This Day in Pop: 'Slumber Party' music video premieres in 2016 (November 18)

[PokemonSpears]

 On November 18, 2016, Britney Spears released the Slumber Party video featuring Tinashe, two days after the new version of the track was released on digital platforms. The music video was directed by Colin Tilley, a relatively new director that had already worked with people like Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj.

The video was shot in October, and both Britney and Tinashe posted about it on social media. Various pictures from on set were shared, revealing the collaboration which wasn't originally on the album's tracklist.

 

In an interview for Extra with Mario Lopez, she talked about the video saying: "[...] we just did the video and it's kinda like a younger "Eyes Wide Shut" theme. So it's kind of a little risky, it's very ****, it's very moody, and it's, um, fun! It's fun, yeah."

 

 

When asked about Tinashe on an interview for MTV, Britney said: “Tinashe is so sweet. I just always see my fans talking about her online, and it just made so much sense to collaborate on this song. She was amazing, and would love to find another way to work together in the future!”

On this videoshoot was where Britney Spears met actor Sam Asghari, who played the love interest in the video, and who would later become her boyfriend (and now husband). According to Sam, he didn't have to audition, instead, he got hand-picked by Britney after someone that was working on the production who was close to him, sent his pictures to the casting director. He had already appeared on Fifth Harmony's Work from Home video earlier that year.

 

The music video premiered on her YouTube channel. Originally, fans were happy because the video used a different track than that from the digital platforms. The version of the video didn't have Britney's high pitched vocals at the end of the song. However, the audio was later replaced to match the one from iTunes, Spotify, etc. but the original version can still be found in some websites.

The music video was well received by fans and critics alike, comparing it to her 2002 Boys video. For a while it was trending on YouTube, even above Shakira's Chantaje which premiered the same day, but eventually lost momentum. It wasn't until May 2022, that the video finally reached 100M views.

 

 

Slumber Party is Britney's last video to be released under her conservatorship, and to this day, is her latest overall (without counting Hold Me Closer videos where she doesn't appear); ever since its premiere, this has been the longest period of time without a new Britney video in her entire career (6 years and counting). Previously the longest gap between videos had been Someday (I Will Understand) - Gimme More, but Slumber Party already surpassed that record in 2019 .