Britney Spears Gimme More VMA 2007 Rehearsal w/ Stand-In

[MakeMySugarFall]

Ok, so I've never seen this video with the stand-in until a few weeks ago, but tbh - that is some bad, uninspiring choreography. I thought there were moments where it looks pretty cool, but even with the stand-in's flawless execution I found the overall choreography to be pretty fucking weak. 

 

 

[I_need_me]

I'm sure the choreographer took into account Britney's situation at the time and they knew that they couldn't expect her to do something challenging

The thing is that although it is easy it looks good, which is what many of her current choreographies are missing. I know that Britney is to blame because she is capable of doing much more and it looks like she refuses to push herself, but I still think that a good choreographer could give her easy steps that still looked good.

[Ariana Grande]

On 26/6/2017 at 1:54 PM, I_need_me said:

I'm sure the choreographer took into account Britney's situation at the time and they knew that they couldn't expect her to do something challenging

The thing is that although it is easy it looks good, which is what many of her current choreographies are missing. I know that Britney is to blame because she is capable of doing much more and it looks like she refuses to push herself, but I still think that a good choreographer could give her easy steps that still looked good.

This.

 

And let's not forget she changed the whole performance with short notice. This is what they could come up with, and I think they did a pretty good job, given the circumstances.  

[Wendy Williams]

Idc, glad she did it perfectly for me and I can't see any mistakes in dancing, also - I never cared about her dancing/choreography.

[MakeMySugarFall]

1 hour ago, Ariana Grande said:

This.

 

And let's not forget she changed the whole performance with short notice. This is with what they could come up with, and I think they did a pretty good job, given the circumstances.  

Choreography is pretty much the same, though. I thought she changed things like the outfit, her hair, etc. Not saying Britney's execution was the best that night lol, but I don't think the choreo is great, either. 

[Domino]

2 hours ago, Ariana Grande said:

This.

 

And let's not forget she changed the whole performance with short notice. This is with what they could come up with, and I think they did a pretty good job, given the circumstances.  

 

I hadn't heard she changed it! How was it supposed to be before?

[Light Yagami]

Ive seen it ages ago. It would have looked great on that stage and it suits the speed of the song.

[Ariana Grande]

1 hour ago, MakeMySugarFall said:

Choreography is pretty much the same, though. I thought she changed things like the outfit, her hair, etc. Not saying Britney's execution was the best that night lol, but I don't think the choreo is great, either. 

 

I mean  She was on something. Her heel snapped on stage. She didn't give a single flying fuck about her career at that point.

Let's just be grateful that it came to be an ICONIC moment on her career rather than the end of it.

 

36 minutes ago, Domino said:

 

I hadn't heard she changed it! How was it supposed to be before?

 

It was supposed to be a medley between an unreleased song titled "Cry" and Gimme More.

Here's more about what news articles talked about it at the time:

Spoiler

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Pop singer Britney Spears plans to debut her new song, “Cry,” at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, USA Today reported Tuesday.

Spears is also expected to perform her single, “Gimme More,” at Sunday’s awards show. Both songs are off her untitled album set for release Nov. 13.

“Gimme More” was warmly received when it debuted on some radio stations last week. It officially drops Friday.

Dancer Ruben Dario told heybritney.com that Spears’ VMA performance will include a mirror trick in which she seems to appear and disappear. He said that is why she was seen with illusionist Criss Angel last month.

One expert said this could be a good opportunity for Spears.

"She can have a public image that says mom-and-pop icon and do it tastefully," Amanda Sanders of New York Image Consultants, told USA Today. "In the past, she has used these performances to inject shock value but she needs to avoid it this time. She's a little bit older and she should look a little wiser."

 

...

 

Aminah Abdul Jillil (backup dancer): Because it was the first time it was in Vegas, her team consulted with a magician, Criss Angel. He'd even come into our rehearsals because they were planning to have some sort of magic trick reveal. It didn't end up working, but they put a lot into that performance because it was her first time back in a while.

...

She rehearsed a lot with us. I remember for that one more so we rehearsed first. They got us underway first with all the choreography because we did rehearse a long time for the 2007 one. I believe it was like three weeks—three or four weeks. If I can remember, it was the first two weeks was just the dancers, and then once they got us set, they brought her in.

 

And here's an extract of an article about what allegedly happened that night, but take it with a pinch of salt because only Britney knows for certain.   They mention she didn't rehearse when in fact she did, we even got video proof of her at rehearsals, twice  The one with the crop top and hat and the one where she's wearing a ponytail:

 Added those parts at the end just so no one gets confused or whatever.  

Spoiler

" Ten days before the VMAs, representatives from MTV, Jive and The Firm all gathered for a rehearsal in the dance studio. What they witnessed excited everyone. The source close to the record label said: ‘Everyone was psyched; Brit was effectively going through the motions and not at full speed, but she was ready. Was it great ? No. Was she back to her best ? No. But that girl had turned things around and was TV-ready’ There had been continued meetings ‘at least twice a week’ to ensure Britney stayed on track and mission impossible was close to succeeding.

On the eve of the show, the expected plan was that Britney would leave a pre-VMA party at the Hard Rock Hotel and retire to her suite in preparation for the big day. Instead, she hit the Vegas club-scene with Alli, attending the nearby Beatles Bar before proceeding to Jet nightclub at The Mirage.  After 3am, the group then proceeded to a party in a hotel suite until beyond 4am and, ‘it was obvious that Britney had been drinking like a fish that night.’  

The next morning, as Britney slept through till noon, the phones were melting with calls between MTV producers, Jive Records and The Firm management about the previous night’s antics, but the calmed consensus was that, ‘Brit had done the routine so many times she could do it with her eyes closed…She’ll be fine.’ 

But Britney’s mood, whether hangover induced or not, was plainly tetchy and she’d told her bodyguards she ‘wanted no one near me.’ When she withdrew to her dressing room, Alli did her job and obeyed instructions not to let anyone in, not even her record label representatives or Michelle Dupont. The rep who’d steered Britney through an intense five-week preparation was suddenly barred by an assistant who had decided to stay away until the big occasion beckoned.

In the dressing room, Britney’s anxieties were raging and she decided it would be a good idea to start drinking shots to calm her nerves. Whatever speculation there may have been about what Britney was taking before her performance, the mystery can now end—it was tequila shots, one after the other. Her prickliness wasn’t helped when Justin Timberlake popped by with a ‘good luck’ message. ‘He was cool and couldn’t have been friendlier but that definitely wigged her out more,’ said the source.

The camp’s spirits slightly rose when the positive influence of Britney’s brother, Bryan, showed up but, as one of the team said, ‘the writing was already on the wall because she was already f***** and freaking out over the littlest thing.’ As the source who is assisting with this backstage picture wishes to make clear: ‘Brit is someone wanting to be loved, not used, not treated like a robot, not there for everyone else to make money, and not working all the time. She’s never known what it’s like to make her own choices so she doesn’t know what a smart choice means. It was inevitable that she was going to reach the “F*** It, F*** You!” stage. The great sadness is that she reached it in the run-up to this big moment. But people need to understand that this wasn’t one moment: it was the culmination of many events that went before it.’

Panicking and in fear, Britney started to act out—guided by her twitching impulses. It was, by now, 90 minutes before the show began, and hair stylist Ken Paves, himself immaculate and groomed, entered the dressing room with an assistant, carrying the golden hair extensions in his little box. After his warm welcome in LA, he wasn’t expecting the frost that greeted him. ‘I don’t like him! I want his assistant,’ announced Britney. In the awkward moments that followed, his assistant quite rightly pledged her loyalty to Ken. As he diplomatically tried to smooth ruffled feathers, Britney instructed her bodyguard to eject him from her room.

The bodyguard, merely doing his job, forcibly removed the Hollywood stylist. In the corridor outside, observers saw Ken being shoved out the door, remonstrating loudly that ‘I’ve never been so insulted in my life!’ He was still carrying the hair extensions, carefully tissue-wrapped in his kit. Had MTV cameras managed to capture this opening act in the ensuing comedy of errors, it would have surely captured its best-ever behind-the-scenes special. Management and record label representatives were meanwhile on the floor in the auditorium, reassuring one another—and MTV producers—that everything was back on track after the night before.

Then word came through: ‘Britney’s just fired Ken Paves.’ As the situation was elevated to a code-red, management and record label finally gained access to the dressing room to speak with Britney. She explained that she didn’t like Ken’s attitude. ‘That’s great, Brit, but you need him right now. He has your hair extensions,’ she was told. Britney pondered this reality: ‘Okay then, he can come back,’ she said.

By now an understandably indignant hair stylist was many floors above, after retreating to his hotel room. Ken Paves wasn’t answering his phone or his door. Colleagues say he was ‘beside himself’. Now, with one headstrong artiste to control, and one upset stylist to calm, the team had a difficult impasse to resolve. With Ken in lock-down, and expressing his candid thoughts about Britney, a truce wasn’t imminent. In her dressing room, Britney seemed oblivious to the distress she had caused.

In the corridor, MTV runners and producers grew agitated with the clock running down. ‘Where are her f****** hair extensions?!’ asked someone. ‘With Ken Paves,’ explained the label. ‘And where’s he? ’ ‘In his room…but we’re working on it.’ It dawned on MTV that their opening act was playing up—and she had no hair. Suddenly, Nelly Furtado’s stylist came to the rescue, offering her assistance—but Britney still needed hair extensions.

It was then decided that the only option was to get the keys for the hotel hair salon, open it up and use some of its hair extensions. The source said: ‘It was amazing the curve-balls that were being thrown that night, and even more amazing that we were begging for Britney’s hair from the hotel salon, but by now everyone was frying—apart from Britney.’

In her dressing room, Britney was observed knocking back another shot. Once Nelly Furtado’s stylist had saved the day and ‘done her best’, everyone was asked to leave the dressing room so that Britney could slip into her striking Trish Somerville one-piece. ‘I’ve got it,’ Alli reassured everyone, ‘but she cannot talk to anyone right now.’ If anyone was accustomed to these temperamental moments, it was Alli, and so everyone decided to back off. The dressing-room door shut, and the lock clicked.

Britney was locked away with her assistant and another friend. With half an hour to go before MTV went live, its producers still found Britney locked inside with her pensive team on the outside. This wasn’t the most reassuring sight. The source said: ‘Now the producers started freaking out, saying, “Will she come out? Why can’t you get her to come out ?!”’ Every time anyone knocked, the door remained locked. ‘Ten minutes, everyone! We’ve got ten minutes,’ someone shouted. Seven minutes before going live’, and to everyone’s relief, they heard the dressing-room door unlock.

As it pulled open, Britney came into view—but she wasn’t wearing the designated Trish Somerville, flattering one-piece. What the f***?!’ someone else shouted. Britney, wearing her hotel salon hair extensions, stood there in a black bra, black hot pants and fishnets, showing an unflattering paunch. When her team looked in her eyes, ‘it was obvious she was somewhere else but present.’ That perhaps explained why she didn’t see the collective look of horror that greeted her from the faces around her.

Alli spoke for her instead, announcing Britney, ‘had wanted to go for it.’ Years of training had misled her that ‘sexy sells’, and so her low-esteem made a disastrous choice, and the assistant backed her. But the management wasn’t having it. Britney’s reps insisted she change back into the Trish Somerville outfit. ‘It’s too late…It’s too f***** late! We’ve got to get her on stage!’ shouted an MTV assistant, liaising through an earpiece with the control room, and Britney was led away. "

...

On the Friday evening before the Sunday broadcast, Britney, wearing a white crop-top and jeans, rehearsed a run-through of ‘Gimme More’ primarily for ‘camera blocking’ so that the telecast’s director knew her positions on stage. This process is never a full-speed rehearsal but everything still seemed fine as Britney went through the motions. ‘The odd person was a little alarmed,’ said the source, ‘because she didn’t seem to be trying but, I’ll tell you, had she delivered that rehearsal on the night, it would have been a hit. It wasn’t as great as back in LA but it was acceptable.’

Britney, wearing a beige silk dress and Fedora hat, found herself in a VIP area with P. Diddy and record producer Dallas Austin, the same man who’d let go of the song’…Baby One More Time’ for her to record in 1998. It is known that at around 2am, Diddy suggested to Britney that perhaps she should call it a night. The record label source said: ‘I know Diddy was saying, “You should go back, man,” but they wouldn’t. Britney wanted to stick with Dallas. What could these guys do ?’

 

[MakeMySugarFall]

1 hour ago, Ariana Grande said:

 

I mean  She was on something. Her heel snapped on stage. She didn't give a single flying fuck about her career at that point.

Let's just be grateful that it came to be an ICONIC moment on her career rather than the end of it.

 

 

It was supposed to be a medley between an unreleased song titled "Cry" and Gimme More.

Here's more about what news articles talked about it at the time:

  Reveal hidden contents

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Pop singer Britney Spears plans to debut her new song, “Cry,” at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas, USA Today reported Tuesday.

Spears is also expected to perform her single, “Gimme More,” at Sunday’s awards show. Both songs are off her untitled album set for release Nov. 13.

“Gimme More” was warmly received when it debuted on some radio stations last week. It officially drops Friday.

Dancer Ruben Dario told heybritney.com that Spears’ VMA performance will include a mirror trick in which she seems to appear and disappear. He said that is why she was seen with illusionist Criss Angel last month.

One expert said this could be a good opportunity for Spears.

"She can have a public image that says mom-and-pop icon and do it tastefully," Amanda Sanders of New York Image Consultants, told USA Today. "In the past, she has used these performances to inject shock value but she needs to avoid it this time. She's a little bit older and she should look a little wiser."

 

...

 

Aminah Abdul Jillil (backup dancer): Because it was the first time it was in Vegas, her team consulted with a magician, Criss Angel. He'd even come into our rehearsals because they were planning to have some sort of magic trick reveal. It didn't end up working, but they put a lot into that performance because it was her first time back in a while.

...

She rehearsed a lot with us. I remember for that one more so we rehearsed first. They got us underway first with all the choreography because we did rehearse a long time for the 2007 one. I believe it was like three weeks—three or four weeks. If I can remember, it was the first two weeks was just the dancers, and then once they got us set, they brought her in.

 

And here's an extract of an article about what allegedly happened that night, but take it with a pinch of salt because only Britney knows for certain.   They mention she didn't rehearse when in fact she did, we even got video proof of her at rehearsals, twice  The one with the crop top and hat and the one where she's wearing a ponytail:

 Added those parts at the end just so no one gets confused or whatever.  

  Reveal hidden contents

" Ten days before the VMAs, representatives from MTV, Jive and The Firm all gathered for a rehearsal in the dance studio. What they witnessed excited everyone. The source close to the record label said: ‘Everyone was psyched; Brit was effectively going through the motions and not at full speed, but she was ready. Was it great ? No. Was she back to her best ? No. But that girl had turned things around and was TV-ready’ There had been continued meetings ‘at least twice a week’ to ensure Britney stayed on track and mission impossible was close to succeeding.

On the eve of the show, the expected plan was that Britney would leave a pre-VMA party at the Hard Rock Hotel and retire to her suite in preparation for the big day. Instead, she hit the Vegas club-scene with Alli, attending the nearby Beatles Bar before proceeding to Jet nightclub at The Mirage.  After 3am, the group then proceeded to a party in a hotel suite until beyond 4am and, ‘it was obvious that Britney had been drinking like a fish that night.’  

The next morning, as Britney slept through till noon, the phones were melting with calls between MTV producers, Jive Records and The Firm management about the previous night’s antics, but the calmed consensus was that, ‘Brit had done the routine so many times she could do it with her eyes closed…She’ll be fine.’ 

But Britney’s mood, whether hangover induced or not, was plainly tetchy and she’d told her bodyguards she ‘wanted no one near me.’ When she withdrew to her dressing room, Alli did her job and obeyed instructions not to let anyone in, not even her record label representatives or Michelle Dupont. The rep who’d steered Britney through an intense five-week preparation was suddenly barred by an assistant who had decided to stay away until the big occasion beckoned.

In the dressing room, Britney’s anxieties were raging and she decided it would be a good idea to start drinking shots to calm her nerves. Whatever speculation there may have been about what Britney was taking before her performance, the mystery can now end—it was tequila shots, one after the other. Her prickliness wasn’t helped when Justin Timberlake popped by with a ‘good luck’ message. ‘He was cool and couldn’t have been friendlier but that definitely wigged her out more,’ said the source.

The camp’s spirits slightly rose when the positive influence of Britney’s brother, Bryan, showed up but, as one of the team said, ‘the writing was already on the wall because she was already f***** and freaking out over the littlest thing.’ As the source who is assisting with this backstage picture wishes to make clear: ‘Brit is someone wanting to be loved, not used, not treated like a robot, not there for everyone else to make money, and not working all the time. She’s never known what it’s like to make her own choices so she doesn’t know what a smart choice means. It was inevitable that she was going to reach the “F*** It, F*** You!” stage. The great sadness is that she reached it in the run-up to this big moment. But people need to understand that this wasn’t one moment: it was the culmination of many events that went before it.’

Panicking and in fear, Britney started to act out—guided by her twitching impulses. It was, by now, 90 minutes before the show began, and hair stylist Ken Paves, himself immaculate and groomed, entered the dressing room with an assistant, carrying the golden hair extensions in his little box. After his warm welcome in LA, he wasn’t expecting the frost that greeted him. ‘I don’t like him! I want his assistant,’ announced Britney. In the awkward moments that followed, his assistant quite rightly pledged her loyalty to Ken. As he diplomatically tried to smooth ruffled feathers, Britney instructed her bodyguard to eject him from her room.

The bodyguard, merely doing his job, forcibly removed the Hollywood stylist. In the corridor outside, observers saw Ken being shoved out the door, remonstrating loudly that ‘I’ve never been so insulted in my life!’ He was still carrying the hair extensions, carefully tissue-wrapped in his kit. Had MTV cameras managed to capture this opening act in the ensuing comedy of errors, it would have surely captured its best-ever behind-the-scenes special. Management and record label representatives were meanwhile on the floor in the auditorium, reassuring one another—and MTV producers—that everything was back on track after the night before.

Then word came through: ‘Britney’s just fired Ken Paves.’ As the situation was elevated to a code-red, management and record label finally gained access to the dressing room to speak with Britney. She explained that she didn’t like Ken’s attitude. ‘That’s great, Brit, but you need him right now. He has your hair extensions,’ she was told. Britney pondered this reality: ‘Okay then, he can come back,’ she said.

By now an understandably indignant hair stylist was many floors above, after retreating to his hotel room. Ken Paves wasn’t answering his phone or his door. Colleagues say he was ‘beside himself’. Now, with one headstrong artiste to control, and one upset stylist to calm, the team had a difficult impasse to resolve. With Ken in lock-down, and expressing his candid thoughts about Britney, a truce wasn’t imminent. In her dressing room, Britney seemed oblivious to the distress she had caused.

In the corridor, MTV runners and producers grew agitated with the clock running down. ‘Where are her f****** hair extensions?!’ asked someone. ‘With Ken Paves,’ explained the label. ‘And where’s he? ’ ‘In his room…but we’re working on it.’ It dawned on MTV that their opening act was playing up—and she had no hair. Suddenly, Nelly Furtado’s stylist came to the rescue, offering her assistance—but Britney still needed hair extensions.

It was then decided that the only option was to get the keys for the hotel hair salon, open it up and use some of its hair extensions. The source said: ‘It was amazing the curve-balls that were being thrown that night, and even more amazing that we were begging for Britney’s hair from the hotel salon, but by now everyone was frying—apart from Britney.’

In her dressing room, Britney was observed knocking back another shot. Once Nelly Furtado’s stylist had saved the day and ‘done her best’, everyone was asked to leave the dressing room so that Britney could slip into her striking Trish Somerville one-piece. ‘I’ve got it,’ Alli reassured everyone, ‘but she cannot talk to anyone right now.’ If anyone was accustomed to these temperamental moments, it was Alli, and so everyone decided to back off. The dressing-room door shut, and the lock clicked.

Britney was locked away with her assistant and another friend. With half an hour to go before MTV went live, its producers still found Britney locked inside with her pensive team on the outside. This wasn’t the most reassuring sight. The source said: ‘Now the producers started freaking out, saying, “Will she come out? Why can’t you get her to come out ?!”’ Every time anyone knocked, the door remained locked. ‘Ten minutes, everyone! We’ve got ten minutes,’ someone shouted. Seven minutes before going live’, and to everyone’s relief, they heard the dressing-room door unlock.

As it pulled open, Britney came into view—but she wasn’t wearing the designated Trish Somerville, flattering one-piece. What the f***?!’ someone else shouted. Britney, wearing her hotel salon hair extensions, stood there in a black bra, black hot pants and fishnets, showing an unflattering paunch. When her team looked in her eyes, ‘it was obvious she was somewhere else but present.’ That perhaps explained why she didn’t see the collective look of horror that greeted her from the faces around her.

Alli spoke for her instead, announcing Britney, ‘had wanted to go for it.’ Years of training had misled her that ‘sexy sells’, and so her low-esteem made a disastrous choice, and the assistant backed her. But the management wasn’t having it. Britney’s reps insisted she change back into the Trish Somerville outfit. ‘It’s too late…It’s too f***** late! We’ve got to get her on stage!’ shouted an MTV assistant, liaising through an earpiece with the control room, and Britney was led away. "

...

On the Friday evening before the Sunday broadcast, Britney, wearing a white crop-top and jeans, rehearsed a run-through of ‘Gimme More’ primarily for ‘camera blocking’ so that the telecast’s director knew her positions on stage. This process is never a full-speed rehearsal but everything still seemed fine as Britney went through the motions. ‘The odd person was a little alarmed,’ said the source, ‘because she didn’t seem to be trying but, I’ll tell you, had she delivered that rehearsal on the night, it would have been a hit. It wasn’t as great as back in LA but it was acceptable.’

Britney, wearing a beige silk dress and Fedora hat, found herself in a VIP area with P. Diddy and record producer Dallas Austin, the same man who’d let go of the song’…Baby One More Time’ for her to record in 1998. It is known that at around 2am, Diddy suggested to Britney that perhaps she should call it a night. The record label source said: ‘I know Diddy was saying, “You should go back, man,” but they wouldn’t. Britney wanted to stick with Dallas. What could these guys do ?’

 

I actually like the performance tbh. Britney's live one. It's interesting viewing it well beyond 2007 breakdown. I just didn't like the choreography in general lmao. 

[Ariana Grande]

On 26/6/2017 at 6:54 PM, MakeMySugarFall said:

I actually like the performance tbh. Britney's live one. It's interesting viewing it well beyond 2007 breakdown. I just didn't like the choreography in general lmao. 

Funny enough, I still wish she would perform this exact choreo again some day  Just like she doesn't dare to change IAS4U's original choreo.  

I just find it fitting to the song. It's raunchy but not a la Lady Gaga DWUW with that guy   

[MakeMySugarFall]

12 minutes ago, Ariana Grande said:

Funny enough, I still wish she would perform this exact choreo again some day  Just like she doesn't dare to change IAS4U's original choreo.  

I just find it fitting to the song. It's raunchy but not a la Lady Gaga DWUW with that guy   

I think if she ever changed IAS4U's iconic breakdown I might keel over and die. That is my FAVORITE. 

[Ariana Grande]

On 28/6/2017 at 9:23 AM, MakeMySugarFall said:

I think if she ever changed IAS4U's iconic breakdown I might keel over and die. That is my FAVORITE. 

Original choreos are LIFE!

That's why it makes me so mad that they pay dust to Gimme More and 3  

The only choreo that's better than the original is Womanizer 2016 version  That breakdown is the highlight of the show tbh.