Christina Aguilera has unveiled her new single produced by Kanye West – and hailed him as a "great beatmaker".
The 37-year-old singer has announced new track ‘Accelerate’ with Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz, and has heaped praise on the US rapper for being a "great artist".
She told Billboard: "I’ve always been a huge fan of Kanye.
"Outside of, you know, his controversial aspects, I just think he’s a great artist and musicmaker and beatmaker. The artists that he chooses to pluck from different walks of life are so interesting."
The ‘Beautiful’ hitmaker worked with the 40-year-old producer on ‘Accelerate’ and another track called ‘Maria’ – which she declared her favourite on new album ‘Liberation’ – in Malibu, California in early 2016.
Christina admits they lost touch after he embarked on his ‘Life Of Pablo’ tour later that year, during which Kanye was hospitalised with exhaustion.
She said: "There were some personal things that arose…"
The ‘Dirrty’ hitmaker admits the new album has a strong hip hop feel to it, insisting she sees herself as more of a soul singer than a pop star.
Christina said: "To me, there’s nothing like an amazing hip hop beat.
"At the end of the day, I am a soul singer. When you strip back the words ‘pop star’ and the many things that I’ve done, singing soulfully is where my core, my root and my heart really is. And as you can see, it’s what I’m inspired by."
‘Liberation’ is Christina’s first album in six years, with her last studio venture being 2012’s ‘Lotus’.
The ‘Genie In A Bottle’ singer teased the record’s title during a recent concert in Azerbaijan.
During a short interlude, a video was shown which seemed to tease the star’s upcoming eighth studio album.
A fan recording of the video was posted on Twitter by supporter account Xtina Daily, and shows a series of shots of the megastar whilst her voice lists a series of words beginning with "ex".
Christina says in the video: "Ex. Xtina. Exhale. Explore. Express. Experiment. Exploit. Exclusive. Exist. Expire. My existence has no expiration. This is my liberation. This is our liberation. Be liberated with me. It’s time for liberation. As one, a liberated nation."
Christina Aguilera hails ‘great artist’ Kanye West
