begins with the lyrics "What a girl wants, what a girl needs, whatever makes me happy sets you free" and it set against 120 beats per minute. Anthony Violanti from Buffalo News described the track as a "light hip-hop song" in comparison to the previous single. Aguilera's vocals have been compared to that of Mariah Carey, with Carey's single "Emotions" being the grounds for these comparisons. In Aguilera's vocal performance she starts singing in a lower register and "carefully" scales notes until she reaches "the highest echelon of her upper register". During the track Aguilera performs the lyrics "A girl needs somebody sensitive but tough, Somebody there when the going get rough." The track that was released as a single was a revised version of the song, it focused more upon the "funky R&B edge", and with Aguilera taking participation in the revision her additions made the track lighter and a mix of "pop and R&B". But despite this Aguilera was disappointed in her lack of input into the single saying;
"I was held back a lot from doing more R&B ad-libbing. They clearly wanted to make a fresh sounding young pop record and that's not always the direction I wanted to go in. Sometimes they didn't get it, didn't want to hear me out because of my age, and that was a little bit frustrating. But I want to write more about experiences I've gone through. I've gone through bad situations. I come from a divorced home. I've been around abuse. I've lived a different life, been on the outside."
Read more about this topic: What A Girl Wants (song)
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