Britney Spears' Circus Tour Wows Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — A stampede of young women has stormed the Mellon Arena.

Dressed in their Friday-night best, excited young fans, largely ranging from ages 13 to 30, are buzzing throughout the halls of the venue. Groups of friends are huddled together, laughing; mothers and daughters are walking hand in hand. Then, a single drumbeat brings the crowd to attention — and immediately sends them into a frenzy. Girls in high heels sprint in all directions; the long line of women waiting to use the restroom dissipates in about 10 seconds.

Ladies and gentlemen, Britney Spears is about to take the stage.

Of course, Britney needed no introduction here. From the minute the tape of her ringmaster — celebrity blogger Perez Hilton — appeared on the jumbo screen, fans were on their feet, filling the arena with deafening screams. All of their hard work — making homemade Britney T-shirts and necklaces, memorizing lyrics, mastering dance moves — was validated when the pop princess descended onto the stage from a suspended metal balcony and began to sing "Circus." And what a circus it was!

After the opening number — which included an elaborate team of dancers, clowns, and acrobats — Spears ditched her red ringmaster's coat and morphed into a sexy cage dancer for "Piece of Me."

All eyes were on the pop star as she changed into sparkly and sexy outfits throughout the show, which featured a similar format and costumes from earlier shows in the tour. Britney was a veiled princess for a Bollywood-inspired version of "Me Against the Music," a temptress in an S&M style bodysuit adorned with black tassels, and a sexy sergeant in a tight corset worn over a blue police shirt for the "Womanizer" finale. And judging from the screams after each costume change, her Pittsburgh fans didn't mind a little skin.

Despite the success of Spears' latest album, Circus, the songs that got the most love were classics like "Toxic" and a revamped version of "...Baby One More Time." Even the phrase "It's Britney, b—-h," which was included during a musical segue, got an overwhelming reaction. And of course, fans raved when Spears spoke to them before singing "Everytime" while perched on an umbrella above the stage.

A video montage covering a decade of iconic Britney music-video images that played before the finale also got a big reaction from the crowd — leaving no doubt that this crowd truly believes that Britney is back (if she ever went away!).


Source/MTV.Com