Dear Bitches,
So I did see Britney's Femme Fatale tour at the London O2 last week. It was fun. Very clubby.
The first thing I noticed going to the concert was the audience in the queue with me. They were indeed mostly the Chris Cocker ("Leave Britney Alone") type: young queers who one can safely suspect have been bullied growing up (and probably still are) - lanky effeminate boys or fat girls; pink, purple, orange, or red hair; stupid tattoos; even stupider piercings; highly strung. Watching them, I said to myself this is going to be a party. And I was right.
The second thing I noticed that was worth of note was when the curtain came down and before Britney appeared on stage. Up on a small platform was her band composing of two keyboardists, or maybe the other one was a DJ. Whatever he was, he was one of a 2-piece 'band' and I thought, "Kudos to Britney. She's not even pretending there is going to be live music!" And when the video projections came on and the music started and Britney appeared and the strobe lights went flashing and laser lights crisscrossed, and the speakers boomed with the bass on up, the entire O2 arena was turned into a big dance club.
It seemed every piece in the production was designed to announce Britney's transition from pop princess to dance floor vamp. There was one number I didn't like - her mash-up of her earliest and biggest hit "... Baby One More Time " with a cover of "S&M," Rihanna's latest club hit. Whoever thought of that isn't a genius. The mash-up might have been aimed at underscoring Britney's transition, but it didn't work. To stop in the middle of her biggest hit to sing a song that is wholly identified with Rihanna seemed more like an exercise of deprivation. Further, because her vocals are so auto-tuned and so are Rihanna's, there can be no comparing and contrasting of vocal styles, either of the younger vs older Brit, or Brit vs Rihanna (see link below for their performance of S&M on the Billboard Awards - if you didn't see Britney come up, you'd have thought Rihanna sang the whole song by herself!). A highlight for me was "I'm a Slave 4 U" where she repeated the choreography in the video.
Also, I felt a bit cheated. When I watched videos of the US concert, I saw she had a ramp that extended out toward the audience. She didn't have that at the O2. What happened? Did it become too exhausting for her to strut up and down the ramp?
The production itself is spectacular. The video projections are eye-catching, mesmerising, and really do the job splendidly. The choreography is fast and never dull. Jamie King is in top form here. But sadly not Britney. She lacked energy and easily fades as one of the dancers. Her dancing consisted of wiggling her hips and tossing her hair, although she does execute the latter quite magnificently.
My biggest complaint is that as an audience, you get nothing back from Britney. She seemed more machine than human; no warmth, only steely determination. She went through the choreography effectively and coldly. She wasn't really into it. As she's dancing and miming through a song, she's probably thinking, "what shall I have for dinner? Did I leave fried chicken out for the kids? I wonder if I can sneak out to a chippy after the show..." I guess after having gone through a very public breakdown, she has probably mastered the art of 'going through the motions' so as to function in her day-to-day without revealing too much of herself. She has probably learned to keep her humanity behind walls of heavy steel. And that's a shame because that isn't the proper way to repay fans who have loyally stood by here during her troubles. For that reason, Britney has fallen off my Fabulous List. Ah, the Britney of the 90s. She had loads of potential, didn't she.
Until then sweet-tarts. Kisses.
Hollie-Go-Lightly
