Sabrina Carpenter’s show in Los Angeles on Friday had a big surprise for concertgoers: Christina Aguilera.

The Burlesque star stood on a platform behind the ‘Espresso’ singer to perform her hit ‘Ain’t No Other Man’ during her latest stop on her Short and sweet tour of the Crypto.com Arena. Carpenter seemed genuinely shocked when he saw Aguilera emerge and say, “What the fuck?” when I saw her take the stage. Carpenter and her backup singers and dancers excitedly joined the diva for an energetic rendition of her 2006 single.

The duo then harmonized on a duet of Aguilera’s “What a Girl Wants.” They previously performed the song in honor of the 25th anniversary of his self-titled debut album in September. At the end of the performance, Aguilera told Carpenter, “I love you so much.”

Just before the 25th anniversary performance earlier this year, Carpenter explained in a Spotify video how Aguilera inspired her. “I’m going crazy,” she said as she greeted her hero. “I think the first time I heard your voice was (when) my mother – courtesy of my mother – played me a video of you singing ‘A Sunday Kind of Love’ at the age of 8.” And that was just the most inspiring thing I ever saw as a young girl who wanted to sing but didn’t know I could do it at that age.”

Carpenter called Aguilera’s childhood performance “the main reason I started singing, that I wanted to be a singer.”

Aguilera was thrilled to share the song with Carpenter. “It’s fun when you can reimagine the music,” she said. “Doing this with you is so creatively exciting and just exciting to hear it live through other people. I think that’s really special. And to hear your interpretation of ‘What a Girl Wants’ and your inflections on it and to hear your gift With this song it’s almost like you’re passing it on to new generations. That’s what I like most about music.”

Timmerman’s admiration for Aguilera goes back a long way. “I love Christina,” Carpenter said Paper magazine in August. “That was one of my very first idols and icons. I was 11 years old and you couldn’t get her name out of my mouth. She’s very special to me. Those songs raised me.”

The singer shared similar sentiments while promoting her previous album, Emails I can’t send. “The first artist I fell in love with was probably Christina Aguilera,” she said NME in 2022. “I want to say I was six or seven. I saw a video of her singing ‘A Sunday Kind of Love,’ and in the video she was maybe ten too, and I was just fascinated by her confidence and the strength in her voice Since then I was a stan, from day one.”

When she doesn’t have a special guest on her show, Carpenter sometimes pays tribute to two other iconic blondes who have inspired her: at various stops on the Short and sweet tour she has covered Madonna’s “Material Girl” or Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”.

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