Videos We Love: Britney Spears – Circus

“Circus” was released on December 2, 2008, by Jive Records. The song was produced and co-written by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco. When Spears first heard it, she felt inspired to create an album and a tour with a circus theme. Musically, “Circus” is a pop song with influences of R&B and an electronic sound. The lyrics talk about Spears’s abilities as an entertainer and compares them to performing in a circus.

Music Video Details

The music video was directed by Francis Lawrence (who previously directed the music video for “I’m a Slave 4 U”) and premiered on December 4, 2008. The video features Spears as the ringleader of a circus and received positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards and won Best Video of 2009 in Fuse TV. The music video was criticized by animal rights organization PETA for featuring “cruelly trained animals”. However, the exhibitors denied these claims. Spears performed the song in Good Morning America and in her sixth concert tour The Circus Starring Britney Spears, where she performed it as the opening number of the show, wearing a ringleader costume designed to represent a metamorphosis.

Spears chose Lawrence, since he was the “only person who could capture it, make it really twisted, eccentric and different”. An exclusive three-second clip was shown during a promo for her documentary Britney: For the Record. The video leaked on to the China video sharing website Tudou on December 3, 2008, although this was later confirmed that this was not the final edit of the video. The finalized video was to be officially premiered on December 5, 2008, on Entertainment Tonight. However, due to the leak and public interest, Entertainment Tonight and Spears’ management decided to change the date of the world premiere to December 4, 2008.

Concept

The video starts off with Spears at a vanity, putting Curious on as well as putting on earrings by BVLGARI. The music starts and she is holding a top hat in front of her face, while birds fly out of a hat. Spears starts singing in the vanity but stands up and puts on a ringmaster jacket. She walks through an aisle while dancing suggestively with several circus dancers. There are intercut shots of circus performers, including ribbon dancers, contortionists, clowns and a mime on stilts.

There are also scenes of Spears singing with the top hat, wearing a nude body stocking in front of a red curtain, with a spotlight on her. In the chorus, she wears the ringmaster jacket, sequined hot pants and a feathered top hat while dancing in the middle of a circus ring with her dancers. She picks up a cane and walks when the chorus ends.

In the second verse, she dances with a chair and a whip wearing a nude bra covered in leaves. In the pre-chorus and second chorus, there are scenes in slow motion of Spears in front of a shower of sparks. It also includes scenes of her surrounded by a pair of lions. During the bridge, Spears and her dancers perform a dance routine in front of flames. There are also intercut scenes of her in front of an elephant. In the last chorus, Spears returns to the circus ring, surrounded by two elephants, many more circus performers, dancers and fire breathers.

The video ends with Spears in the spotlight, laughing with the top hat over her head.

Francis Lawrence’s work includes

I am Legend (Film-2007)

Constantine (Film-2005)

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance (2009)

The Pussycat Dolls feat. Snoop Dogg – Buttons (2006)

Black Eyed Peas – Pump It (2006)

Audioslave – Be Yourself (2005)

Justin Timberlake feat. Timbaland – Cry Me A River (2002)

Avril Lavigne – S8erboi (2002)

And many many more… View