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After a bout of negative reviews, Britney Spears has spoken out over the lip-synch controversy that ignited in Australia following her first two Circus tour concerts Down Under, the BBC reports. “I hear there is a lot of controversy in the media about my show,” Spears said yesterday in a statement. “Some reporters have said they love it and some don’t. I came to Australia for my fans.”

Check out photos from Britney’s Circus Tour here.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, the Aussie press claimed that concertgoers at Spears’ first two Circus shows in Perth began vacating the venue only a few songs into Spears’ set when it became apparent the singer was, in fact, miming her songs. Spears was also criticized for what reviewers deemed as a lack of engagement with the crowd, only once talking to the audience to tell them how beautiful Australia was. The controversy was amplified when the fair trade minister of New South Wales proposed marking Circus tour tickets with a disclaimer saying the show is mimed and pre-recorded. (more…)

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Britney Spears is just two shows into her Circus Tour in Australia and she’s already the center of controversy Down Under. Reviews of Spears’ tour-opening shows in Perth were negative, with critics complaining about the fact that Spears lip-synchs during her performance. While Spears’ lip-synching is no secret to American audiences, Australia’s WA Today called Spears’ first of 14 shows “heavy on miming and light on audience interaction,” adding that she “often had her back to much of the crowd.”

Amid reports that audience members left the show disappointed — with some even walking out on the performance before it ended — the tour’s promoter Paul Dainty told The Australian, “Britney is aware of all this and she’s extremely upset by it. She’s a human being. I’m embarrassed, with such a big international entourage here with Britney, to be part of the Australian media when I see that kind of totally inaccurate reporting.” Spears’ manager Adam Leber also came to the singer’s defense, writing on Twitter, “It’s unfortunate that one journalist in Perth didn’t enjoy the show last night. Fortunately the other 18,272 fans in attendance did.”

Check out photos from Britney’s Circus Tour here. (more…)

After teasing fans with 15-second clips on her Twitter yesterday, Britney Spears finally revealed the video for her Hot 100-topping single “3,” the new track that will feature on her upcoming The Singles Collection. You’d expect the video for a song about threesomes to be Rated-X, but Spears keeps things borderline tasteful with the “3″ vid, busting out some suggestive dance moves that are nowhere near as racy as the lyrics to “If U Seek Amy.” Instead, Spears and her cadre of dancers go the “Single Ladies” route by scaling back on sets and simply dancing in front of white and gray backgrounds. It’s not Britney’s best (it’s nowhere near her “Slave 4 U” clip), but we haven’t seen her dancing with this much conviction since the In the Zone era.

Watch all of Britney’s videos in our guide to her memorable clips.

Considering that today marks the two-year anniversary of Blackout, as Spears’ official Website points out, it’s clear Britney’s dance skills are getting back on track. (more…)

Britney Spears‘ “3″ quickly silenced any concerns that the song was too controversial to be a hit, becoming the first track since 2006 to debut atop the Billboard Hot 100. An ode to threesomes off Spears’ November 24th The Singles Collection, “3″ becomes the first song since Taylor Hicks’ American Idol coronation song “Do I Make You Proud” in 2006 to debut at Number One on the Hot 100. In addition to topping the Hot 100, “3″ was also Number One on the Digital Songs chart, selling 255,000 downloads in one week according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Look back at Britney Spears’ rise, fall and comeback in photos.

After a near-decade of no Hot 100-topping hits since her debut single “…Baby One More Time,” Spears now has two Number Ones in the span of 52 weeks, as Circus‘ “Womanizer” also topped the Hot 100 exactly a year ago. But whereas “Womanizer” broke records leaping from a debut Number 96 to Number One in one week, “3″ went straight to the top, a feat that’s only been done in the past decade by a quartet of Idol alumni: Hicks in 2006, Carrie Underwood’s “Inside Your Heaven” in ‘05, Fantasia’s “I Believe” in ‘04 and Clay Aiken’s “This is the Night” in ‘03. In fact, the last non-Idol winner to go straight to Number One on the Hot 100 was Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)” way back in November 1998. (more…)

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Britney Spears’ new single “3″ — the sole fresh song off her upcoming best-of compilation The Singles Collection — debuted this morning on New York Top 40 station Z100, and yes, in the spirit of Jane’s Addiction’s “Three Days,” the song is about having a threesome. Spears has never been shy about courting controversy, and this song will likely receive plenty of it. “3″ is yet another product of producer Max Martin, the Swedish pop savant who also gave the world Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” and Spears’ “If U Seek Amy,” so a track about ménage à trois would be the feasible next step in his repertoire.

Britney Spears’ wild ride: track her ups and downs in photos.

The music itself seems to borrow from the Flo Rida playbook, as “3″ is more of a surefire dance-floor stomper than anything Brit loaded onto Blackout or Circus. “Merrier the more, triple fun that way,” Spears sings in one of the many, many innuendo-packed lyrics that seem like they were spawned from Prince’s Dirty Mind-era brain. There’s also “Three is a charm, two is not the same. I don’t see the harm, so are you game?” and “If you don’t like the company, let’s just do it you and me. You and me… Or three… Or four…” The song also boasts the strangest Peter, Paul and Mary reference we’ve ever heard. (more…)

Britney Spears is giving fans an early look at the artwork for her new single, “3,” on her official Website. The tune — which was produced by hitmaker Max Martin — premieres tomorrow morning on New York’s Z100. The cover is pretty simple — and nothing like the covers RS contributors dreamed up when the singer put out Blackout a few years ago. Check out those options here.

Britney’s wild ride: her ups and downs in photos.

As Rolling Stone reported, “3″ will appear on a best-of collection called The Singles Collection on November 24th — just in time for the Christmas rush and a week before Spears’ 28th birthday. The singer spent her last birthday making a grand comeback on Good Morning America, performing “Womanizer” and “Circus” at New York’s Big Apple Circus the day Circus dropped. (more…)

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Britney Spears announced today on her official Website that she’ll release a new best-of set, The Singles Collection, on November 24th, just in time for Black Friday. The greatest hits compilation — the second in Spears’ decade-long career — will feature the brand new first single “3.” The track, produced by Swedish pop mastermind Max Martin, the brains behind “… Baby One More Time” and “If U Seek Amy,” is scheduled to premiere on radio September 29th.

Look back at Britney’s rise, fall and comeback, in photos.

The Singles Collection will be available in two editions, as Standard and Ultimate Fan Box Set versions. The Standard boasts 17 of Spears’ biggest songs (plus “3″) on one disc, while the Ultimate Fan edition crams all 29 of Spears’ singles into a box set complete with an additional B side or remix, a DVD featuring all of Spears’ music videos in chronological order and a special booklet of iconic Britney images and “fun facts” about the songs on the collection. (more…)

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Congratulations, Britney! You’re up for seven VMAs this year! It’s a moment of sweet redemption for Britz, because it means she will return once again to the stage where she’s tasted her sugariest highs and her most Xanax-tical lows. Let’s face it, Britney is the VMAs. She’s the reason we watch every year — it’s how we take the temperature of the Britney universe. She was made for this show, and it was made for her.

Watch all of Britney’s videos — with commentary — in our Complete Video Guide.

Once more, Lady B shall take the stage where she suffered the indignity of the 2007 VMAs, where she mumbled, bumbled, and stumbled through a rendition of “Gimme More” that traumatized her fans, bumping into her scared-looking back-up dancers, rocking her spray-painted abs and one of Bret Michaels’ used hairpieces. As people used to say way back in 2007, it was a “fail,” as well as a “hot tranny mess.” (Recall our first reactions in the 2007 VMAs live blog and photos.)

Britz made her return to the VMAs last year, showing she could make the scene as a wholesome, soft-spoken Southern gal, but with all these nominations, she has a chance for an even bigger comeback — not to mention an even bigger celebration of her place as the pop queen of the decade. (more…)

The story of Britney Spears’ new video for “Radar” is a strange one: The song was originally the third track on Brit’s 2007 album Blackout and charted that year on the Hot 100. Then it inexplicably reappeared in its exact same form as a bonus track to 2008’s Circus (Spears’ publicist responded it was the same version when RS reviewed Circus last year). Now, in 2009, “Radar” returns once again as a music video. For a song that’s been around so long, you’d expect that better ideas would have percolated during its video’s pre-production stages — especially after the great clips for “Womanizer,” “Circus” and “If U Seek Amy” — but instead we’re treated to Spears’ weakest video since the disastrous “Gimme More” spot.

The plot is eerily similar too, with the Dave Meyers-directed video essentially copycatting Madonna’s “Take A Bow” video. Instead of falling in love with a matador like the Material Girl, Spears has her eye on a polo player. While Madonna dressed the role of a distressed aristocratic senorita in the stands, Spears’ wardrobe and giant hat mirror the elite at the Kentucky Derby. (more…)

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A Los Angeles judge instructed Britney Spears‘ former manager Sam Lutfi and lawyer Jon Eardley not to contact, threaten or act on behalf of the pop star until 2012, according to the AP. As Rock Daily previously reported, the two men, along with Spears’ paparazzo ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, were accused of attempting to overturn Jamie Spears’ conservatorship over his daughter. That legal agreement grants Jamie control of Britney’s finances as well as legal and business decisions; it stems from Spears’ breakdown in January 2008, which led to the singer being hospitalized twice and losing primary custody of her two sons.

(Track Britney’s rise, fall and comeback, in photos.)

During testimony in this case, the judge heard an alleged voicemail from Spears in which she asks for help, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Aviva K. Bobb ultimately sided with Jamie Spears. “Never before in the history of the world has a restraining order been issued against someone who merely responded to cries for help,” Lutfi’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said. Spears’ attorney Joel Boxer admitted that the restraining order request was “unusual,” but argued it was necessary in order to protect the Cirus singer from “people who I think are fairly characterized as predators.” (more…)

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In January, Britney Spears‘ father Jamie — who controls her financial and legal affairs via a conservatorship put in place after her hospitalizations in early 2008 — filed three restraining orders against men he believed were interfering in his daughter’s life: her ex-manager, Sam Lutfi, her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Ghalib, and a lawyer who said Britney had asked him to fight the conservatorship named Jon Eardley. Eardley is now demanding that the singer go to court to justify the order when her Circus tour comes to Los Angeles’ Staples Center later this week, E! reports. (When Spears’ tour began, RS was there for a full report plus photos.)

Jamie Spears has been in court extending the restraining order against Eardley, saying the lawyer caused “substantial emotional distress” for his daughter. Eardley is requesting Spears testify on her behalf as to whether she did try to hire him to contest the conservatorship — as it stands now, Jamie will remain in control of Britney’s affairs for an indefinite period of time — and whether he caused her distress. At a recent court date at which Lutfi fought his own restraining order, the judge heard an audio recording of a voice message allegedly left by Britney Spears during which she asks for help battling the conservatorship. (more…)

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Since Britney Spears‘ father seized power over her affairs via a legal conservatorship in early 2008, the pop star hasn’t made any public statements about losing the right to control her finances and career decisions. In the For the Record documentary (produced by the Spears team) that ran on MTV last fall, she described her post-breakdown life: “Even when you go to jail, y’know, there’s the time when you’re gonna get out. But in this situation, it’s never ending. It’s just like Groundhog Day.” And in a Los Angeles courtroom today, the lawyer representing her former manager Sam Lutfi as he fights his restraining order likened Spears’ life to a “prison,” Us reports.

Living under the conservatorship is causing Spears “emotional distress,” said John Anderson, Lutfi’s lawyer and not the lead singer of Yes. Jamie Spears’ lawyer countered that Lutfi was an “alleged extortionist” who threatened to disseminate “threatening information” against Spears. In more strange testimony, Lutfi’s sister Christine told the court that she smuggled Britney a cell phone from Lutfi and ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib in an attempt to get a lawyer to fight the conservatorship. Christine testified that she met Britney at the gym of Beverly Hills’ Peninsula Hotel, handed her the phone and Spears recorded a message that’s since made its way around the Internet: (more…)

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Want a surefire way to survive the recession? Become a lawyer for Britney Spears. According to the Los Angeles Times, since Jamie Spears’ seized control of his daughter’s affairs with a legal conservatorship last year, the family has spent roughly $2.7 million in legal fees. In the months since she was deemed unfit to run her own finances, Spears and her father have rifled through 17 lawyers and law firms while racking up a sizable tab.

While Spears is currently on the road with her Circus tour (Read Rock Daily’s review here), it seems like every other week Jamie Spears is in a courtroom, extending his conservatorship or seeking restraining orders against past characters in the Britney Show like former manager Sam Lutfi, ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and lawyer Jon Eardley, who Brit reportedly hired to fight the conservatorship. The $2.7 million in fees was just from the first 11 months of the conservatorship, so that tally doesn’t even include the time spent in a courtroom banning those three men from Britney’s life. Spears also spent cash on her divorce and custody settlement, a trial for her driving-without-a-license charge and a handful of civil suits. (more…)

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Britney Spears put another notch in her comeback belt by powering through the nearly two-hour opening date of her Circus Starring Britney Spears tour last night (March 3rd) in New Orleans. The show, in her home state of Louisiana, marked the pop star’s long-awaited return to the stage: she ditched her Onyx Hotel Tour (which supported 2003’s In the Zone) in June 2004 after suffering a knee injury on the set of “Outrageous” video and only took the stage a handful of times since, most notably in 2007, when she performed a few poorly received nightclub gigs billed as the M+Ms.

(Check out photos of Spears decked out in sexy circus outfits at her opening-night gig here.)

As MTV News reports, surrounded by a giant Big Top spectacle and acrobats and backup dancers aplenty, Spears danced her way through the almost exclusively upbeat set list, which kicked off with a video greeting starring Perez Hilton. Each of the show’s four acts (Circus, House of Fun – Anything Goes, Freakshow/Peepshow, Electo Circ) featured a plethora of outfit changes that ranged from revealing to very revealing — she donned a naughty policewoman’s outfit for closers “Womanizer” and “Circus,” a Madonna-esque swirl bra for “Radar” and an Indian-inspired look for her Bollywood remix of “Me Against the Music” (which unfortunately didn’t feature a cameo by the Material Mom — though the tour has only just begun). (more…)

Photo: Devaney/Wireimage(Spears), Bezjian/WireImage (Ghalib), Canham/Getty (Lufti)

Britney Spears has filed new retraining orders against Sam Lutfi and Adnan Ghalib, the two men most associated with her chaotic decline a little over a year ago that ended with a pair of trips to Los Angeles psychiatric hospitals and the loss of custody of her two children. Attorney Jon Eardley, who at one time said he represented Spears, was also named on the order. Lutfi, who enjoyed a stint as Spears’ domineering manager, and Ghalib, Spears’ temporary paparazzi boyfriend who peddled private pictures of the singer on the side, were both reportedly “trying to gain control of the singer’s affairs,” according to the AP.

Britney’s father, Jamie, seized the reigns of Britney’s career and assets when he was named her conservator last year. In a restraining order filed in 2008, Jamie claimed Lutfi had drugged Britney and prevented her from making phone calls in an attempt to control her. The original restraining order against Lutfi expired in July 2008, and it’s unclear why a new one was filed now. Documents detailing the specifics of the new orders were behind locked doors, a court official told the AP, but court papers obtained by Spears fan site Breathe Heavy indicate that attorney Eardley, who once tried to get Britney’s conservatorship case moved to a federal court, has been in touch with Lutfi and Ghalib. (more…)