Fan Fare

Britney Spears lets her music do (most of) the talking on “Glee”

It was the night of the Britneys on “Glee” in the musical comedy’s third affectionate tribute to pop culture divas — although Britney  Spears’ own  much talked-about cameo role turned out to be much smaller than expected.

But “Glee’s” other Britney (played by Heather Morris) turned out to be booty-shaking worthy of her namesake in an episode  that featured five of the pop princess’s biggest hits — and many more of her iconic looks.

For all the faithful recreations of  the original pop videos for “….One More Time” and the snake-writhing wonders of “I’m a Slave For U,”  it was only the stripped-down acoustic version of “Toxic,”  performed by the entire Glee club and actor Matthew Morrison, that took any chances with Spears’ music.  It was also “Toxic”  which resulted in what cheerleader Sue Sylvester termed a “Britney Spears sex riot” in the ranks of McKinley High’s hormone-charged teenagers.

The special episode, which also featured the welcome arrival of John Stamos as the hottest dentist in town, will no doubt fuel a surge in downloads of Britney Spears’ early music.

 But how did it compare to the show’s lavish tributes earlier this year to Madonna and Lady Gaga? And whose music will you be buying tomorrow — the original Spears , or the “Glee” cover versions?

Christina Aguilera’s new album a “Bionic” bust

Maybe Christina Aguilera should have called her new album “Anemic” instead of “Bionic.” The album debuted at No. 3 on the U.S. pop chart Wednesday after selling just 110,000 copies last week, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s a huge drop from her last studio album, “Back to Basics,” a double-disc set that debuted at No. 1 in 2006 with 346,000 units. In 2002, she went to No. 2 after “Stripped” kicked off with 330,470 units. It’s actually her worst start since a Christmas album debuted at No. 38 in early November 2000 with 29,700 units.

But the weak start was not a huge surprise. The new album’s first single, “Not Myself Tonight,” stalled at No. 23 on the Hot 100 singles chart in late April. Last month, she canceled a slow-selling amphitheater tour, claiming she needed more time to rehearse.

Aguilera did work hard to promote the album, lining up a string of major TV appearances last week. She’s pictured at left singing the national anthem during Game 6 of the NBA basketball finals in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The married mom also courted the LGBT community by alleging that she has bisexual tendencies.

While everyone agrees that Aguilera has a great set of pipes, albeit maybe a little undisciplined, maybe she should take a page out of the lip-syncing book of fellow Mouseketeer Britney Spears: Her most recent album, “Circus,” debuted at No. 1 with 505,000 units in December 2008 and yielded two monster singles. Her subsequent world tour was the hottest ticket in town.

A kiss — just a kiss? Or a scandal?

Back in the 1940s and the “Casablanca” era,  a kiss was famously “just a kiss”

Not any more.

It’s been seven years since Britney Spears and Madonna notoriously  locked lips in a live MTV Music Video Awards show. But women kissing women (or just pretending to) is still making front page news, whether it’s Miley Cyrus on a “Britain’s Got Talent” performance last week, or Sandra Bullock at the MTV Movie Awards show this weekend.

(And let’s not even revisit the Adam Lambert male-on-male kiss furor last November)

But while Bullock’s apparently rehearsed smooch with Scarlett Johansson was mostly seen as just good fun, Miley Cyrus’ kiss (that she now protests wasn’t really a kiss although it may have looked like it)  with a female dancer has not gone down so well, especially with fans of the Disney teen star.

Cyrus, 17, has found herself making plenty of headlines in the past few weeks as she tries to carve a new, more grown-up image  since finishing shooting the final series of Disney Channel’s tween hit series “Hannah Montana.”

Goodbye smiley Miley….

She’s been talking for months about carving out an edgier image after years of  the pink and sparkly world she  inhabited as  “Hannah Montana”, but even so the new Miley Cyrus music video must have come came as a bit of a shock — at least to her millions of Disney Channel fans around the world.

E!Online has an exclusive first look at the music video here

With its black leather figure hugging bodices, sexy dance moves,  and in your face lyrics, “Can’t Be Tamed”  sees Cyrus going down the road trod by Britney Spears after her first couple of albums, and more recently by glam sensation Lady GaGa.

Except that Britney was 20 when she broke away from her bubblegum pop persona and started writhing around with snakes in her single  “I’m a Slave 4 U” ,  and Lady Gaga is now 24.

The music video for “Can’t Be Tamed” makes last year’s fuss over a few seconds of Miley dancing on a pole on an ice-cream cart at the Teen Choice Awards seem like child’s play.

And although Miley has wrapped filming for what will be the final series of her alter ego Hannah Montana, Disney Channel doesn’t start airing it until July.

Should Miley, 17, have held off just a bit longer before striking out as her own woman?  Has she gone from one extreme to another?

Taylor Swift wins Grammys, loses music critics

Taylor Swift’s record label has come out in defense of the young pop/country star after her  less-than-stellar performance at the Grammy awards on Sunday had music critics shooting poisoned arrows at her vocal talents.

Swift, 20, took four Grammys on Sunday, including the coveted album of the year for the smash hit “Fearless”, which was also the biggest selling album of 2009. But her haul was somewhat overshadowed by her live Grammy duet with veteran rock singer Stevie Nicks, which The Washington Post called “incredibly wretched” and Ann Powers of The Los Angeles Times described as “tinny and rhythmically flat footed.”

Over to Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of Swift’s record label Big Machine Records in Nashville. “Maybe she’s not the best technical singer, but she is the best emotional singer,” Borchetta told The Tennessean.com. “No one is perfect on any given day. Maybe in that moment, we didn’t have the best night, but in the same breath, maybe we did.”

It’s not the first time that Swift’s vocal prowess has come under fire during the singer-songwriter’s rapid rise to the top and a marketing campaign that has put her just about everywhere in the last six months.  In the past, Swift’s managers have blamed some shaky moments on nerves and the technical constraints of  live performances, while pointing to a string of  sell-out concerts and her undoubted ability to connect with the angst of  young teens going through their first loves.

Veteran country star Naomi Judd also came out for “Team Taylor” , calling her multi-talented and a role model for her generation. “Smarts, manners and class. Why can’t fault-finders see that she is a sorely needed role model? We’re aware of how lyrics and musicians can influence our society. If America ever needed positive role models, it’s now,” Judd said.

But sudden fame also brings the risk of over-exposure.  Swift is now out to conquer new audiences with concerts in Japan and Australia. Australia wasn’t too fond of  Britney Spears and her lip-synching “Circus” concerts last year.

Taylor Swift – “Fearless” or tone-less?

She made history at the Country Music Awards last week, is the biggest selling female artist in the United States this year, and she comes magically to life in December’s edition of InStyle in the first ever 3D magazine cover.

But how good is teen sensation Taylor Swift at actual singing?

Not so great, if the growing amount of chat on the Web is to be believed. The higher her public profile rises, the louder are the whispers that Swift often sings flat in live performances.

Some country music fans were particularly miffed at Swift’s trophy for female vocalist of the year at the CMA awards in Nashville last week, where the 19-year-old also became the youngest artist ever to win the coveted Entertainer of the Year award.

“Flat, off key, and just really bad! Taylor Swift is no Reba, Martina, or Carrie, these are the real vocalists. TS must have some real geniuses in the studio to fix that crap,” wrote one admitted Rebafan on the Great American Country web site.

And country fans are not alone. Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker wrote in a blog that Swift was a “terrific songwriter” but described her voice as “thin, and sometimes as wobbly as a newborn colt.”

With the American Music Awards coming up this weekend, and Swift’s leading six nominations, all eyes will again be on the young star whose rise to fame has been meteoric over the past two years.

Britney Spears lip-synching! What’s new?

Britney Spears? Lip-synching? “Whateverrrr” as the pop princess might put it herself.

Britney has been lip-synching her way through her “comeback” world tour for the past six months, so it’s a bit of a mystery why it’s caused such a fuss in Australia.

As singer John Mayer , who has been in Australia promoting his own album, put it in a wry weekend tweet,  “If you’re shocked that Britney was lip-synching at her concert and want your money back, life may continue to be hard for you.”

Britney’s not the first performer to lip-synch during fast-paced, live song-and-dance performances, and she’s certainly not the last — even classical musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman played to a recording at President Barack Obama’s outdoor inauguration in the bitter January weather.

But the practice seems to be news to some Australian politicians, who are suggesting that tickets should carry a disclaimer about whether parts of concerts are pre-recorded or mimed.

Britney’s fans — in Australia and elsewhere — are coming out in support of their idol, whose slick “Circus” tour went around the United States before going Down Under.

“oh my god Britney i’m so embarrassed by how Australia has treated you since you arrived in our country. You have been nothing but slammed and put down since arriving and it’s pathetic. I’m from Australia and my entire family is beyond inspired by yourself, your music, your life and your morals,” wrote one fan, Katie D, on the official Britney Spears website.

Britney Spears celebrates threesomes in new single

Mommy, what’s a threesome? 

If Britney Spears still has any ‘tween fans left, their parents are about to face yet another uncomfortable question pertaining to the pop idol.

The former Disney Channel starlet has just released a new single, “3,” which may be more appropriate for the Playboy Mansion than the Mouse House.

“Three is a charm, Two is not the same, I don’t see the harm, So are you game?” she playfully asks at one point. You can listen to the song here.

The slick ditty should get the kids out on the dance floors, but there’s even something in there for old folkies, since Spears tosses in a head-scratching reference to “Peter, Paul and Mary.” The song was produced and co-written by Swedish hitmaker Max Martin (“… Baby One More Time”), so it’s possible the 27-year-old singer might consider them three random names.

Equally unwittingly, she now follows in the footsteps of Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, whose ménage à trois with his girlfriend and a teenage heiress inspired the alternative rock band’s 1990 song “Three Days.”

“3″ comes from “Britney Spears: The Singles Collection,” which comes out on Nov. 24, almost five years after her last hits package. (She released just two albums in the interim.)

Britney Spears takes it home “one more time”

Fresh off her announcement that she would tour Australia for the first time ever, Britney Spears on Wednesday revealed that she will also come back to North America for an extension of her  “The Circus” tour.

Spears will play arenas in 20 cities, starting with an Aug. 20 show in Hamilton, Ontario, and ending on Sept. 27 in Las Vegas. In between, Spears and company will touch down in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles, amid other stops.

Before Spears opened her “Circus” tour in March with a show in her native Louisiana, some had questioned whether she was ready for the stress of hitting the road again. The 27-year-old singer is under the conservatorship of her father, Jamie Spears, following a high-profile meltdown in 2007 and early 2008 that included stints in psychiatric care, an ugly divorce, shaving her head and partying without panties.

But the comeback tour seems to be going all right for the pop diva, who is currently performing in Europe. Concert trade publication Pollstar says her elaborate revue is one of the hottest tickets in North America this year with ticket sales of $61 million. The show features 50 dancers, magicians, clowns and acrobats and a production budget of $50 million and it travels in 34 trucks, her Jive Records label said.  

So with the November release of her chart-topping album “Circus” and with her song “Womanizer” scoring the singer her first No. 1 single in almost a decade, Spears seems to have proven that, if nothing else, she can still sell albums and pack music venues.

Does the tour prove that Spears is all the way back? And if you saw one of her shows, what did you think?

Team Britney joins Ashton Kutcher, CNN in Twitter race

Game on. The race to 1 million followers on Twitter has a new player, after singer Britney Spears’ manager made it known she has joined the competition.

For those who have not heard about it, the race started earlier this week when actor Ashton Kutcher challenged cable news channel CNN to a Twitter duel, promising to ring CNN founder Ted Turner’s doorbell if he wins. Not one to shy from attention, CNN broadcaster Larry King put out a video online responding to Kutcher’s challenge. “CNN will bury you,” King vowed, as he also lectured Kutcher that Turner no longer runs CNN.

Then on Wednesday, Spears’ manager posted the following statement on her Twitter page. “Let’s get Brit across the million mark!,” he wrote. It was the equivalent of the United States joining World War I after sitting on the sidelines, because Spears is a Twitter powerhouse with more than 940,000 followers as of Thursday afternoon.

So far, Kutcher’s Twitter page sports more than 966,000 followers while CNN’s breaking news Twitter page has an impressive tally of more than 973,000 followers. 

The race goes on, but it could obscure the fact that even many avid Internet users are hardly fans of Twitter, which allows anyone to update friends and followers on the most minute aspects of their day. But it’s all for a good cause. Kutcher has pledged to donate to the Malaria No More fund if he wins, and CNN has agreed to also donate to the cause if it beats the 31-year-old actor and star of the movie “Dude, Where’s My Car?”