Britney made a not-so-secret appearance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards tonight, ‘performing’ “S&M” with Rihanna for the show’s opening. She later ‘performed’ “Till The World Ends” with Nicki Minaj. It was bad.
“S&M” included some vaguely fierce hair-whipping, weak pillow fighting, and at least one fleeting moment of interest in which Britney popped her booty against a pole for a few seconds. She also attempted to dash offstage before RiRi could turn around to give her a hug, only to awkwardly return to the front when she realized she couldn’t leave the stage yet. It was–in the most optimistic sense–okay, but mostly just because it was great to see two pop princesses sharing the stage.
EDIT: She, in fact, took to the side of the stage to allow Rihanna to take a bow, being the Respectney that she is. Sadly, the world didn’t see that on TV.
“Till The World Ends” began a missed cue to enter in time with the song. She then walked down the runway for approximately 20 seconds, lip-synching poorly and ending with a nervous smile. She looked thoroughly terrified, fragile, and operated without a lick of confidence.
Redeeming moment: She did look beautiful during both performances.
Look: I’m one of the biggest Britney fans in the world, but I’m tired of pretending like these phoned-in performances are worth stanning about. Much like the round of Femme Fatale promotional performances in March, there’s clearly something very wrong: She’s either too medicated, too afraid to hurt herself or simply mentally CHECKED. OUT. Whatever it is, it’s incredibly noticeable to the general public, and there’s nothing in either of these performances that could ever warrant a $300 concert ticket–let alone a $1000 front row seat.
Britney may not be able to perform or dance with the same intensity as she did 10 years ago, but having just seen the 42-year-old pop icon/non-professional dancer Kylie Minogue bust out a killer dance routine during her Aphrodite Tour which completely shat on every performance Britney’s done for Femme Fatale thus far, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that everything’s even slightly fine. It’s not. SORRY.
Oh, and if you’re really going to throw the ‘it was just a surprise cameo’ excuse at me regarding “Till The World Ends”: (1) It was her own song (2) about dancing (3) while she was surrounded by dancers. Just stop it–you look so dumb right now.
I’m now off to watch her performance of “I’m A Slave 4 U” at the 2001 VMA’s–fuck, even from the Circus Tour, and sob myself to sleep now.
The life of a Britney stan…