Twice as nice! Christina Aguilera jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with A Great Big World on their new single, “Fall on Me,” six years after the release of their hit, “Say Something.”
“I think what they do is just so honest,” Aguilera, 38, told Us Weekly exclusively at the 2019 American Music Awards on Sunday, November 24, of the pop duo’s members, Ian Axel and Chad King. “It’s so pure with their intent in just connecting with people and it being a very loving place to come from musically, and I think those are the best things that speak to me.”
The “Dirrty” singer and A Great Big World won a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in 2015 for “Say Something.” They joined forces again this year, releasing “Fall on Me” on Friday, November 22, and performing the emotional ballad for the first time at the AMAs.
“I don’t do things at this point in my career for business purposes or this or that. I truly try and stick to telling the truth,” Aguilera told Us on the red carpet. “And ‘Fall on Me’ is such a beautiful song with the same intent that we [had on] ‘Say Something.’ It’s just so spiritual, it’s very truthful, and I think it is a song that truly connects with people who are looking for something, searching for something, digging for meaning in their lives, and that’s what connects us.”
A Great Big World, meanwhile, could not stop raving over Xtina. “What is there not to love? She’s got one of the most iconic voices, and I still gotta pinch myself sometimes that I get to sing with her,” Axel, 34, told Us. “She’s just a real artist and she really connects to the music when she sings it, and I feel that and [Chad] feels that and it’s just organic and there’s magic that happens.”
King, also 34, echoed, “I think with this song in particular, she takes it to a different level. I’ve never heard her sing like this, and it’s so perfect. It’s bigger than any of us could have ever dreamed.”
“Fall on Me” is the first new song that the former Mouseketeer has released since her eighth studio album, Liberation, which dropped in June 2018. The record included the singles “Accelerate” featuring Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz, “Fall in Line” featuring Demi Lovato and “Like I Do” featuring GoldLink.
Aguilera has been busy on the road as of late — her X tour wraps on December 7 and her Xperience residency in Las Vegas runs through March 6, 2020 — but she still makes sure to spend plenty of time with her two children. She shares son Max, 11, with ex-husband Jordan Bratman and daughter Summer, 5, with fiancée Matthew Rutler.
“When I’m on stage, there’s not a bigger high, when I’m in connection with my voice and my heart and my soul,” she told Billboard in May 2018. “But at the end [of a performance], I want to wipe it all off, get in my sweatpants, make silly noises with my kids and have someone comfort and cuddle me.”
With reporting by Kayley Stumpe
