TBT: Britney Learns She Can Sing, "Boring Pop Scene"

[IconicShow]

Britney's interview with People magazine she'd light on a song she recorded called "Try"

These days her audience tends to be small—just one wriggly fan—the venue intimate and the singing unplugged. “I’ll sing him “Mary Had a Little Lamb,'” Spears says of crooning to her 5-month-old son Sean Preston. “And I make up stuff.” She pauses and considers for a moment. “I found out after the baby,” she says earnestly, “that I can sing!”

And then there’s her music. The same exhausted star who told PEOPLE three months before giving birth that “the pace I was going at was ridiculous” can’t wait to get back to doing what she loves. “This may sound weird, but I miss traveling,” she says. “I miss the road, seeing different places and being with the dancers and having fun. That feeling of being on the stage, knowing it’s your best—I love that. I needed a break. I needed to be hungry again.”

“She’s a true competitor in the very best sense of the word,” says Barry Weiss, president and CEO of Zomba Label Group, of which Spears’s label, Jive Records, is a part. “I think she knows that she’s got a big, big place in the market she wants to reclaim. She says, “I belong out there. I can do these things.'” Spears is more pointed in her critique of the musical landscape. “It’s a huge lull,” she says. “I haven’t seen anybody out there who has had a performance where I’m like, “That’s f——’ awesome.’ It’s been boring. Nothing’s been wow to me.”

Aiming for a release later this year, she has been recording in her home studio, experimenting with live musicians and stripping down her sound. “I’ll get on the pian-ah,” she says in her Louisiana twang, more pronounced in person than it is in her public appearances, “and just play whatever feels good.” Hearing herself sing to Sean Preston has proved a turning point. “When I was little, I would listen to myself,” she says. “But the record label signs you, and you’re just thankful to get a hit song. You can’t really show off your voice and where you came from.”

Which brings her back to Louisiana. Growing up, “I used to listen to blues music and all that stuff,” she says. “I would like to try to have more influences of that sound. Not that I’m going to be like frickin’ Tina Turner. But you never know.”

Eager as she is to return to performing, she is not yet the Britney who could famously match her backup dancers move for move. Although she is rapidly returning to her pre-baby body thanks to “a combination of cardio, weights, yoga and Pilates and long walks with the baby,” she is still troubled by the 2004 knee injury she sustained while shooting her “Outrageous” video. “It’s fine if I go in the gym and start dancing, but when I really start challenging myself, it starts snapping,” she says. “I just have a feeling if I really go for it, it’s not going to happen.”

 

http://people.com/archive/cover-story-the-2-sides-of-britney-vol-65-no-8/

Kind of sad how she seemed in such a great space and was doing a different album, confident in her voice as a singer. Wanting to go back to her roots and show off her voice more, all the while scared to challenge herself with dance. Britney said she tries to go there and her knee snaps and shes scared of that.

Britney was ready to shake up the Pop World and reclaim her throne.

 

[drinkinaloneinmypartydress]

This breaks my heart. 

Thanks for the share though. I've never read this interview.

[somuchbetter]

16 minutes ago, IconicShow said:

“It’s fine if I go in the gym and start dancing, but when I really start challenging myself, it starts snapping,” she says. “I just have a feeling if I really go for it, it’s not going to happen.”

This is basically a must-read for every Britney fan that posts on Exhale complaining about choreography, etc.,

[IconicShow]

Just now, somuchbetter said:

This is basically a must-read for every Britney fan that posts on Exhale complaining about choreography, etc.,

Mte

4 minutes ago, Breathe_On_Me said:

This breaks my heart. 

Thanks for the share though. I've never read this interview.

You're welcome

[naturalplayboy]

She sounded like such a confident pop star and that's something I miss sometimes.

i love that Britney is so humble and has stepped to the side but I just wish she had the confidence in her abilities. Like yas ***** show us how it's done. Like when she says it's been boring I wish she was in the headspace to want to wow us.

[Urbanney]

t4p. I really miss her being so passionate and competitive within her career. Seems like just a fun part-time hobby to her now. 

[MM]

47 minutes ago, IconicShow said:

Eager as she is to return to performing, she is not yet the Britney who could famously match her backup dancers move for move. Although she is rapidly returning to her pre-baby body thanks to “a combination of cardio, weights, yoga and Pilates and long walks with the baby,” she is still troubled by the 2004 knee injury she sustained while shooting her “Outrageous” video. “It’s fine if I go in the gym and start dancing, but when I really start challenging myself, it starts snapping,” she says. “I just have a feeling if I really go for it, it’s not going to happen.”

 

[William7]

tragic, i ******* hate 2007 but i'm so happy she is alive now and better than ever

[5HINee]

Wow she was so honest and herself in that interview. I'm impressed. She should be more like this now.

Thanks for sharing

[i.love.trouble]

I mean a combo of this + the divorce probably caused the downward spiral/existential crisis? Like i just think her priorities shifted and she realized that the high from being number 1 was more of a quick fix to her actual problems. I know we all think it's sad that she wanted to "reclaim her throne" and didn't but in reality, it's actually a great sign that we have a britney that doesn't need that validation from the same society that tore her down. y'know?

[Rob]

13 minutes ago, GrotesqueDiva said:

Great interview. I had no idea about it.

 

[jennyj]

Quote

 “It’s a huge lull,” she says. “I haven’t seen anybody out there who has had a performance where I’m like, “That’s f——’ awesome.’ It’s been boring. Nothing’s been wow to me.”

Basically describes today's music scene lol... those basics. 

But a few key things to take away from that interview that apply to today:

1.  She misses travelling and touring... by being 'comfortable' in Las Vegas for too long, she won't get that growth she seeks... especially in front of an intoxicated crowd that won't give her the true energy she needs that a real worldly crowd would give her.

2.  She wants to explore in more genres and showcase her voice more... but her label won't let her.  It's obvious she does sing live most of the time, but her team/label keeps the off.

3.  She hides her true Southern self... we all know she has that **** (and hilarious) Southern twang, but in interviews she often puts more of plain American English accent.  It sounds like she can't truly be herself.  But that's kind of expected.

[f_rhythm]

a song called TRY 

where is this song now 

[Noname2022]

35 minutes ago, f_rhythm said:

a song called TRY 

where is this song now 

Belongs to kween Nelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know this is not the same song

[jokobish]

**** her label

[fatal.attraction]

2 hours ago, brintyjoan said:

Belongs to kween Nelly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know this is not the same song

 

**** i miss nelly so much

where the **** is she?

[Noname2022]

37 minutes ago, fatal.attraction said:

**** i miss nelly so much

where the **** is she?

She is coming with ha new indie album 'The Ride' march 31 and released some songs already

[The Greatest Show]

9 hours ago, somuchbetter said:

This is basically a must-read for every Britney fan that posts on Exhale complaining about choreography, etc.,

this interview is 10 years old. If her knee was still bothering her she wouldnt do a million squats as choreo or do as many pirouettes (thats what she injured her knee on) of course her knee was still hurting back then. It happened a short time ago. Stuff like that can take years to heal properly.

[zxcvb]

Cyndi Lauper on Britney Spears' singing:  "But Christina was a different kind of performer than Britney-and although everybody says Britney can't sing, it's bullshit.  She can sing-she just can't sing like she does on the record, because no one can, really.  Those Swedish producers she worked with made her stop at every word.  That's why her voice sounds like that-so controlled.  I would have killed those producers.  They would have been dead."- Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir

The truth is, though, that if her voice wasn't altered like that I doubt she would ever have become as big as she did because of its distinctiveness.  It also feeds into the theory that a lot of Spears' music wasn't really created or even meant to be sung live.

33 minutes ago, The Greatest Show said:

this interview is 10 years old. If her knee was still bothering her she wouldnt do a million squats as choreo or do as many pirouettes (thats what she injured her knee on) of course her knee was still hurting back then. It happened a short time ago. Stuff like that can take years to heal properly.

There is probably also the matter of confidence as she as hardly looked confident on stage since 2007.

[div]

 

 

Im emotional on this because of the interview and because someone posted that nelly furtado song thats so good and i didnt remembered it,.