Two of the hottest female acts currently on tour, Christina Aguilera and Beyonce Knowles, arrive in the North-East next week. Viv Hardwick reports on the near sell-out nights.

NORTH-EAST music fans are licking their lips over the prospect of two top international divas, Christina Aguilera and Beyonce Knowles, taking to the Telewest Arena, Newcastle, stage on Sunday and Monday.

Aguilera's Monday night show has the edge thanks to her double platinum-selling album Stripped which has earned condemnation for the raunchy track Dirrty and accolades for the stunning ballad Beautiful.

Both have been successful single releases for the woman who made her first TV appearance in a talent show at the age of eight and was singing alongside Britney Spears and Justine Timberlake in Disney's Mickey Mouse Club by the time she was12.

At the Wembley Arena this week, the former blonde bombshell cast aside her platinum-coloured hair and blue-eyed Britney Spears innocence for an updated, darker and more adult image.

The drastic change coincides with her current world tour, which kicked off in June 2003 in the US, where she teamed up with hot pop favourite Timberlake.

It's not the first time her image has been adapted. The once sweet and innocent looking pop star turned heads when she appeared in the video for Lady Marmalade in suspenders and a flesh-baring corset, and has become a lot raunchier in recent videos, where she was featured in little more than a bikini top and leather chaps.

But Aguilera believes the now defunct Disney TV club provided her with the best training she could get for her present day assaults on the pop charts.

She was born on New York's Staten Island. Her Irish-American mother is a classical violinist/pianist while her Ecuadorian-born father was in the military. The family settled in a suburb of Pittsburgh and. Aguilera recalls: ''When I was seven years old I started singing at local parties near my home. After I'd finish singing people would come and ask me for my autograph." At the age of 12 her Mickey Mouse Club audition tape impressed Disney executives so much they whisked her off to an LA studio to record the song Reflection for the film Mulan. In the same week she was snapped up by RCA records in New York.

Her single Genie In A Bottle was No 1 in the US for five weeks and went to No in the UK, making her the biggest selling female solo artist since Celine Dion.

Aguilera has always dismissed claims that she is being marketed as a figure of middle-aged male fantasy, but TV watchdogs and teachers have criticised her skimpy outfits as pressurising young girls into wearing clothes which are too adult for them.

And then there was that kiss between Madonna and Aguilera and Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards in August. It shocked the audience and made world headlines. So far it hasn't affected the awards rolling in or the records rolling out to fans, and her stage sparring with Madonna was probably down to a little hero workship.

''I really admire Mariah (Carey) and Madonna. They are so different but equally successful. One is a true singer while the other is a true entertainer. I think I've got a little of both of them in me,'' says the singer who has been singing her autograph since she was seven.

While this is Aguilera's debut, Beyonce Knowles previously appeared at the venue in June last year with Destiny's Child. The three-girl singing act made its debut in 1990 and sold 33 million albums worldwide before the trio opted for solo careers in 2001. Her appearance as Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers movie Goldmember helped her first single Work It Out and her 2003 debut album Dangerously In Love is to be followed by the release of Me, Myself I on December 15.

* Both concerts are at the sell-out level. Ticket enquires to 0870 707 8000 or online at www.telewestarena.co.uk

Published: 06/11/2003