She’s been a Britney Spears fan for nearly a decade and when the curtains rise on the head-shaving, privates-flashing pop starlet tonight, there’s little doubt where Mina Almai will be.
“I’ve been counting down the days for the past month and a half,” said the 24-year-old Vancouverite. “I just love her. Honestly, she’s like my favourite. I heart Britney.”
Spears will be at GM Place tonight for the 20th stop of her international tour in promotion of Circus, her sixth studio album. It is part of a comeback that’s been put in serious jeopardy after countless headline-grabbing shenanigans over the past few years, which include shaving her head, attacking a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella, losing her children, getting them back and being placed under conservatorship.
For Almai, it only adds to the entertainment value.
“I love how messed up she is because it’s fun to follow her in the media and read about her in the papers when she’s causing havoc,” she said. “I enjoy it.”
Daniel Lim, 21, will also be at the show tonight.
“I really don’t know what to expect,” he said, “but (her comeback) is viable. After Blackout, I think so.”
The overall tone of official reviews so far has been OK at best. Some reviewers have criticized the former Mouseketeer’s risqué costumes and content, calling them inappropriate for her young fanbase, while others have pointed out that she appears to lip-sync most songs.
Many have said she appears lost among the neon-coloured chaos of clowns, dancers and trapeze artists.
“Somewhere within all the camera flashes, the glitter, the exotic costumes and the vinyl boots stood a forlorn Britney Spears,” wrote Francois Marchand of the Edmonton Journal about Monday’s show, “doing her thing amidst a spectacle that seemed focused on everything but her own performance.”
But Almai cares not for reviewers’ high-falutin’.
“They just need to lighten up,” said Almai. “People are so critical. It’s just something fun with a fun beat.”
Spears’s Circus tour currently comprises Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
On June 3, she is scheduled to hit London — where she’ll do eight sold-out shows — before wrapping up in Manchester on June 17.
There were recent discussions about expanding the tour to include Australia, though this has not yet been confirmed.
