This Day in Pop: 'Piece of Me' video premieres in 2007 (December 14)

[PokemonSpears]

On December 14, 2007, Britney Spears released the Piece of Me music video to promote the second single off her album Blackout. It was directed by Wayne Isham, who had worked with her in the past for her I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman video. In an interview for MTV, Wayne talked about the concept of the video:

Quote

"On 'Piece of Me,' I really just wanted to put the mirror back onto the whole experience. You can see that she had that kind of confidence. And, literally, every take became a more and more confident take, so that she could have fun with what was going on. Not being over-the-top sarcastic, but ... having a laugh at everything that was going on around her, with confidence."

"The very last dance of the piece, she had her hair up, and I go, 'Can you just do one for me with your hair down?' She dropped her hair down. You'll see we intercut with her hair up and her hair down. That was the last piece. She just rocked it from her heart. She choreographed that last dance at the very end. She did that on her own and said, 'Let's go for it.' "

He also talked about the fact that Britney arrived 12 hours late to the shooting:

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"She was late. People made a big thing about it, [but] how could she not be late, when you have 50, 65, 75 people running down the street chasing her car? That was a long day for the crew. It was literally a 20-hour day for the crew. She was there for the last six hours of it. She got there late, showed up and just kicked ***."

"When she goes for it, she goes for it. You know, it's about the story line, it's about her dance, it's about her appearance. I just love that she's one of the few that are still left that step up to what music videos are about."

In 2008, Piece of Me was nominated at the VMA's for Best Pop Video, Best Female Video, and the most important award of the night, Video of the Year, winning all three of them. This marked the first time Britney won a moonman ever.

Britney talked about it in a radio interview saying: "It's a cool video, but I think by far I've done videos that are way better, so I was really shocked that it got [Video of the Year]. It was just inspiring, though, because now, going forward with the videos that I'm doing now, I can really go there and do something crazy and see what happens".

 

By 2008, the website About.com revealed that Piece of Me was the 12th most watched video of all time with 47 million views (times sure have changed since lol ). Originally uploaded to Jive Records channel, it was later removed and submitted to her VEVO channel in 2009, where it reached 100M views on December 13, 2017.

There's an International version of the video, which the only difference it has it's extra footage of Britney wearing a short blonde bob wig at the beginning of the video. In MTV Latin America, it landed at #39 on the Top 100 videos of 2008.

 

 

[Gioney]

♥️♥️♥️ blackout ♥️♥️♥️

What an era! 

Nowadays popstars could never. 

No promotion, no social media, and still on top. 

There's only one *****, the real one. 

BRITNEY SPEARS

[PokemonSpears]

Where are all the other Blackout lovers?  I struggled so much finding screenshots where she looked decent only for y'all to pay the thread dust  Literally my least favorite video

I knew y'all were just trolling when you said it was your favorite video

[CindyTheTVisLeaking]

i lost my virginity that day 

thank you,  Queen B 

[Dexwhitespears]

[Manse]

Still slaps more than any other song on radio today! One of my favorite songs. 

[rennen]

My least favourite video with purchased VMAs to boot. Even Britney herself said she had more deserving videos. 

[Thelegendarybritney]

still one of my favorite singles/music videos 

I also own the physical version of this single

[Tear the floor up up]

I remember this song having a insane amount of YouTube views for its time in ‘08; it was also what made me a stan (after previously being a causal fan) when it came up on suggestions for me 

 

She also killed it on the Circus tour

 

[MrPieceOfMe]

My fave Britney song 

[MrPieceOfMe]

1 hour ago, Tear the floor up up said:

I remember this song having a insane amount of YouTube views for its time in ‘08; it was also what made me a stan (after previously being a causal fan) when it came up on suggestions for me 

 

She also killed it on the Circus tour

 

The performance on the Circus tour was so good omg  

[MrPieceOfMe]

2 hours ago, PokemonSpears said:

Where are all the other Blackout lovers?  I struggled so much finding screenshots where she looked decent only for y'all to pay the thread dust  Literally my least favorite video

I knew y'all were just trolling when you said it was your favorite video

Least favourite video?! Did you watch the ‘Make Me’ MV? 

[Urbanney]

Iconic video. That bathroom breakdown dance is still so good.

I remember voting for this repeatedly on VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown

[descg]

Not bad but not good, the dancers are very lost with the choreography because its done it in the moment and u can see the girl in the right like " i can't" xd in one moment of the video, and another doing a flip in the wrong moment.

And the actitud of Britney its not the best, Do Somethin its similiar video and its better. 

I prefer the International Version.

[PieceofBritney]

This video marks the best time of my life as a Britney fan. It was so much fun and exciting. This video and the time Radar leaked. I remember constantly listening to this song, I was obsessed. 

[davidspears]

12 hours late? 

I'd have been so annoyed. 

[Alio]

what can I say ? Best album, awesome track, tragic times for her and for us, exciting as well cuz everyday was a rollercoaster, the video itself is outrageously bad compared to the song and who's singing but oh well.

I've always thought it would have been iconic if she had the pink wig instead of the blond one and all the girls had the pink wig cuz that's an iconic element of her persona that never made it to an offical video or even photoshoot. it's a missed opportunity. 

Now that I think about it, I have  a video of her in the cage at The Circus show, I was front row, her face screamed PASSION, she was on fire 

[MissSpearsSaysSo]

Does anyone remember Jen the video count was reset on YouTube? The only had over 80 million views but early 2008, and then all of a sudden it was set back to zero. I don’t think there was ever any explanation. Exhale was so upset. 

[2K16NEY]

I remember being pleasantly surprised when I watched it for the first time. I really thought it would be a hot mess like Gimme More. 

Didn't deserve the VMA. MTV was wrong for snubbing her most iconic videos and then giving her a pity trophy for POM after her disastrous 2007 performance. 

The song itself is definitely iconic and a time capsule. 

[Martini]

if i could have a piece of her i would have her coochie