Showing posts with label Britney Spears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Britney Spears. Show all posts
There was a time when Joe Jonas was rumored to be an opener for Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale Tour. Well, it seems that rumor turned out to be true — for one date, at least. Jonas tweeted Friday (July 29) that he's opening for Spears at her August 5 stop in New Jersey.
"This just in ... I will be performing at the @BritneySpears concert in NJ on Aug 5," the Jersey native wrote. Just last week, it was announced that DJ Pauly D will also appear on several dates of the tour, which also features Nicki Minaj, Nervo and Jessie and the Toy Boys.
Jonas also shared in the same tweet that the release date for his forthcoming debut album has been delayed. He added, "And get ready for #FastLife in stores Oct. 11."
Fast Life was originally slated to hit stores September 6, but fans will have to wait an additional few weeks to hear what the middle Jonas Brother has up his sleeve on the long-simmering solo project.
Jonas was recently spotted in Paris shooting the music video for the album's second single, "Just In Love With You." He was seen getting cozy with a model at various locations in the City of Lights. The song is a follow-up to his single "See No More," written by Chris Brown.
While fans might have to wait a little longer to hear what Jonas has been working so hard on, he has made it clear that this album is all about them. "I was really excited," he told MTV News about hearing fans' comments about his first solo song. "I love the world we live in where you can know what people are thinking right away."
At Quicken Loans arena Tuesday night, Britney Spears drove into the center of the stage perched atop the windshield of a pink convertible Mini Cooper with a stripper pole erected in its back seat. Attached to that pole was a guy she'd pulled from the audience named Greg, a daddy-ish type in a blue polo shirt. His hands tied behind his back, he had to sit still while Brit wrapped her fishnet-clad thighs around his neck. I got nine lives like a kitty cat." That lyric, from "How I Roll," a nonsensical yet sizzling new single, is hardly hyperbole.
Once written off as the punch line to jokes about washed up superstars, Brit is back - washboard abs and all. The K-Fed loving, paparazzi-whacking, head-shaving antics of years ago are ancient history. With "Femme Fatale," her new No. 1 album, two Video Music Award nominations and a kinetic summer tour, the 29-year-old mother of two is thumbing her darling, turned-up nose at all the haters out there and dancing her toned bum off. They wore naughty Catholic school girl plaid mini skirts and white button-down shirts knotted just under the bosom, hot pants and stilettos. There were more tanned thighs and exposed navels on display than spring break in Cancun.
The Femme Fatale Tour was a decidedly estrogen-heavy affair with opening acts Nervo - twin Aussie DJs who also model on the side, one with pink hair gelled into a "Heat Meiser" do - and Jessie and the Toy Boys, a Britney look-alike flanked by leaping dudes in fluffy mohawks. But the intergalactic girl power passion play put on by Nicki Minaj turned the arena into a full-out rave. Minaj, in a platinum wig and black body suit festooned with glittery pipe cleaner shooting from her pelvis and shoulders gyrated and sweated as she battled a faux foe in black fright wig and what appeared to be the rubber mask worn by the villain Jigsaw in all those "Saw" movies. As Britney cycled through hits new and old - a Geisha version of "Toxic," "Womanizer," "Slave 4 U" - she seemed more like the girl that first burst onto the scene with "Baby One More Time." Repeating "I love you, Cleveland" and waving coquettishly, she was happy, flirty and fun, not what some critics called "the robot Brit" of last tour, just going through the slick, choreographed motions with little heart. She returned to the stage to take her bows, laughing like a little girl, "glitterfetti" raining down.
There was a lot going on during Britney Spears' almost sold-out show at the United Center on Friday night. From pyrotechnics to dancers and Cirque De Soleil-style acrobatics, to myriad sexy costume changes and trapdoors and a stage that moved up, down and around. But all of the dazzling distractions couldn't disguise Spears' near-robotic performance.
It wasn't just the lack of actual singing, that was pretty much a given at a Spears' show. She wasn't necessarily inanimate, either. There were constant choreographed numbers. She walked a catwalk. She rode a giant guitar while covering Madonna's "Burning Up." She rode an actual car. She rose from the stage on a swing during "Piece of Me." But with each step and each hair-whipping/hip-thrusting cue, her execution felt increasingly dispassionate. She was just going through the motions.
It was in stark contrast to opener Nicki Minaj. While Minaj appeared over reliant on backing tracks versus live singing as well, the energy Minaj exuded set them chasms apart. From the one-two out-of-the-gate punch of "Roman's Revenge" and "Did It On'em," Minaj owned the stage. The high-octane atmosphere pumped through her 45-minute set, which included her Kanye West collaboration, "Monster." And "Check it Out," with its fun "Video Killed the Radio Star" sample, featured Will.i.am on a video screen singing his parts.
Spears' set focused on recent album, "Femme Fatale," and the overly auto-tuned material furthered the already-synthetic vibe that ensued. First, there was the show's narrative, told via video clips that were littered throughout Spears' set. In it she was a femme fatale on the lam, and there was a bad guy whom she defeats. That device was seemingly meant to pull the action onstage together, giving a reason for Spears to run from dancing police, be locked up to gyrate behind bars during "Up N' Down," and in the end, rise from the stage wearing wings during encore "Till the World Ends." Where the dancing ninjas and motorcycles fit into the clip's storyline was anybody's guess, but what it mostly did was kill the show's pacing.
There was also the matter of Spears' dancing, which has always been a strong part of her repertoire. But on Friday, it was forced. It was especially apparent during "Gimme More." Despite the defiant "It's Britney, Bitch" declaration, Spears looked bored, as if the stairs she scaled for the choreography were too much to tolerate.
While the overall mechanical feel prevailed, some life came through during the Asian-themed "Toxic," which was sped up and had a more driving beat. Spears seemed like she might finally be enjoying herself. Or perhaps it was relief; by then there was only one song left before a confetti drop signaled it was over.
