Sunday 7th of June 2009 London's 02 Arena
Britney Spears has been one of the biggest pop stars in the world for over a decade now, with consistently successful albums and a string of killer singles and videos, but its safe to say it hasn’t always been easy. 2009's 'Circus Tour' was Britneys and her teams chance to show the world she was still relevant and could compete with her contemporaries, after her much publicized personal breakdown and lacklustre performance at the MTV music awards in 2007.
Britney Spears has been one of the biggest pop stars in the world for over a decade now, with consistently successful albums and a string of killer singles and videos, but its safe to say it hasn’t always been easy. 2009's 'Circus Tour' was Britneys and her teams chance to show the world she was still relevant and could compete with her contemporaries, after her much publicized personal breakdown and lacklustre performance at the MTV music awards in 2007.
The success of, and
importantly the audiences enjoyment of the tour, entirely depended on
if you minded or even cared that 90% of the vocals were mimed.
Britney has never been famed for singing live, her previous and
subsequent tours incorporating a mix of both live and pre-recorded
vocals. But 'The Circus Tour' was, it seems, almost entirely
pre recorded. Did the audience care? No. Did I? Not really no. Did
the critics care? A large majority, especially in Australia. As a
Britney Spears fan, I was just happy to see her putting on a
fantastic show, when it had been only a year prior where most fans
feared the worst for the woman’s life, as well as career. Some
people will continue to complain that, miming undermines the point of
a 'live' concert, and often I’m inclined to agree with them, but I
had an absolute blast at 'The Cirucs Tour' regardless.
So what of the show
itself? The name really did say it all, this was a circus of the
slickest and most impressive spectacle where Britney was the
ringleader to the ariel artists, magicians and countless dancers. It
seems obvious for a circus themed concert to have the stage in the
round, centre of the arena, but this presented many challenges for
the director Jamie King. Fortunately Jamie, who has also directed
numerous concerts for Madonna, Celion and Christina, the staging was
near flawless, creating some impressive routines and stage pictures
that gave each section of the audience equal focus to the action on
stage. The visuals, along with many of Spears's songs, cleverly
played on her media attention to great effect. As for the
choreography, it was impressive and well rehearsed. If Britney had
lost a little bit of sparkle, through nerves or exhaustion, the
staging brought out the best in both her, and the dancers.
Despite the tours
'Circus' title, the majority of album tracks on the set list
came from 'Blackout'. No album tracks from 'Circus'
actually appeared until the inclusion of 'Mannequin' on the
European dates. Other surprises were the inclusion of 'In The
Zone' album tracks 'Touch of my Hand' and 'Breathe On
Me', which was lined up to be a single before Spears fractured
her leg on the previous 'Hotel Onyx Tour'. On the North American
dates, Britney included a cover of Alanis Morissettes 'You Oughta
Know', the only fully live vocal of the entire tour, to much
praise. One notable omission was 'Gimme More', but after the
ill fated MTV performance, Spears may have been reluctant to include
the song. Despite the surprises, the set list flowed very well and
built up to a great finale, it would have just been great to see
album tracks like 'Kill The Lights', 'Shattered Glass'
and 'Unusual You' get the live treatment.
As for highlights,
there were plenty. The opening sequence of both 'Circus' and
'Piece Of Me', including inspired cameo from Perez Hilton, was
one the most tightly choreographed and impressive openings Ive ever
seen in a concert. The crowd went berserk at the sight of the
superstar, and in all honesty the tour never reached the standard set
by this opening again, but it tried damn hard. The Bollywood remix of
Maddona duet 'Me Against The Music' was genius. 'Get Naked
(I Got A Plan)' was the best use of the circular staging in the
whole show. The video montage of 'Break the Ice' was a
fantastic build up prior to the finale and the crowd sing a longs of
'Toxic' and 'Baby One More Time' towards the concerts
end were great performances of Spear's biggest hits.
Spears herself
undoubtedly performed better in tours before and after 'The Circus
Tour', but I feel, especially as a fan, the imagery, staging and
overall spectacle of this tour will make it an iconic moment in her
continuing career.
* * * *
Watch The Opening of the Concert here. (Fan Made Video, no professional recording was released)
Set List
- "Ooh Ooh Baby" / "Hot as Ice"
- "Boys" (The Co-Ed Remix)
- "You Oughta Know" (performed from September 5 to 18, 2009)
- "Me Against the Music" (Bollywood Remix)
- "Freakshow"
- "Get Naked (I Got a Plan)"
- "Mannequin" (performed from July 5 to 26, 2009)
- "Breathe on Me" / "Touch of My Hand"
- "Toxic"
Encore
- "Break the Ice" (video interlude)
