Christina Aguilera on why her career trajectory fits her role on The Voice

There was a moment on The Voices live show earlier this week that the growing multitude of Voice followers might have missed, if they werent paying attention. In consoling pop-singing Brooklyn waitress Adriana Louise, whod just been eliminated from televisions fastest-rising singing competition, Christina Aguilera reminded Louise that she had once been on a TV talent competition herself Star Search and had lost.

It was a striking admission from a chart-topping five-time Grammy Award winner with a new album Lotus, released Nov. 9 and platinum pipes. Minutes earlier, before softening the exit for her Voice protege, Aguilera had performed a head-turning duet of her new single Make the World Move on the Voice stage alongside her fellow coach and Voice mentor Cee Lo Green.

If The Voice works and an unexpected surge in the competitive U.S. ratings charts this season, coupled with an equally unexpected ratings slide for the bigger, flashier The X Factor, suggests that it does its because Aguilera and her fellow coaches Green, country artist and CMA entertainer of the year Blake Shelton and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine take their musical responsibilities on the show seriously.

Its starting to show. Levine and Maroon 5 are this weekends musical guest on Saturday Night Live, alongside host Jeremy Renner. Shelton scored a rare triple at this months 46th Annual Country Music Association Awards, taking home trophies for entertainer of the year, male vocalist of the year and song of the year.

Aguilera, one of contemporary musics finest voices, is gambling that Lotus will be a vocal counterpoint to Top 40 radios growing reliance on studio-enhanced backing vocals and a live-TV world where lip syncing is becoming the rule rather than the exception.

When The Voice returns with its next live performance program, on Nov. 19, Aguilera will have two proteges in the T! op 10: 22-year-old Shreveport, La., Hall and Oates-styled crooner Dez Duron, a one-time Yale University student who gave up varsity football to audition for The Voice, and 19-year-old Egyptian-born, Muskegon, Mich., native Sylvia Yacoub, who counts Rihanna and Katy Perry among her musical influences.

At its heart, The Voice is about a diversity of vocal singing styles, Aguilera said earlier this year.

Its not always going to be the powerhouse, the belter vocalist that I think everybody thinks were looking for, Aguilera said.

This year especially, its been about the people you least expect. The Voice is about being moved by what you hear with your ears, not what you see with your eyes. It takes us back to the way radio originated. Its about the sound, about being drawn to buy a record based on how somebody sounds, not because of a video or a package deal or anything like that.

Thats whats so magical about the blind auditions at the beginning. Its how radio was presented, or used to be presented. It was about a real raw gut emotion of being drawn to someone based on pure talent.

The Voice has thrown in a new wrinkle this season: Performances that chart in the Top 10 on the pay service iTunes count tenfold toward that performers audience vote total. Its serious about finding a vocal talent music buyers will actually pay to listen to, rather than who can generate the biggest teenybopper following on a reality-TV show.

Im always a risk taker. Im very confident in my body. I think my video works over the years have spoken to that

I think that, in the moment, things look as if theyre panning out the way theyre supposed to, because its on TV, Aguilera explained.

On TV, you get a different perspective from actually being in a seat, live and in person, hearing it in front of your face.

There are certain things that happen with the live band in the room, when youre a coach on The Voice. Every! things li! ve and coming at you so quickly. Your mental wheels are processing every single thing going on up there because, again, these peoples lives are in your hands. It was hard this year, early on. Going back to your question about talent, this year has been so much about versatility.

Aguilera says its particularly tough for a young woman to make it in todays music business, especially where body image is concerned. Thats why she felt a special affinity for Louise, now gone from The Voice, and Yacoub, whos still in the competition.

Ive been in this for a long time, Aguilera said quietly. I came on the scene when I was 17 years old. You can never be too much of anything. You can never be too perfect, too thin, too curvy, too voluptuous, this, that. Ive been on all sides of the spectrum. Any female in this business, at one time or another, has faced criticism over a flaw in a hairstyle, or whatever. Im always a risk taker. Im very confident in my body. I think my video works over the years have spoken to that.

Whether it was with Dirty, and so on, or Lady Marmalade, Ive been no stranger to being comfortable in my own skin and wanting to take risks, take those chances, whether it be crazy cotton-candy hair or interesting theatrical makeup. I always say to my guys, You dont have to walk on stage in heels. You can just throw on some Adidas. Just throw on sandals or boots or something, and be done. Women are definitely under a microscope, constant scrutiny.

As long as Im happy in my own skin, thats all the confirmation I need, and thats what I try to tell my guys. Being a female in this business, you basically know what youre in for. You know youre going to be under the microscope.Thats what you signed up to do. Its all about being a strong, powerful, confident woman. Being in a position to coach these young girls coming up, its great for me to be able to share that with them, and share my highs and lows along the way. Im very open on the show about all of that. It! s been a ! really good outlet for me, and for them too, I hope.

The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays on CTV Two and NBC, live in ET and on tape delay in other regions, 8 ET/PT, 9 MT.