"It's Britney, Bitch" With those three words, the lights went up and out came America's favorite Femme Fatale, Britney Spears.
Last Wednesday night, Spears hit Orlando's Amway Arena with her 2011 "Femme Fatale" tour. Joining her were Australian DJ twins Liv and Mim Nervo, LA dance band Jessie and the Toy Boys, and Miss Nicki Minaj.
The Nervo's set wasn't bad, but I wouldn't call it an arena-level show. Girl Talk and Deadmau5 are worthy of arenas — GT would've had the crowd dancing madly and sweating like it was typical Florida night (90 degrees, 95% humidity) while Deadmau5 would captivate with his visuals to make up for any moments you aren't completely in love with what he's mixing. Two girls looking pretty behind a set of turntables just isn't that exciting, especially not in a huge venue.
Jessie and the Boy Toys fared better. Although the "Boy Toys" in tuxes seemed to be stuck in their own version of Madonna's "Vogue" video, the music and performance was pretty good. But again, another show unworthy of an arena.
Next up: Nicki Minaj.
Remember when Weezy (Lil Wayne) was popping up in nearly every other video on TV? Well, the torch has been passed on to Minaj, and she wasn't about to let the crowd at Amway forget it.
For anyone a little disappointed that her debut, Pink Friday, lacked the fire of her guest appearances on songs by Kanye West, Trey Songz and others (including Britney's "End of the World Remix"), her live set not only drew tracks off Pink Friday, but included pretty much all of the songs she's appeared in, hers or not. It was like a greatest hits album of Minaj done in 45 minutes. Brilliant.
As for Britney ... Over the past several years, we've been obsessed with Miss Spears. Following her around as she goes to clubs and after-hours parties, sans undies, marries an obvious douchebag, takes her kids for a walk or a drive, one on her lap in the drivers' seat, shaves her head in a fit of celebrity rebellion ... With every social mishap, the media swore that her rein as the Queen of Pop was over. They were wrong. Long live the queen!
Her "Femme Fatale" show might not have been her best ever, but it was good enough to get the "I'm dressed as Britney" Amway crowd worked up into a frenzy. They'd all come to see their icon on a weeknight, and judging from the amount of screaming, crying and dancing, none of them left disappointed.
Her show was divided up into various themes, with costume changes to match. That was a bit of a cool and entertaining twist.
I'm a sucker for the songs that Britney performed in her encore — "Toxic" and "Till the World Ends" — but the only real miss of her show and a little bit of a letdown was taht she didn't invite Nicki Minaj back to the stage during "Til the World Ends." I was totally waiting for it..but nothing. Guess Britney didn't want Nicki to steal her thunder...
Setlist & themes:
Femme Fatale (Theme)
Hold It Against Me
Up & Down
3
Piece of Me
Sweet Seduction (Theme)
Big Fat Bass
How I Roll
Lace & Leather
If U Seek Amy
Forest - Act 3 (Theme)
Gimme More
(Drop Dead) Beautiful
Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know
Boys
Code Name: Trouble (Theme)
Baby S&M
Trouble For Me
Slave
I Wanna Go
Womanizer
Sexy Assassin (Theme)/Encore
Toxic
Till The World Ends
