Britney
in the UK
Last updated 18th October 1999
Due to my job, it has not been possible to keep up with Britney's UK TV appearances.
Lukewarm news from britney.com...
This, apparently, is the American album cover. I wonder why the UK one is different...
Britney Spears is a talented young singer (announced in one magazine rather disparagingly
as "the teen singing sensation" - sounds like how you might describe your
budgie).
Seventeen years old and from Kentwood, Louisiana; Britney has made music history in the UK. Her
current single "Baby One More Time" was expected to enter the UK charts quite high. On
the independent (PEPSI) chart, it did - debuting at number one!
Then it made history by becoming the highest selling song in the first week by a new artist. In
it's first week, just under half a million copies were sold - outselling the previous holders oftthis position (Babylon Zoo's "Spaceman" (1996)).
Britney outsold the #2 entry (The Corrs) by five to one, and made an incredible 26% share of the
entire UK singles market. Indeed, Britney was selling more than the rest of the top ten entries
combined!
But Britney isn't the highest seller in a single week. She comes in fourth, alongside:
- Do They Know It's Christmas (Band Aid)
- Last Christmas (Wham)
- Candle In The Wind 1997 (Elton John)
Competition was tough though, with Boyzone featuring in the official song of Comic Relief 99.
Britney lost the number one slot, but stayed in the top ten for a further seven weeks.
The song itself is, in Britney's own words (from AOL's Entertainment Asylum)...
- It's basically about a girl breaking up with a guy, and then she totally regrets it and
wants him back. The video reflects it how I see the guy on the bleachers and I want him
back. I wanted the video to be something that all kids could relate to. Being in school
and then getting out and dancing.
Anyway, enough of the intro. Here are some pictures grabbed from Britney on TV in the UK...
Baby, One More Time
Britney on the National Lottery
As far as I am aware, this was Britney's first
outing on British terrestrial television.
Performed live.
CD:UK's People's:Choice
Shortly after, CD:UK (a chart show on ITV) showed
the video as the people's choice winner.
The school where this video was filmed is the
same school that was used in the movie "Grease".
I don't think the single has been officially released yet.
CD:UK #1 song
And the next week, Britney made it as #1 on the CD:UK chart.
Britney made no further appearances in the UK to promote "Baby, One More
Time", due to a dislocated knee.
Can you imagine?
Your debut single goes to #1, you break records...
...and your knee gives out right in the middle of promotional time...
Oh, the pain! The pain!
Sometimes
Britney's next release is a nice gentle song, called "Sometimes". Sadly some people
expected it to keep up with the success of the debut single - the chances of matching that must
be about the same as winning the lottery (which, statistically, means that Britney is more
likely to be bashed on her nut by a meteorite!).
The song is gentle ballad kinda thing. I like it.
Top Of The Pops June 1999
Britney singing her new song live on TOTP, but notably not doing much
dancing. :-)
Crazy
Unfortunately I'm not too keen on Crazy; and it seems the British public didn't rave over it
either as I've not seen Britney on TOTP or CD:UK; only the video for the song. I'm pretty sure
I have Crazy on video - I'll put up some digitised images of it if/when I locate it.
Trivia: Pay attention to the video. The girl with the weird hairdo is Melissa Joan Hart, better
known as either Clarissa (Darling) or Sabrina (the teenage witch).
Coming soon
Who will be the first #1 for 2000? Eiffel65? Lou Vega? Martine McCutcheon? Emma Bunton? These
names and their songs will all be ancient history relegated to "Now That's What I Call Music
#197646" by then (and it is only two and a half months away!).
Will Britney be releasing a new song to try? Because of the significance of this particular New
Year, and the fact that everybody is going bloody Crazy over it; the competition will be
extra-ordinary. I suspect the songs will be equally as extra-ordinary. Somebody may even defrost
Cliff Richard to remind us of Mistletoe and Wine and Jesus' 2000th birthday (even though we're
four years late). I'm predicting nothing except:
- It won't be Mr. Blobby.
(if it is, I'm gonna kill myself)
- It won't be me. :-)
Otherwhich, I'll have my digitiser warmed up and ready for the next collection of Britney
piccies.
High school photos
Scanned from monochrome pixellated print (you know, like newsprint). Looks a bit naff, though
I've processed these images quite a lot so they actually look something like Britney and not a
random bunch of dots.
Click here for extreme cuteness...
Filks?
A filk is when an existing song is taken and new words are written. It tends to be computer
related (ie: "The sound of silence" rewritten as "The sound of Linus"), but
there is no law about it.
I've written several; one is based upon Baby, One More Time, it is about a couple who
have a <cough>interesting</cough> sex life but she soon gets bored of his
uselessness.
Click here to read it.
Mmmm... Linking that into the Britney area. I feel like I should be totally apologising, or
something...
What, no MP3s?
There will be no MP3s on this site. Not now, not ever.
Go buy her CD ya cheap gits! :-)
And finally...
If your JPEGs look naff...
Look here if the JPEGs on this site look really bad.
Return to main index
Copyright © 1999 Richard Murray