Gimmie Gimmie More Singing, Britney

After the much-anticipated return of Britney Spears to the stage for her Circus tour, I was looking forward to her first London gig at the O2 Arena on June 03 2009, and had eagerly bought my ticket in preparation. When the night of the concert arrived, I took my seat and the show began, but what followed was quite jaw dropping; no live singing whatsoever, and she didn’t even treat the crowd to a hello until five songs in.

I’d heard from friends who had previously seen her ‘live’ that she rarely sings during her shows, but even they were shocked to find her most famous ballad – Everytime – which she did last time she sang at a gig at Wembley in April 2004, was cold-heartedly mimed. For this track she was sitting on a small, rectangular platform, hanging from the centre of the stage. There was no dancing involved, so she couldn’t have blamed her lack of vocals on having to concentrate on choreography, yet still mouthed the words to a flawless backing song.

I’m not denying that she’s talented – after all she put on a comeback show that was impactful, slick and showcased all her hits, including her first number one, Baby One More Time.

Considering her recent meltdown and the fact that this tour will last four months, I have to admire her for such resilience. It’s just the issue of her inability (or general stubbornness) to interact with the crowd. Perhaps she just doesn’t know how to ‘keep it real’ anymore, but I feel people will lose respect for her lack of rawness and warmth that have kept a lot of stars in the business afloat.

The likes of Bette Midler and Whitney Houston, who are real icons of strength, girl power and professionalism haven’t got where they are today from being cold towards their fans, nor from not singing a bum note or two. It’s their sincerity that people love. I can’t help but think there is an invisible glass wall between Britney and her fans; a barrier of superficiality that never goes away.

Her support act for her current tour, Ciara, gave a faultless, well rehearsed performance in which she sang all her songs, danced like a superstar and had the courtesy to speak to the audience throughout. Britney exclaimed: “What’s up London, I’m so happy to be here”, after half an hour of being on stage, and then muttered some other muffled, incomprehensible comment towards the end of the night.

I was starting to begrudge paying £50, just to see a public appearance (who knows if it was even her – from where I was sitting it could have even been a Britney stand-in), but I suppose it’s her aloofness that kept my attention. Let’s hope that this aloofness, however, doesn’t override her relationship with her fans or her title of Queen of Pop.