Piece of Me Tour

The Piece of Me Tour (also referred to as Piece of Me: Exclusive Limited Tour) was the tenth concert tour by American entertainer Britney Spears. Although it largely mirrors her Las Vegas residency, Britney: Piece of Me, which concluded in December 2017; the stage-show was updated with new remixes, production technology, visuals and set list modifications to accommodate for arena shows.

After performing 11 shows during the summer of 2017 in Asia, under a concert tour titled Britney: Live in Concert, the show was adapted to be performed in various select cities across North America and Europe. The tour was announced in January 2018, and began in July. The tour ranked at numbers 86 and 30 on Pollstar's 2018 Year-End Top 100 Tours chart both in North America and worldwide, respectively. In total, the tour grossed $54.3 million with 260,531 tickets sold and was the sixth highest-grossing female tour of 2018, and was the United Kingdom's second best-selling female tour of 2018.

On September 5, 2018, it was announced that the tour was nominated for People's Choice Concert Tour of 2018 at the 44th People's Choice Awards.

Background

Following the release of Spears' ninth studio album, '' Glory'', she expressed interest in performing internationally again. In March 2017, after several publications began leaking details about Spears' planned international shows, she confirmed the planned tour by announcing concert dates in the Philippines and Israel. In the weeks following the announcement, Spears revealed additional Asian tour dates. Spears performed in the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Israel for the first time during the tour. A special tour edition of her ninth studio album was released on May 31, to coincide with the start of the tour.

On December 22, 2017, Spears announced she will be bringing the show to Denmark for the Smukfest. On January 23, 2018, Spears announced dates for North America and Europe. On February 13, 2018, Spears announced additional dates for the UK and Paris. Spears also announced Pitbull will join her across selected dates in Europe.

Shows in the United States are sponsored by PepsiCo, while the UK shows are sponsored by Britney Spears Fragrances.

In a court testimony regarding her conservatorship in June 2021, Spears revealed she was forced by her management to do the Piece of Me Tour, citing that they claimed they could sue her if she did not follow through with it, going against her wishes of taking a break from performing after her four-year run in Las Vegas. In an earlier court testimony leaked by ''The New York Times'', Spears added that her management also forced her to go through a concert despite her having a 102 °F fever, with fans later pointing out that this concert was likely one of the Atlantic City stops of the tour.

Critical reception

The tour received polarizing reviews throughout its run. Cristina Jerome from the ''Miami New Times'' stated "The Piece of Me Tour was for Britney Spears' day-one fans. The Princess of Pop allowed her audience to experience her career from the late '90s to the present day while sprinkling in a few hits from her latest studio album, Glory." Although complementing Spears' show production and stage presence, accusations of lip-syncing were mentioned. In defence of Spears' lip-syncing accusations, Louis Staples from ''The Independent'' reviews the record-breaking Brighton Pride concert; "It is Spears' strength and vulnerability in the face of her troubles that most endears her to her fans. She is instantly forgiven for things that would normally sink other stars, such as her well-known aversion to live singing." Later mentioning that fans attend purely for the hits and "her glittery performance proves that few people can match her cultural impact, or personify the words "icon" or "megastar" quite like her. Twenty years on, people still want a piece of Spears." Emma Kelly from ''Metro'' said: "The pop legend, the phoenix who rose from a messy divorce, a breakdown and intense public scrutiny, has brought her Las Vegas residency Piece Of Me across the world, and last night it hit London's O2 Arena. After seeing Britney at Brighton Pride, a concert that saw 57,000 people scream 'Who is it?' at the stage ahead of Gimme More, I wasn't sure how much the concert could improve. But Britney is definitely an arena girl – and last night's show proved it."

Commercial performance

Demand in Europe and the United Kingdom saw ticket sites crashing, sparking Spears to add additional dates in London, Blackpool and Paris. Tickets were sold-out in under 10 minutes for her date at 3Arena in Dublin; however, with a strict touring schedule, no additional date was added. The tour was named the second best-selling female tour in the United Kingdom in 2018, according to ''StubHub'', only behind Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour. In Oslo, the Piece of Me Tour was performed to over 20,000 spectators, making it one of Spears' highest European (excluding the United Kingdom) concert-attendances in her touring history.

The concert in Bethlehem set a new record for the venue (previously held by The 1975), for the fastest-selling tickets in the venue.
Spears' first date as part of her European leg was the Brighton Pride Festival, which was attended by a record-breaking crowd of 57,000 at Brighton's Preston Park. On August 11, 2018, Spears performed for 10,951 fans at Göransson Arena, Sweden, and broke the 10,500-record set by Scorpions in 2012.

On September 26, 2018, Spears was ranked at #17 on ''Pollstar''s Concert Pulse with $13.1 million gross and 100,891 tickets sold in eight cities. This total are including two nights at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, which sold 11,887 tickets and grossed $2.7 million, three shows at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, which sold 9,756 tickets and grossed $1.98 million, Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, which sold 6,998 tickets and grossed $946,100 and the first report from the 18-date European tour at Antwerps Sportpaleis in Belgium, which sold out 16,787 tickets and grossed $1.4 million.

The Piece of Me Tour ranked at 86 and 30 on Pollstar's 2018 Year-End Top 100 Tours chart both in North America and worldwide, respectively. In total, the tour grossed $54.3 million with 260,531 tickets sold and was the sixth highest-grossing female tour of 2018, and was the United Kingdom's second best-selling female tour of 2018.

Set list

This set list is representative of the show on July 12, 2018, in National Harbor, Maryland. It is not intended to represent all shows.

#"Work Bitch"
#"Womanizer"
#" Break the Ice"
#"Piece of Me"
#" ...Baby One More Time"
#" Oops!... I Did It Again"
#"Me Against the Music"
#"Gimme More"
#" Clumsy"
#"Change Your Mind (No Seas Cortes)"
#"Boys"
#" Do You Wanna Come Over?"
#" Work It" / " Get Ur Freak On" / "WTF (Where They From)"
#" I'm a Slave 4 U"
#" Make Me"
#"Freakshow"
#"Do Somethin'"
#"Circus"
#"If U Seek Amy"
#"Breathe on Me"
#"Slumber Party"
#"Touch of My Hand"
#"Toxic"
#" Stronger"
#" (You Drive Me) Crazy"
;Encore
#

"Till the World Ends"

Notes
* Starting on August 08, "Slumber Party" and "Touch of My Hand" were cut from the set list.

Tour dates

Notes

References

External links

Official website

{{Britney Spears

2018 concert tours
Britney Spears concert tours