Genie in a Bottle
"
Genie in a Bottle" is the first
single from
Christina Aguilera's debut album,
Christina Aguilera. As her first major single, the song is generally considered her debut single (although technically she had released two songs prior to this). Released in mid-
1999, the single peaked at number one on the
Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks, becoming Aguilera's first number-one single. The single also peaked at number one in the UK, also becoming her first number one single in that country. The single is generally considered to be one of her signature songs.
"Genie in a Bottle" was written by
David Frank,
Steve Kipner and
Pamela Sheyne and was produced by Frank and Kipner. The song's songwriting aspect has raised a minor scandal as apparently Aguilera co-wrote the song's B-section. Unfortunately, at the time Aguilera was unfamiliar with the legal aspect of songwriting, and did not submit a songwriting claim.
In her sexually driven debut single, Aguilera begins the song as a
sexually repressed young woman stating that she feels like she's been locked up tight for a century of lonely nights, and that she is waiting for someone to release her. She then sees a young man who sexually arouses her, making her exclaim, "My body's saying let's go". However, even though her hormones are racing at the speed of light, she realizes "My heart is saying no". Nevertheless, Aguilera offers herself to the man by stating, "If you wanna be with me, baby there's a price to pay, I'm a genie in a bottle, You gotta rub me the right way".
Although the song's lyrics seem relatively tame for a pop song, the lyrics caused minor controversy at the time, as it was felt by some that Aguilera was too young at the time to be singing a song of this nature, even if it was relatively tame and she was already 19 years old. Detractors primarily were of the feeling she should not be singing a song like this because she was being marketed directly to young girls, at the time. Due to the song's lyrics, the song was censored in some markets with tamer lyrics, in which Aguilera sings "you gotta treat me the right way" (instead of the relatively racy "you gotta rub me the right way"). The censored version was played without doubt in pre-teen markets such as
Radio Disney.
Since then the song has been covered by
Evil Adam,
The Dan Band,
Speedway and
Thrice, and has made an appearance on Konami's
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2.
Parodist
Hawaiian Ryan also recorded a spoof of the song, called "Weenie In A Bottle".
According to Christina's early songwriters who appeared on the documentary Driven, Christina was not convinced that the track would highlight her voice. Her songwriter claimed that there was a "battle" between Christina and her producers because Christina wanted to display the power and audacity in her voice whereas her producers would hold her back. In order to enable Christina's voice to be the central focus, Christina performed acoustic sets and she appeared on television shows accompanied only by a piano .
Aguilera's debut single turned out to be a massive success, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and both of its
component charts for multiple weeks. In addition to this, the song was also huge across the board, topping the
Top 40 Mainstream,
Top 40 Tracks and
Rhythmic Top 40 charts. Strong sales assured the single a
platinum certification. The song even managed to crossover to the relatively conservative
Adult Top 40, and the Spanish version of the song ("Genio Atrapado") was a relative hit on the
latin music charts.
Internationally, the same chart dominance was seen, as the track went to number one in both the UK and Canada for multiple weeks. However, it failed to top other European nations but it charted at least within the top five in every country it charted.
"Genie in a Bottle" debuted at number sixty-one on the Billboard Hot 100
"Genie in a Bottle" spent twenty-five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100
"Genie in a Bottle" was ranked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Charts (1999)
"Genie in a Bottle" was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100
"Genie in a Bottle" was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales
"Genie in a Bottle" was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay
"Genie in a Bottle" was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Top 40 Tracks
"Genie in a Bottle" was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Top 40 Mainstream
"Genie in a Bottle" was Aguilera's first number-one single on the Rhythmic Top 40
| Year | Single | Chart | Position | | 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Billboard Hot 100 Airplay | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Top 40 Tracks | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Top 40 Mainstream | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Rhythmic Top 40 | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Adult Top 40 | 31 |
| 1999 | "Genio Atrapado" | Hot Latin Tracks | 13 |
| 1999 | "Genio Atrapado" | Latin Pop Airplay | 13 |
| 1999 | "Genio Atrapado" | Latin Tropical Airplay | 7 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | World Chart Show | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | UK Top 40 Singles | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | New Zealand RIANZ Top 50 Singles | 2 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Australian ARIA Top 50 Singles | 2 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Germany Top 100 Singles | 2 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Indonesia Chart | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Switzerland Top 100 Singles | 2 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Dutch Top 40 | 2 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Sweden Top 60 Singles | 5 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | 'Tokio Hot 100' | 39 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | France Top 100 Single | 3 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Philippine Top 20 | 1 |
| 1999 | "Genie in a Bottle" | Belgian Ultratop 50(official list) | 1 |
Chart trajectory
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart trajectory | | Week | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24!25 |
|---|
| Chart position | 61 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 111112454667| 12 | 13 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 22 | 28 | 32 | 45 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | | Week | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16!17 |
|---|
| Chart position | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 18 | 14 | 23 | 35 | 46 |
|---|
| U.S. MTV's Total Request Live Daily trajectory [1] | | Week | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32!33 |
|---|
| Chart position | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|
| Week | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65! |
|---|
| Chart position | 7 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
|---|
