First of all, Christina, your surname. Once and for all, how do we get our months round it?!
You've been a huge success in America. How are you adapting to your new found super-stardom?
I'm loving it! I keep having to be dragged away from people who want autograph. I'm, like, totally adoring and embracing it. The record company people are like, 'Come on, we have to go. You've got a plane to catch,' and I'm like, 'Oh, just five more autographs, I swear!' We're having to work out sneaky getaway plans cos sometimes things get out of hand. I was leaving a venue in LA one time, and, like, seven cars darted out behind my limo and were trying to follow us. They practically ran my manager's car off the road! It was really frightening.
People may see this as overnight success but it isn't really, is it?
People keep saying that I'm so young and that everything's happening so fast, but in fact, this has been, like, 14 years in the making! I've been performing since I was six so it's not like it's all happened suddenly. My big break through was probably getting a song on the
You've actually got quite a strong connection with Disney cos you were also on The Mickey Mouse Club for a while...
Yeah, I was on the show when I was about 12 or 13, along with Britney Spears and the 'N SYNC guys. The show doesn't actually air any more but they are showing the old ones. There are commericals for it which say something like, 'See Britney and Christina, before they were famous!' I was on the Jay Leno show (v famous Americam chat show) the other night and he showed this Mickey Mouse Club sketch of JC from 'N SYNC shoving a pie right in my face. It was so embarrassing cos I was wearing a wig and it was like the ugliest wig in the world! And a lot of people then thought it was my real hair! Let's say it wasn't exactly the high point of my career so far!
Are you prepared for people making out that you and Britney are arch rivals?
The thing is, Britney and I are friends. When we were on The Mickey Mouse Club we were like the babies of the show so we bonded and we had a lot of in common. She's so talented, I'm not surprised by her success. We don't get to see each other as much as we'd like but we bump into each other now and again. There's supposed to be this huge rivalry, but at the end of the day we're friends. I even wemt out and bought Baby One more Time when it was released! What more can I say?!
Are you looking forward to visiting the UK?
You have a lot of cute shops and I'm looking forward to exploring some of them. I'm definitely going to sneak off and do some sightseeing and handbag shopping cos I have a collection of about 50 or so, but I'm still working at it!
The video for Genie In A Bottle is rather glamorous, isn't it?
To watch it, it looks really hot and it's full of these good-looking people so generally it does look really glamorous; in reality it was anything but. It was absolutely freezing. The whole cast and crew were wearing big old winter coats, hats and scarves. I was wearing these little cut-off shorts and a bikini top, rolling around in the cold sand, covered in goose bumps and freezing my butt off!
Finally, if TOTP could grant you three wishes, what would up wish for
First of all I'd probably wish for a driver's licence. I've passed the written test but I'm afraid to take the actual driving part. Once I had my driver's licence I'd then wish for a really cute sports car to along with it. And then finally I'd want, like, five full days off... to go handbag shopping! What else?!
