14 DAY TRIAL // Fans know that Britney Spears is anything but a live performer. Most of her appeal in concerts is to be found in the fact that there is little or close to nothing she wouldn’t do in order to give her fans the best experience money can buy. However, her mic is almost never turned on, since singing live and doing the dance routines she does would be impossible. Saturday was an exception.
Britney Spears, the Pop Princess for whom jokes on lip-synching have been specifically made and then circulated, did the unthinkable at her Saturday gig in Greensboro, NC, and actually took a mic that worked and sang live. Her track of choice was Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” and, while the videos now available on the Internet lack in quality and do not allow for a proper listening of her performance, suffice it to say that fans are happy.
In the end, this is probably all that matters, the fans. As far as they’re concerned, from what anyone can make from the many comments on the websites where the video of Britney’s live bit has been uploaded, they’re ecstatic at what Britney has done. This way, she has proven critics that she’s no worse than other female performers of the day, in the sense that she’s shown them she too can carry a tune. Secondly, she has squashed reports that she rarely sings live because she doesn’t have even a decent singing voice, and that this is rather more related to the fact that the strain on her would be too big.
Understandably, not everybody feels the same. A quick look over the comments section on YouTube shows that critics are just as bitter as fans are enthusiastic. Spears still can’t carry a tune and is more yelling than singing, and she still doesn’t deserve to be called a “singer.” What Spears is, detractors say, is a “performer,” and the difference between her and one of her backup dancers is only that she also lends her voice for the albums, voice that is later altered in the studio to sound good.
They say to each his own. See the video of Britney Spears’ performance below and judge for yourselves whether she managed to pull a decent one or only further embarrassed herself.