This Day in Pop: 'If U Seek Amy' music video premieres in 2009 (March 12)

[PokemonSpears]

On March 12, 2009, Britney Spears released the If U Seek Amy video, the third one to promote her Circus album. It was filmed in February and was directed by Jake Nava, who had already worked with her in 2004 for the My Prerogative music video.

The video starts with a parody of news anchor Megyn Kelly, who criticized the double meaning in the lyrics of the song when it was first sent to radio in January, after being chosen as the next single by the fans on an online poll.

 

Megyn Kelly seemed to be thrilled about the homage

 

In 2018, Kristina Mitchell, the actress that played the reporter, talked to Yahoo about her experience on the IUSA video.

Quote

“I hadn’t heard about Megyn Kelly having called Britney Spears out on the song prior to going into the audition,” Mitchell told us. “Actually, I hadn’t heard of Megyn Kelly at all because I was living in London at the time. I had never seen her show, and had to Google her and watch clips on YouTube to garner a sense of her style.” She added, “I’m also more of a [Rachel] Maddow girl myself.”

“I hadn’t fully realized that it was for an actual Britney Spears video. I thought perhaps it was a little parody for some comedy thing,” Mitchell said. “And after we wrapped, I asked the director if he would send me a copy for my reel. He looked at me and said, ‘15 Million people will be seeing your face next week.’ That’s the moment I found out it was legit.”

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“A lot of friends from the U.S. texted and said things like, ‘Did I just see your face when I was on the treadmill at the gym?’ I still get texts from friends sometimes when there is a Britney night at a bar somewhere. A friend of mine who does drag asked if I would come reprise my role live in his Britney drag night in West Hollywood. I also was visiting New York shortly after the shoot, and Megyn Kelly had me on her show and interviewed me.”

After the jab at Fox News, we skip to Britney waking up from what seems to have been a super fun slumber party She's wearing a corset and black, wet-look leggins (which could be replicated, according to her stylist for the shoot David Thomas, by getting them at American Apparel and "just fold them in half and then you put slits in it, but you don't slit it where your knees are") as well as a pair of red Louboutin shoes, that weren't on sale to the public until a month later.

After a dance sequence in the living room accompanied by her cheerleader dancers, Britney puts on a more conservative outfit, reminiscent of a 50's housewife, a short blond wig, and grabs a baked apple pie as she prepares to exit the house, where she's joined by her husband and two children (including a little girl dressed up in the schoolgirl outfit from ...Baby One More Time)  to greet the media that's waiting for her outside. She blows a kiss to the camera and then we see the news reporter again finishing with the classic tagline "doesn't make any sense, does it?"

MTV news described it as an amalgamation of all the different moments from her career up to that point, from the BOMT reference, the ***iness of Toxic and Womanizer, the shot style from Everytime, the panties reference from Piece of Me. We could also add that the news anchor, though it was clearly a parody of Megyn Kelly's recent statements, is also reminiscent of the Overprotected (Darkchild Remix) video intro.

 

The video hit 100M views on her official YouTube channel on May 2020 and it was upgraded to "HD" just one day before its anniversary. The video reached #7 on the 2009's yearly Top 100 aired by MTV Latin America.

 

Related:

 

[CHAOTIC STYLE.]

I love the messiness behind this music video. Britney should do messy things more often regarding her music and videos! 

Also, look at those bloody shoes! 

[Seel]

My best MV of Britney. 

[DollyParton]

12 freaking years already?

 

I realized i have had my beauty peak. Today at 29 years old I disovered new wrinkles in my face that I have never noticed before.  From now on it will go down hill.

[Blackout2006]

Kudos to the news host not taking it sensitively and making a big deal of it 

[MSTAR]

Lmao the old 480p version had way more details than the new HD remaster 

We can see the old TV’s scan lines effect on the old 480p:

And on the new, they blurred the video until details disappeared, as well for the old TVs scan lines effect in the HD remaster:

 

[Arianna]

Ugh such perfection. I did a presentation on this video in college analyzing all of the gender roles/ hidden meanings, etc. 

[J in the Mix]

20 minutes ago, Arianna said:

Ugh such perfection. I did a presentation on this video in college analyzing all of the gender roles/ hidden meanings, etc. 

Would be interested to read that!!!

Honestly this video always confused me lol.... 'doesn't make any sense, does it?'

[CindyTheTVisLeaking]

I was 19 years old 

struggling with my engineering classes 

when this masterpiece came out  

 

[Arianna]

1 hour ago, J in the Mix said:

Would be interested to read that!!!

Honestly this video always confused me lol.... 'doesn't make any sense, does it?'

I wish I still had it! I showed the class the video and then spoke about it, mostly.

[reVolution]

Those shoes are iconic!!! 

[PokemonSpears]

3 hours ago, Arianna said:

I wish I still had it! I showed the class the video and then spoke about it, mostly.

that must've been so cool

[PokemonSpears]

[honeycutie]

On 3/12/2021 at 11:13 AM, MSTAR said:

Lmao the old 480p version had way more details than the new HD remaster 

We can see the old TV’s scan lines effect on the old 480p:

And on the new, they blurred the video until details disappeared, as well for the old TVs scan lines effect in the HD remaster:

 

I found a folder on Mega of proper HD remasters  because the ones on her official YouTube channel are really blurry and glitchy and we deserve to see them correctly 

https://mega.nz/folder/xIpimBLL#wu2MIeIHU-J4pubs2sAodA (Overprotected Darkchild remix is pixelly though)

And also I don’t actually understand what’s what’s going on in If you seek Amy MV (Maybe I’m too innocent )