Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

Britney Ranks at No. 9 on Pollstar’s Touring Rankings for the Week

Pollstar’s Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists according to average box office gross per city and also includes average ticket prices for dates in North America. According to The Associated Press, pop star Britney Spears snuck in the Top Ten at No. 9 on the list, which is based on data provided by concert promoters and venue managers.

Pollstar’s Top 20 concert tours (average box office gross per city; average ticket price for North American shows):

1. U2; $7,689.626; $93.77
2. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; $3,246,542; $83.72
3. AC/DC; $1,827, 586; $85.45
4. Jonas Brothers; $1,388,330; $66.31
5. Metallica; $1,372,098; $68.13
6. Depeche Mode; $1,248,377; $64.77
7. Kenny Chesney; $1,216,996; $64.17
8. Dave Matthews Band; $1,073,658; $49.62
9. Britney Spears; $1,022,687; $66.58
10. Miley Cyrus; $1,012,567; $68.77
11. Keith Urban; $861,143; $64.15
12. Rascal Flatts; $809,361; $56.25
13. Nickelback; $746,730; $43.99
14. Taylor Swift; $623,743; $47.75
15. American Idols Live; $614,114; $62.22
16. Brad Paisley; $607,249; $40.07
17. Maxwell; $587,183; $72.97
18. Blink-182; $543,428; $32.79
19. Lil’ Wayne; $506,278; $41.63
20. Kings Of Leon; $504,278; $41.63

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Britney and Her Boys Visit Syndey Aquarium

The Daily Telegraph reports that pop singer Britney Spears brought her sons, Sean Preston, 4, and Jayden James, 3, to visit the Sydney Aquarium. Spears is currently on tour Down Under, where her lip-syncing has created a media storm, and brought her boys to the aquarium before they all took a ride on a glass bottom boat. The 27-year-old performer also looked out on Sydney Harbour from a yacht over the weekend, as she is currently in between shows on her Circus Tour.

Britney’s remaining tour dates Down Under:

November 19: Sydney, Australia (Acer Arena)
November 20: Sydney, Australia (Acer Arena)
November 22: Brisbane, Australia (Entertainment Centre)
November 24: Brisbane, Australia (Entertainment Centre)
November 25: Brisbane, Australia (Entertainment Centre)
November 27: Melbourne, Australia (Rod Laver Arena)
November 29: Adelaide, Australia (Adelaide Entertainment Centre)

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Michael Buble Comes to Britney’s Defense

Michael Buble has come to the rescue of Britney Spears! According to Contact Music, the Canadian crooner came to the defense of the pop singer, who has been at the center of an Australian media storm due to criticisms of lip syncing on the current leg of her tour. Practically since she arrived Down Under, Britney has been condemned by the Australian media, and some fans reportedly walked out a recent show in Perth. The singer is receiving support from some in the music business, like Buble, and he recently released a statement saying, “I hear there is a lot of controversy in the media about my show. Some reporters have said they love it and some don’t. I came to Australia for my fans!” Amen!

Said Michael Buble of the controversy surrounding Spears, “You’d think she killed someone. As an artist, and a human being, some of what has been written about her is so nasty. OK, she lip-syncs her show, people know that, they make the decision if they want to go see her and do that.” If the success of Britney’s comeback tour is any indication, fans do want to see her live!

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Get Your Britney Spears iPhone App!

MTV.com announced yesterday (Nov. 16) that Britney Spears launched an iPhone and iPod touch app appropriately called “It’s Britney!” Fans of the pop singer can score the app at the iTunes App Store for $1.99. “It’s Britney!” boasts seven features, such as news from the pop star, messages from Britney herself, photo galleries, Twitter updates and a home screen that is continuously updated. The app even has, get this, a sparkler feature which allows fans to hold up their iPhones during Britney’s concerts to impress the singer from the stage!

Other features include the Shake Shake Shake feature, in which fans shake their iPhone and hear Britney saying the infamous line “It’s Britney, b****” from her song “Gimme More.” The Be Britney’s Dancer feature lets fans put their own faces on photos of Britney’s dancers so they can actually be on stage with her. Britney tweeted about the app saying, “See now there really is an app for everything! I just got a demo of my new iPhone app that comes out Monday and I’m playing with it on my phone non-stop. I love it!!!”

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Britney Spears and ‘Twilight’ Rack Up Most People’s Choice Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 2010 People’s Choice Awards have been revealed, reports MTV.com, and Britney Spears and the film Twilight are among the most-nominated. Also scoring multiple nods is Beyonce, Lady GaGa, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and American Idol alums Kris Allen and Adam Lambert (both vying for the Breakout Star honor). Queen Latifah will host this year’s People’s Choice Awards, to air on CBS on January 6. Twilight earned nominations for Favorite Movie and On-Screen Team for Kirsten Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner; Stewart and Pattinson are up for the Favorite Movie Actress and Actor titles while Lautner earner a nod for Breakout Movie Actor. Another vampire-themed contender, HBO’s True Blood, is up for Favorite TV Obsession while Ana Paquin earned a nomination for TV Drama Actress.

Britney Spears will face off against Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift and Pink in the Favorite Female Artist category. Britney is also nominated in the Favorite Pop Artist category, along with the Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Lady GaGa.

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Britney’s Twitter Account Hacked by ... Satan?

Well, happy Friday the 13th everyone. According to Pollstar.com, someone posing as Satan, yes the Prince of Darkness himself, hacked into pop singer Britney Spears’ twitter account yesterday (Nov. 12). Among the odd posts that appeared on Britney’s Twitter account were “I hope that the new world order will arrive as soon as possible!” and “I give myself to Lucifer every day for it to arrive as quickly as possible. Glory to Satan.” 

Britney’s MySpace page was also hacked and those is charge of the pop star’s website immediately posted a message about the cyber vandalism. According to Pollstar.com, “However, her expert security force is on the job and everything is back to normal in Britneyland. Or as close to normal the Britney Universe can be.” Britney’s Twitter now posts the following statement: “Britney’s twitter account was just hacked. The situation has been resolved and we apologize for any offense the hacker’s messages caused.”

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Britney’s ‘The Singles Collection’  Is Here!

Britney Spears’ new greatest-hits package, The Singles Collection, arrived on Tuesday (Nov. 10) and the deluxe version of the album is set for release on November 23. In addition to classic songs like “… Baby One More Time,” “(You Drive Me) Crazy (The Stop Remix!),” “Toxic,” “I’m a Slave 4 U” and “Oops! … I Did It Again,” The Singles Collection features the brand-new single “3,” which has attracted ample attention due to its risqué subject matter and accompanying video. Director Joseph Kahn helmed production on the video for “3” and has worked with Spears in the past and recently told MTV.com, “When I see her on set, she’s extremely professional, and it’s a job. There’s really literally no messing around. Whatever accolades she gets, she deserves.”

Another director who has worked with Spears in the past on videos for “Boys,” “Lucky” and “Radar,” Dave Meyers, told MTV.com about Spears, “She kind of filled [Madonna’s] shoes. [But] everything is done in a Britney way. She’s not Madonna, and Madonna is not Britney. It seems like Madonna made the same choices that were fight for her at the time, to class her up when she had just done a sexpot video. She was riding that image train too. She was leading that image train, and I think that Britney has done that as well.”

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Britney Speaks!

In the midst of controversy over lip-syncing surrounding her tour Down Under, pop star Britney Spears is finally speaking out, reports News.com.au. The Australian media has been in a frenzy since Spears’ arrival in Australia last week, and she has been relatively quiet, allowing her camp to speak up in her defense, until now. Britney released a statement in which she said, “I hear there is a lot of controversy in the media about my show. Some reporters have said they love it and some don’t. I came to Australia for my fans!”

Britney will play the first of a trio of sold-out shows in Melbourne tomorrow (Nov. 11) and has apparently been coping with the criticism with some retail therapy! The pop singer tweeted earlier today (Nov. 10), “Went shopping on Collins Street yesterday and got a lot of my Christmas presents. Melbourne is beautiful. Can’t wait to see more. –Britney.” Australian DJ Havana Brown is touring with Spears and came to the singer’s defense, telling AAP, “I think it’s quite well known that she has lip-synced in the past. I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody. There was nothing like that in Europe. I think everyone knew what they were in for, and I think everyone should know here as well. I’m not quite sure what the fuss is about.”

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Britney’s Camp Responds to Critics Down Under

According to Billboard.com, fans walked out of Britney Spears’ first show Down Under in Perth on Friday (Nov. 6) due to what the Australian media called a “boring” and “stiff” performance that lacked audience interaction. Spears’ manager, the promoter of the Australian leg of her Circus tour and some fans tell Billboard.com that she is traumatized after the events. Paul Dainty, Spears’ tour promoter, told an Australian newspaper, “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.”

Ever since her arrival in Australia last week, Britney’s lip-syncing has been a big story in the news Down Under. Although it is no secret that Britney mimes her songs as a way to keep up with her energetic dance moves, Virginia Judge, the Fair Trade Minister for the State of New South Wales, suggested that concert tickets come with disclaimers stating when concerts were pre-recorded and mimed. Adam Leber, Britney’s manager, posted the following statement on the star’s Twitter account: “It’s unfortunate that one journalist in Perth didn’t enjoy the show last night. Fortunately the other 18,272 fans in attendance did. –Adam.” Dainty also came to Spears’ rescue, saying that it is well-known that she lip-syncs: “It’s been all over the Internet for nine months. This show is about an incredible spectacle, which it is.”

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Britney Spears’ Lip-Syncing Scandal Down Under

Britney Spears arrived in Australia earlier this week, where the pop princess will be performing a string of dates on her current Circus Tour, but the fact that the pop princess lip-syncs on stage is causing quite a stir Down Under! Fox News reports that the Australian government is supposedly considering enforcing new measures in which artists would be required to notify fans of intentions to lip-sync on tickets and advertisements. Steve Dixon, Spears’ tour manager, told the local Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph that people come to see Britney in concert for the “pop spectacular experience,” and doesn’t view the controversy surrounding lip-syncing as an issue.

According to an insider, “Whenever Britney has to dance she lip syncs, but she really prefers to sing live when she doesn’t have to move around.” Britney is performing 15 sold-out concerts in Australia, and fans have paid a pretty penny (up to $1,500) to see her show … lip-syncing or no lip-syncing!

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