MUSIC
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BRITNEY SPEARS The pop icon’s Vegas spectacular arrives in the UK
Britney Spears is the quintessential 90s pop icon. There would be no Miley Cyrus, no Selena Gomez, and no Katy Perry without Britney. The former Mouseketeer rejuvenated the idea of solo pop stars through the release of ‘ . . . Baby One More Time’ in 1998, an era when boy bands and girl groups competed for the hearts and minds of tweenage fans.
Britney has shifted almost 150m albums across her career, jam-packed with hits of the calibre of ‘(You Drive Me) Crazy’, ‘Oops! . . . I Did It Again’, ‘Toxic’ and ‘Womanizer’. The real trick was that Britney took the music seriously with well composed, tight pop nuggets which became instant earworms burrowing their way into popular culture. Of course, the highs were followed by the inevitable lows: the short-lived
movie career, reality TV series, marriages, divorces, public breakdown and infamous head shaving.
However, Brit was a i ghter and came back with new music and the masterstroke of a Las Vegas residency featuring killer tunes and great choreography. A full- on spectacular selling nearly 1m tickets across 250 performances over four years, with everyone from Beyoncé and Jay Z to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry spotted in the audience. And now the award-winning Vegas showcase, Britney: Piece of Me, is on tour for the i rst and last time. A chance to experience a moment of pop history. (Henry Northmore) ■ SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Wed 22 Aug.
1 Jun–31 Aug 2018 THE LIST 93