Oh, Britney.
The past week has seen the pop princess reign atop headlines for all the right and wrong reasons. First, much to fan delight, Spears re-emerged with a new single ‘Work B*tch’ – the first from her yet-titled 8th album. Days later, news surfaced the single didn’t work to get the singer back atop charts.
Next, the ‘Toxic’ tinwoman launched a week-long promo run to share news of her 2-year Vegas residency. Days later, conflicting reports surfaced regarding the show’s “abysmal sales”.
Well, it seems now manager Larry Rudolph has had enough of the rumors the singer would be on a 2-year “lip syncing” fest and slams reports of poor ticket sales for the event. Giving dibs on the singer’s new album, even going so far to compare it to Madonna‘s ‘Ray of Light’, tuck in below for Rudolph’s report:
Billboard: First off, let’s clear the air about whether Britney Spears will be lip-syncing during her Las Vegas residency shows. Can you set the record straight on this subject?
Larry Rudolph: “She’s going to be singing live. She does choreography and vocal coaching every day. The vocal coaching is really just to strengthen her voice and get her to a point where she can go out there every night and do a full show.
It’s hard for the public to fully understand what goes on when you get on stage and you’re dancing full out during a song. No matter what anyone says, there’s not a single artist who goes out there and does full choreography and is singing without a vocal track underneath them at the same time. It’s physically impossible. There might be some numbers where she’s full out dancing with a (vocal) track underneath her, but there won’t be any lip-syncing across the board on anything.”
There have also been reports that ticket sales to her residency shows haven’t been selling well. So how are ticket sales so far?
“Yesterday, I got a phone call from Britney’s mom, Lynne Spears. She was deeply concerned. I said, “Lynne, don’t worry about it, we’re dealing with it right now. Nothing could be further from the truth. ”
You have these idiot tabloid reporters who are completely irresponsible and love taking pot shots at Britney. One guy did it and everybody else picked it up. It’s based on nothing, other than an “industry insider,” who they’ll never disclose. But it’s damaging to Britney. So we had to go on the offensive and put out correct information to counteract it. When we went on sale with our pre-sale, we sold out every single VIP package for all 16 shows.”
Can you give any details about Spears’ new album — what the title is or what fans should expect it to sound like?
“We don’t have a title yet. It’s so different from anything she’s done before. Will.i.am is executive producing it. After the “Scream & Shout” exercise, which went so well, the public seems to really like Britney and Will together.
“Work Bitch” is a great example of a song that’s from this album, but I don’t know that it necessarily defines the album. There’s a ballad called “Perfume” that she recorded recently. I think everyone will be really impressed by the song. I don’t know if it will be the second or third single, but it will definitely be a single.
I really think of this as Britney’s “Ray of Light” album — it’s kind of like that in a lot of ways.”
Your thoughts?