About This Quiz
The year was 1999. You could buy a loaf of bread for $1.49, a postage stamp for 33 cents and Napster (shhh!) had just been released. SpongeBob premiered, Barbie turned 40 and we were all smitten by a new website called MySpace. It was also the beginning of a war we didn't know was coming: Britney v. Christina.
Former Mousketeer and Justin Timberlake gal pal Britney Spears released her "...Baby One More Time" album in January of that year. The project was Spears' most successful and, ultimately, one of the best-selling albums of all time. But, there was a storm brewing on the horizon by the name of Christina Aguilera (also a Mousketeer, FYI). Seven months after Spears gave us the album we didn't know we needed, Aguilera dropped her self-titled project, delivering a "Genie in a Bottle"-sized music bomb.
Fast-forward 20 years (yes, that's 2-0) and we've ridden the Britney v. Christina roller coaster through its highs and lows. We watched as Britney endured her now-infamous 2007 meltdown. We wondered how Xtina would navigate the spotlight as she turned from teen idol to full-grown woman and dealt with marital problems. Today, though, we've seen both women make seismic comebacks, a return to some of their former '90s glory.
So, are you Team Britney or Team Christina? Think you know them both pretty well? Put your internal Shazam to the test with this list of tunes from these '90s pop princesses. Can you tell us who's "Overprotected?" Which one of these songbirds is "Hurt?" Turn up the volume on this Britney v. Christina quiz!
"...Baby One More Time" was the first single from Britney's first-ever album, which shared a name with the tune. This song shattered a ton of records, becoming one of the world's all-time best-selling singles.
"Genie In a Bottle" was the first single release from Christina's first album, which shared her name. The song was her first No. 1 hit and, 20 years later, remains of the songs most closely associated with the songstress.
Britney released "Oops!...I Did It Again" two years after the blockbuster movie, "Titanic," but it must have resonated with her. The bridge of the song features the singer having a conversation that mimics one from the film.
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Aguilera sang "Hurt," a song about losing someone you love, but she did not write it alone. Co-writer Linda Perry contributed to the song's lyrics, which were written at a time she had just lost her own father.
Britney came under criticism for performing with the snake, but both the song – and that stage in her career – loudly said, "I don't care." "I'm a Slave 4 U" was one of the singer's most provocative to that point.
Christina tackled this weighty issue in her song, "Beautiful," released in November 2002. It was a part of her album, "Stripped," and earned the singer a Grammy for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance."
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Released in 1999 as part of Britney's "...Baby One More Time" album, "(You Drive Me) Crazy" was the third single from her debut album. The title of the song spawned a tour inspired by the same name. The Melissa Joan Hart teen comedy "Drive Me Crazy" was named after it.
Britney sings, "You're toxic I'm slippin' under/With a taste of a poison paradise," on this track that earned Brit her singular Grammy Award. The song likens a lover to a dangerous drug that can't be resisted. We're hooked!
Christina was one-quarter of the female singers who tackled the 1974 original, "Lady Marmalade" for the "Moulin Rouge" movie soundtrack. The song is famous for its suggestive lyrics, so it's a good thing some of them are in French.
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Britney's "Lucky" tells the story of a Hollywood star who seemingly has it all, but still isn't happy. At the time, it led many people to speculate the song was about the troubled songbird herself.
This one is Xtina all the way. She recorded "Fighter" and included it on her 2002 album "Stripped." The lyrics speak of a young woman who has endured hardships and emerged stronger on the other side. We feel that!
"Reflection" was recorded by Christina and also used in "Mulan." Its lyrics, which include, "Look at me/You may think you see/Who I really am/But you'll never know me," are about longing to be on the outside who the singer really is on the inside.
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Christina delivered "Ain't No Other Man" in 2006 near the start of her marriage to Jordan Bratman. While the lyrics remain the same, her marriage to Bratman didn't, ending in 2011.
"Come On Over Baby" was included on Christina's debut album release in 2000. She even re-recorded the song with Spanish lyrics the same year and released it on her album, "Mi Reflejo."
"If U Seek Amy" was a Britney release and part of her 2008 album titled, "Circus." The title and the lyrics of the song caused some raised eyebrows because, well, if you pronounce them just right, they lend themselves to a NSFW phrase. You might want to Google it from the privacy of your own home.
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Remember that Britney/Madonna kiss at the VMAs in 2003? The backstory might have been this song, which the women performed together. Madonna was a contributing writer on this piece as well.
"What a Girl Wants" is one of Christina's most recognizable tunes to date, a song with both pop and R&B vibes that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Fun fact: The song was originally going to be titled, "What a Girl Needs."
"The Voice" star, Christina, appropriately released a song titled, "The Voice Within," years before she'd ever appear on the popular televised singing competition. The song's content deals with finding inner strength.
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"I Turn to You" was originally recorded by All-4-One and released in 1997. Three years later, it got the Xtina treatment, released on her self-titled debut album. Maybe you should listen to both versions and pick a fave.
Christina's "Dirrty," which announced, "Too dirty to clean my act up," was the first single from her 2002 album, "Stripped." Christina took her image to another level with both this song and the album as a whole.
Britney's song of self-empowerment, "Stronger," was part of her 2000 album, "Oops!...I Did it Again!" The lyrics tell the story of a woman fed up with her man, stating, "I'm not your property as from today, baby." Message received.
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Duo "A Great Big World" recorded "Say Something" on its own before bringing Christina in on the project, and it's a good thing. The song enjoyed only moderate success until Xtina's vocals made it a hit.
"Candyman" appeared on Christina's "Back to Basics" album released in 2006. Christina earned a Grammy nod for the single release of the song in the "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance" category.
With Kesha's help, Britney took on "Till the World Ends," a project that was included on 2011's "Femme Fatale" album. A remix even included Kesha, along with rapper Nicki Minaj, lending their vocals.
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Call it a byproduct of working together on "The Voice"; Christina and her fellow judge Blake were bound to collab on something. What they gave us was "Just a Fool," which starts with, "Another shot of whiskey please bartender/Keep it coming til I don't remember at all."
Britney must've loved "Radar" a lot since she released it not once, but twice. It appeared on her albums, "Blackout," and later, "Circus." Brit reportedly recorded this song for the first time right after filing for divorce from her then-husband Kevin Federline.
Britney recorded "How I Roll" as part of her "Femme Fatale" album released in 2011. The song was meant to be a playful pop song and it draws comparisons to another musical diva, Janet Jackson.
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In "Overprotected," Britney sings, "Say hello to the girl that I am/You're going to have to see through my perspective/I need to make mistakes just to learn who I am/And I don't want to be so damn protected."
Britney's "3," part of one of her "Greatest Hits" albums, does indeed reference the singing group, Peter, Paul and Mary, but the entire song is a reference to a physical encounter involving more than two: "One, two, three/Not only you and me."
While both women have endured their fair share of the spotlight's glare, "Piece of Me" was a song Britney released on 2007's "Blackout," in response to the scrutiny she was enduring. The lyrics, "Well get in line with the paparazzi," are pretty telling.
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Christina tapped into Sia's songwriting capabilities for "You Lost Me," remarking that the two women were fans of one another. "You Lost Me" appeared on Christina's 2010 album, "Bionic."
Christina's "Your Body" was quite a provocative song, but perhaps not AS provocative as the video for the tune, which featured the singer seducing men and then killing them afterward. Well, alrighty then.
"(I've Just Begun) Having My Fun," is an ode to a party from four years earlier (must've been quite a party). Part of the song's lyrics say, "Here is a little story that I made up/So let's make believe/Four years ago I had a party/That was too much fun for me."
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Britney was intimately involved in both the lyrics and music for "Everytime." Some of the song's lyrics say, "Notice me/Take my hand/Why are we/Strangers when/Our love is strong," written a short time after Britney and beau Justin Timberlake called it quits.
Britney's "I Wanna Go" was the third single from her "Femme Fatale" album in 2011. Fans helped choose it, thanks to a poll shared on Britney's official website. The single reached Top 10 status.