Backstage meet lets down fans

WINNIPEG -- It was so cold and mechanical, some fans who won backstage passes to "meet and greet" Christina Aguilera yesterday felt like they were on an assembly line.

 About two dozen fans told to be at the Winnipeg Arena at 3:45 p.m. to prepare for a promised 4:15 p.m. meeting cooled their heels until 5 p.m., before Aguilera made a drive-by appearance lasting roughly three minutes. The tiny singer, clad in a white mid-riff tank top and a purple skirt, said, "Hello," and quickly moved down a pre-posed lineup, stopping in front of each group just long enough for a hired photographer to snap a photo.

 "She didn't even say, 'Hi,' she just stepped in the middle, and they took a couple of pictures, and that was it," Nick Pagee, 19, said. "It's like she had more important things than us -- we're the fans, we made her."

 Aguilera's late showing delayed the second wave of meetings with popsters The Moffatts, mytown, soulDecision and local duo McMaster and James, who took the stage at 5:30 p.m., and had to delay meeting backstage fans until 6:15 p.m.

 It's rumoured that Aguilera has had no contact with the four opening bands so far on the YTV PsykoBlast tour.

 Luke McMaster, surrounded by autograph seekers after his and Rob James' set, said the group hasn't met Aguilera so far on the seven-city tour. A publicist for BMG Music said the singer has apparently had problems with her voice and has already cancelled several publicity events since the tour began in Toronto last Friday. However, those "voice problems" didn't force the cancellation of a local recording session the day before the concert.

 Pagee, who stood on a streetcorner wearing only a borrowed bra and panties as a stunt to win tickets and the backstage pass from Hot 103 radio, said the boy bands -- who signed autographs, chatted with fans and allowed them to take their own photographs -- made up for earlier disappointment at his first concert.

 "The rest were having a conversation with you. You didn't get the impression you were wasting their time."

 Shawn Anderson, 24, took time off work to get to the Arena by 3:45 p.m., but Aguilera didn't give him and girlfriend Stefanie Sloboda, 19, the time of day. They were too stunned even to smile for the camera when Aguilera stepped in to be photographed with them.

 "She didn't seem like she wanted to be here, she just posed," Sloboda said.

 A couple of happy girls, Karly Kusano, 5, and sister Kristy, 8, fared better.

 "She said, 'Hi.' I said it's nice to meet you and she said, 'Thanks,' " Kristy said.

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