Amid wobbly stage furniture, skimpy sequined outfits and lots of body-shaking, American pop megastar Britney Spears wowed ecstatic fans with an energetic performance on Sept. 27 at Sport Palace in Kyiv.
At Britney’s first show in Ukraine, everything was big – her hair, her props, the ticket prices and, yes, her thighs.
This has been one of the most charming things about Britney during her 12-year career (she’s now 29) – her willingness to squeeze into unreasonably tight outfits and shake her thing, regardless of her body shape.
Singing live, and pretty well, Britney took the audience through her classic hits, with a few new ones thrown in. Her breakthrough song “… Baby One More Time” was one of the best received of the evening, only outdone by her latest hit, the thumping “Till The World Ends.”
The set began with Britney grinding in a jail cell with her cruel captor mocking her. Perhaps she’s been reading the local news.
But no. There was no negativity here, just pure pop beaming from the relentlessly positive singer.
“Thank you, Kyiv!” she yelled time and again in her teenage squeak. Fans responded with loud cheers.
We saw Britney on a huge swing, Britney on a motorbike, Britney in a sari. What on earth did it all mean? Who cares?
Sport Palace was a far from ideal venue, as the sound from the speakers dissipated by the time it reached the back of the hall. It was a not a full house, as people were put off, no doubt, by mega ticket prices to match her mega status.
Yes, it was tacky. No, the singing wasn’t perfect.
But Britney showed Ukraine’s mostly dreadful pop “singers” that you don’t need the voice of an angel to please an audience.
If you can sing some catchy tunes live and in a half-decent voice with a bit of personality, that’s enough to keep fans wanting more, even more than a decade later.
