Christina Aguilera Performed All Her Early Aughts Hits, From “Dirrty” to “Beautiful,” During “Carpool Karaoke”

On Monday night, Christina Aguilera became the latest star to join James Corden for his popular “Carpool Karaoke” segment on The Late Late Show, and it was an early aughts dream.

The duo started with a classic, 2002’s “Fighter,” which Corden paused to attempt to learn how to achieve Aguilera’s signature “angsty” growl — “You’re not angry enough,” she noted after his growl came out more Fozzie Bear than Xtina — before they stopped to chat about Aguilera’s days in the Mickey Mouse Club. Though Aguilera claimed that she “wasn’t on the train” when it came to falling deeply into a young Ryan Gosling‘s eyes, she did spill that Gosling had a bit of a crush on fellow Club member Britney Spears. You’ll recall, though, that Spears only had eyes for another Mouseketeer at the time: Justin Timberlake. “Um, I think, there was like a…me and Britney…,” Aguilera, 37, said when Corden asked whether she’d ever fallen for Timberlake, then she continued to hem and haw in reference to her old feud with Spears. “Well, now, you know, there was a thing back then,” she admitted, before adding, “It was a good time.”

With the awkward revisitation of a decades-old feud successfully waded through, Aguilera and Corden subsequently got back to the music. A few verses into “Dirrty,” Melissa McCarthy popped up from the floor of the backseat to expertly rap Redman’s verse. Aguilera and McCarthy shared that they met on the set of McCarthy’s upcoming film Life of the Party (“which we obviously are,” Aguilera quipped), in which the Grammy winner makes a cameo appearance as herself. McCarthy stayed in the backseat for a quick lesson on being a pop diva, which consisted of Corden and McCarthy gripping bedazzled mics while attempting to re-create a powerful sliding “heyyy” like the one Aguilera sings at the beginning of 2006’s “Ain’t No Other Man.” After completing a series of vocal warm-ups, the trio launched into a cover of ultimate bop tune “Genie in a Bottle.”

To close out the set, Corden and Aguilera gave their all to an exquisitely harmonized version of “Beautiful,” arguably the greatest song to scream-sing in a moving vehicle. Afterward, they arrived back in the CBS parking lot and breezily parted ways, as if they hadn’t just sent goosebumps down every viewer’s spine. Watch it all for yourself here: