It’s (finally) Britney, bitch
ETERNAL GIRL Britney Spears kept fans waiting during her June 15 concert in the Mall of Asia Arena, but the few hours, minutes, then seconds that passed as the audience wriggled in their seat felt like nothing compared to the decade-long wait for her to finally bless Manila with her presence.
All the waiting finally made sense when we saw Britney walk out backstage and pose before the curtain dropped and revealed her. In a top hat and a glittering bodysuit, she opened with a fairly recent song, “Work Bitch.” As she told audience that they “better work, bitch,” one saw her big, blonde bombshell curls, and her intense dance moves, and that, at 35, she is still very much the young sex siren she was once made out to be.
For her next number, her dancers — in garters — brought out what looked like lightsabers for “Womanizer,” during which the singer walked on her backup dancers’ backs and was then lifted.
“It’s been a while. I know I shouldn’t have kept you waiting. But I’m here now,” ran the lyrics of her next number, “Break The Ice,” and, boy, song lyrics have never felt so right, as her dancers threw off their jackets and she squealed something to her fans, which wasn’t heard that well — but would you really care? As for apropos song lyrics, well, her next song, “Piece of Me,” contained the line “sneak away to the Philippines” so the audience wasted no time in shouting the line with her. Britney Spears: Live in Manila
is part of her current world tour, a spin-off from her Planet Hollywood residency show in Las Vegas. As of this writing, Spears has been to Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, and Taipei, with dates to follow in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tel Aviv. The show reflects most of the material in her Vegas show, and it turns out that it’s a fast- paced act with hardly any banter and very little flashy interludes. “This is Britney Spears, this what I do, watch me,” the show seems to say.
For her next number — her early hit “Baby One More Time” — she comes out in a red batwinged cape, paired with a red suit and a red mask, and then segued on to “Oops... I Did It Again.” Really, I’m not giving her justice, because you should have seen how all the people moved along with her, and screamed her name and sang her songs.
Britney has been on the scene since 1999, and she has the videos to prove it — during a concert interlude, she showed her videos, and for the camp crowd, they are considered modern classics, such as her videos for “Toxic” and “I’m A Slave 4 U.”
Life hasn’t been all that easy for Britney Spears, and she experienced a decline in her personal life starting about 2003, which fans would note was when Madonna kissed her during the MTV Video Music Awards ( VMAs) while performing Madonna’s hits “Like A Virgin” and “Hollywood.” The kiss and the resulting buzz led to a collaboration in the track “Me Against the Music,” which was Britney’s opening number for the next act in the concert, which showed her with a little bowtie, like the one she wore in the video for “Me Against the Music.”
We were possibly entering her decline phase in the concert, as Britney then performed “Gimme More” next ( containing the catchy and iconic line, “It’s Britney, bitch”). “Gimme More” was the song playing at her disastrous 2007 VMAs performance — possibly her annus horriblis (this was the year she shaved her head). But the Britney in Manila was renewed, and as we waited for her to whisper “It’s Britney...,” she knew what we wanted, and kept us waiting again, playfully winking at the cue, and pausing before saying the line.
Britney sneaked backstage while a laser light interlude filled in for her, after which she came out in a yellow suit with a clear cutout stripe running across her chest and waist, and performed her hit “Boys, Do You Wanna Come Over,” and a breakdance routine using the hits of fellow celebrity Missy Elliott. Her dance routine are infused with a mixture of bouncing innocence and thrusting sexuality — just like a lot of points in her career, the fate of a girl growing up to full womanhood in front of the world ( for better reference, listen to her hit “Lucky”).
After this, three of her dancers came out and teased the audience with their dance moves amid a background of red vapor, a perfect segue for her sexy, panting hit “I’m A Slave 4 U,” with her wearing fishnets and brandishing her body about on a stripper pole.
She then performed “Make Me” and “Freakshow,” and Britney gave fans one of the most precious presents that night — a hint of emotional connection. In a high tinny voice, she squealed: “How you feeling Manila?!” and then in her young girl voice, she said: “Who wants to come up and play with me?” She plucked a guy from the audience in a blue shirt and introduces him to S&M using a dog leash and a riding crop.
Britney then performed her hit “Do Something,” which she made in the early 2000s during the height of her crazy period ( her one-day marriage, the disastrous one that followed it, and bizarre behavior in general), where she pleaded, “Get up out of your seat/ Why don’t you do something?” For this performance, she used chairs, which when stacked becomes a cage, or a box.
For the show’s next act, she came out as a ringleader for a string of hits — “Circus,” “If You Seek Amy,” “Breathe On Me,” “Slumber Party,” and “Touch of My Hand” — and then disappeared, replaced with a video of toxic flowers. You know what’s coming right? The audience could hardly contain itself when the familiar and immortal riff from “Toxic” was played, with Britney performing in a red corset and pigtails.
For her last act, she performed her hits “Stronger” and “( You Drive Me) Crazy,” and she thanked her audience and left.
Of course, the audience knew Britney wouldn’t leave just like that, and the crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena chanted Britney’s name and “Gimme More!” and she reappeared, and obliged with “Till The World Ends.” “Keep on dancing till the world ends,” the song urged, and ended with a giant spray of confetti.
That evening, still panting after the high of breathing the same air as Britney Spears, the audience lining up for post- concert merchandise sang along to the recordings of Britney’s songs that were played around the arena.
Britney, just so you know, we kept dancing and singing well after your show ended.
The Britney in Manila was renewed, and as we waited for her to whisper “It’s Britney...,” she knew what we wanted, and kept us waiting again, playfully winking at the cue, and pausing before saying the line.