Hey Britney: My first and last Britney Spears concert

Nothing much has been happening to me in the past 3 weeks. Well, its mostly days and nights of staying at home, attending to the writing job and eating out with Dodong and friends (as this probably is the most exciting thing that happens in Dubai). But last Friday, I was in for a treat. A friend shared her blessings of free tickets to the Britney Spears concert for the 2011 Yas Island, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Yay!

So we all trooped to Yas Island in Abu Dhabi (a good 45 to 1-hour drive from Dubai) to catch one of our favorite nostalgic (she was part of our teenage years!) artists…

Because we were all so damn excited to see Britney set the stage on fire with her famous dance moves (oh, nevermind her voice since she wasn’t quite the singer anyway), we pumped ourselves up by listening to Britney Spears songs the day before the concert. With extra enthusiasm, I even shared some of the medleys on my Facebook account. Hehehe! I, the newbie Dubai-nite that I am, was extra excited since it would be my first time to visit Yas Island.

We got the to concert grounds quite early, around 730PM, before the crazy concert goers started filling up the entire venue.

Back in the Philippines, foreign artist concerts had front acts, which are usually local artists and / or bands. But here in the UAE, apparently, DJs are the front acts. It wasn’t bad, I found myself pumping my fists in the air a couple of times. But I do miss the warm bodies on the stage to get the crowd going.

The front act lasted for two hours and then Britney made us wait for another 30-minutes before she graced us with her presence…

Then the crowd started counting down the seconds. Cameras, phones and other video devices rose up above the crowds to record this momentous occasion.

I was so giddy that I couldn’t contain my energy (must have been the pre-concert caffeine fix kicking in) I wanted to jump and dance the night away to the tune of Britney’s songs.

But then, the sad thing about the entire show…Britney wasn’t just into it anymore. She lipsynched almost all songs (except one), so the least she could do was give us those rockin’ dance moves. Unfortunately, it was a bad night for Britney that she couldn’t even spice up such simple dance steps.

Her back-up dancers and spectacular production definitely stole the show…which wasn’t enough. We all came for Britney and she just wasn’t there. I mean, she was physically there, but her spirit wasn’t. BUMMER.

This will definitely be my first AND last Britney Spears concert. If she performs like this every single time, believe me, it is not worth your time and money.

Good thing that 1) my ticket was free and 2) great company, trumps a sucky concert performance (at least I am making significant progress on the making friends front). Hope that you put on your A-Game next time Britney.

 

Love the distance,

Inday I. Nagintay