This Day in Pop: 'Circus' music video premieres in 2008 (December 04)

[PokemonSpears]

  

On December 04, 2008, Britney Spears released the Circus music video, the second single to promote her album, also titled Circus. It was originally set to be released on December 05, but it was pushed for an early release. It was directed by Francis Lawrence, who had worked in the past with Britney for her I'm a Slave 4 U video. The Circus video was filmed in the last days of October and early days of November of that year in Los Angeles.

Inspired by the 1930's circuses, the video starts with Britney at a vanity where we see her putting on earrings by Bulgari, as well as her perfume Curious. She puts on a jacket and heads to the stage to perform along with her dancers. Throughout the video we see a variety of scenes, from Britney doing the choreography with her backup dancers, a chair routine during the second verse of the song, we see ribbon dancers, clowns, mimes, contortionists, elephants, lions, fire, etc.

The video received several nominations at the MTV VMA's 2009, but didn't win any of them: Best Art Direction, Best Choreography (Andre Fuentes), Best Cinematography and Best Editing. It was also nominated for Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards of the same year, but lost to Single Ladies. However it won Best Moves at the MTV Australia Awards and Best Video of 2009 in FuseTV.

In an interview Britney said she thought about the concept of the video since she listened to the song for the first time. It was also what ultimately gave the concept for the whole album and tour. Britney said about the video:

Quote

"The concept for the video Circus is basically about, you know, a circus, and putting on a huge show for people and enjoying what you do and loving to, you know, actually do what I do, and uhm, so that's basically what it's about "

 

She also talked about picking Francis Lawrence as the director for the video and the choreographer, Andre.

 

The video got criticized by PETA which issued a statement condemning Britney for using "cruelly trained lions and elephants" and demanding her to "stop using exotic animals in her videos and concerts once and for all" (in reference to her 2001 VMA's performance in which she brought a tiger and albino python onstage).

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"Britney may think her life is a circus, but for the animals who are whipped, chained and beaten to perform under the real big top, the cruelty is very real. She may be headed for a comeback, but when it comes to animals, she still can't get her act together."

They also accused Gari and Kari Johnson, owners of California-based Have Trunk Will Travel, which were the trainers of the elephants that appear on the video, of supporting the use of electric pods to train the animals. Kari told MTV News:

Quote

"My husband, Gary, and I do indeed have a long history with elephants. Our love of and infatuation with elephants started for both of us in our teens, 37 years ago. To say we care about elephant welfare is an understatement. Have Trunk Will Travel has never issued a written endorsement, nor does it condone using electrical devices to discipline and control elephants except in situations where elephant or human safety is at risk. PETA very conveniently used a sentence out of context from a USDA request for public comments regarding policies on elephants in 2000."

"The American Humane Association monitors animal action in film and television. A representative was on the set of the Britney Spears 'Circus' video with our elephants, Tai and Kitty, to ensure their safety and welfare. Britney, the director, producers and the entire crew were respectful of the elephants' needs and comfort and a pleasure to work with."

There's a Making the Video clip where we can see some comments of Francis Lawrence and Andre Fuentes about the video, and we also get to see different shots, and we even get to see Britney in an outfit holding an umbrella that didn't make the final cut.

 

In the MTV documentary Britney: For the Record, we also get to see more about the behind the scenes of the video, where we also learn that they had technical problems with the wall of fireworks used for some of the solo shots of Britney.

 

The video was uploaded to her YouTube VEVO channel in 2009, where it reached 100M views in 2014. It currently has over 214M views.

 

 

 

 

[Alieniated3]

First comment 

One of her best videos. Love the aesthetic and she looked great. 

[DiamondCircus]

This is a great video.

[Seel]

The most underrated music video. 

[PokemonSpears]

15 hours ago, Seel said:

The most underrated music video. 

[mhally]

I mean, I have always thought this music video was fire. It’s just so visually pleasing. It’s one of my top favorite MV’s of Britney 

[rennen2.0]

This is one of my favourite music videos despite the song being one of my least favourite singles. As @mhally said, it is so visually pleasing. It’s really well put together. 
And every time I watch it I think of Andre saying he saw the fire in her eyes again.  

[mhally]

24 minutes ago, rennen2.0 said:

This is one of my favourite music videos despite the song being one of my least favourite singles. As @mhally said, it is so visually pleasing. It’s really well put together. 
And every time I watch it I think of Andre saying he saw the fire in her eyes again.  

There’s that MTV doc that Team Con tried to wipe from the internet that contains behind the scenes footages from this music video. Makes me think of that…