Christina Aguilera Takes Daughter Summer to Meet Mulan 21 Years After Singing Movie's Theme Song
The most happiest place on Earth got a whole lot happier for Christina Aguilera when she introduced her daughter Summer to Mulan this weekend.
The singer, 39, shared a sweet video of her 5-year-old’s magical encounter with the animated film’s heroine on Instagram Wednesday, captioning the clip, “Fun family weekend at @disneyland.”
In photos shared in the same post, Aguilera — who made her musical debut on Mulan‘s soundtrack with a pop rendition of “Reflection” — and can be seen posing with the Disney princess as she checked out the Lunar New Year festivities around Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, Calif.
She was also joined by fiancé Matthew Rutler and her 12-year-old son Max, whom she shares with ex Jordan Bratman.
A post shared by Christina Aguilera (@xtina) on Jan 29, 2020 at 5:00pm PST
“Shoutout to Mulan,” Aguilera said in the caption. “20 years later and the movie and its music is still so special to us.”
The pop star released “Reflection” in 1998 when she was just 17. She auditioned for the song by recording herself on singing in her bathroom on a tape recorder.
She recalled the process in a 1999 Entertainment Weekly interview, “My manager gives me a random phone call out of the clear blue one day while I’m just hanging out in my hometown of Pittsburgh. He’s like, ‘Can you belt the high E above middle C?’ And now this is known as the note that changed my life, because basically I had to prove that I could belt this note — like, full-on belt it — by Fed-Exing out, overnight, a karaoke tape of [singing over] Whitney Houston‘s ‘I Want to Run to You,’ which has that note, just like ‘Reflection.”‘
In 2019, decades after the song’s release, Aguilera performed the track at the D23 Expo in celebration of her induction as a Disney Legend.
“This is way cooler than a Grammy, I just have to say!” she said during her acceptance speech. “Thank you, Bob Iger. This is tremendous. You don’t understand. I may be the ultimate Disney fan.”
“Oh my God. I have a speech but I want to throw it out because my God,” the songstress gushed. “Thank you so much for this amazing honor. I love this. This is so special, I’m like shaking … I’ve been holding back tears all day.”
Aguilera previously opened up to PEOPLE about balancing work and motherhood, saying in May of last year that while “it’s definitely not easy” to do, “the key is truly making sure that [my children] always feel safe and always feel connected.”
Now with Max in his tween years, he’s “got his own thing going on,” shared Aguilera at the time, when she was preparing for her Las Vegas residency, The Xperience, at Planet Hollywood.
And at the end of the day, the singer said she was happy to be flexing her creative muscles again — but only if her kids continue fulfilling their own passions: “I always want to make sure they feel their own vibes and interests are being met first. Then I can relax and be creative!”
