Somewhere in the world, Britney Spears is currently cracking a bullwhip across Ben Mor‘s back (BEN MOR!!!!!!!!!) as he puts the finishing touches on the music video for her new single, “Work Bitch.”
But until the final product surfaces, The Holy Spearit and her team are hard at work getting the wheels (err, dancers) in motion for her upcoming Las Vegas residency, Piece Of Me: It’s Live In Las Vegasney Again, Bitch.
While auditioning dancers this week in Burbank, Brit Brit’s manager Larry Rudolph (who also happens to manage tongue-lovin’ wild child and “SMS (Bangerz)” BFF, Miley Cyrus) spoke to Billboard about those false Las Vegas sales reports (say she’s just a flop — they’re all little liyahs!), “Work Bitch,” Album 8 (tentatively titled Blackout 2.0: It Gets Urbaner And Also More Spearitual And A Little More Personal (Raw)), her upcoming Sia-penned single “Perfume” and the general goings-on of a living legend.
You’ll need to go read the interview in full, but here are some of the best Brit bits, y’all:
On the show, and the general eagnerness of Rehearsalney:
The Baz Halpin-directed show will feature 21 of Spears’ greatest hits and new music from her as-yet-untitled eighth studio album, due Dec. 3. In addition to 14 dancers, the concerts will also feature a four-piece band and state-of-the-art visuals. She’s slated to perform 50 shows per year in 2014 and 2015.
“I’m almost having to hold back the floodgates, because she wants to start rehearsing right now,” says Halpin, who’s also on-site selecting dancers with his team at Silent House Productions, which has designed tours by such pop acts as Katy Perry, P!nk and Taylor Swift. “I’ve never seen an artist so pumped and excited. She’s been doing religious vocal and choreography for months and months. So I’m waiting for this unleashed furry of rehearsal energy when we get started.”
On the actual Las Vegasney sales:
When we went on sale with our pre-sale, we sold out every single VIP package for all 16 shows. We had to create new ones just to fill some of the demand, because people were starting to get pissed off that there weren’t enough out there. Caesars told us that a highly successful launch would be selling 10% of the ticket stock on the on sale. I think we either tripled or quadrupled that. They told us it was literally the best on-sale they’d ever had. Now they’ve come back to me and asked if it’s OK to put the next round of dates on sale sooner than we had originally discussed.
Is that money in ya pocket, or ya happy to see B?
On Album 8:
There are a couple other songs that have a really modern EDM vibe and other stuff that has more of a “Ray of Light” (Madonna) vibe. I really think of this as Britney’s “Ray of Light” album — it’s kind of like that in a lot of ways. She wrote everything on the album with collaborators. There’s one or two she wrote herself. That’s something she wanted to do coming in. She wanted to make it very personal. They’re all custom made for her, based on what’s going on her life and in her head.
I mean, that sounds great. Mysticalney and Mysteriousney is everything we could have ever wanted! But the Ray of Light reference also sounds a bit too…uh, familiar.
LARRY, PLZ.
On her Sia-penned ballad and soon-to-be single, “Perfume”:
There’s a ballad called “Perfume” that she recorded recently. Britney wrote it with Sia. It’s a breakup song that’s about wanting the next girl to smell your perfume on the guy afterwards. The lyric is really unique and she sings the shit out of it. 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.
“Perfume,” of course, is already legendary — even if the general public hasn’t heard it yet. The tie-in potential for the song alone is extraordinary. Perhaps B-Girl will go the meta route and release a new fragrance called Perfume Fantasy? She chose her own destiny with Sia…and that destiny is scented.
On will.i.spears:
After the “Scream & Shout” exercise, which went so well, the public seems to really like Britney and Will together. There’s something about them that works. He understands who she is and what her audience wants.
K. Which audience, exactly?
On the Album 8 marketing:
I think it will be more of a traditional release. This is going to be more about the Vegas thing happening and her putting out an album around the same time. I don’t want to overcomplicate this or make it gimmicky, because the music is so important. I don’t want to cloud it with some marketing scheme.
As the Spearit once sagely declared during the In The Zone ABC special: “It’s not about marketing. It’s about just being cool.”
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, Gimme Mor.
“Work Bitch” was released on September 16. (iTunes)