Britney Spears Falls Short of Stunning at VMAs Comeback

“I still get very nervous,” noted Britney Spears of playing MTV’s Video Music Awards this week in a widely publicized radio interview. Luckily for the pop starlet’s constitution, she hasn’t had to do that in quite a while.

Although the VMAs have historically been the site of Spears’s fiercest moments – the near-naked bodysuit (in 2000)! The snake (in 2001)! The kiss (with Madonna, in 2003)! – the awards show also hosted her landmark rock-bottom moment, namely her foggy performance of “Gimme More” in 2007, which drew criticism from everyone, except perhaps vlogger Chris Crocker.

Spears cleaned up and made good with MTV, winning the VMAs’ Best Video Award in 2008 and the Video Vanguard Award in 2011, and even going so far as to be a presenter in 2015. She also kept her profile up in other areas of the music awards world – most recently, a notable career medley at the Billboard Music Awards earlier this year – but still hasn’t performed on the VMAs stage for nearly a decade.

When she took the stage Sunday night to perform her single “Make Me” featuring G-Eazy – which, incidentally, she was originally scheduled to perform at the BBMAs in May – anticipation was at an all-time high. Thankfully, there would be no second disaster at the VMAs this year – that much was clear. However, Spears’s performance, although competent enough, nevertheless felt a bit anticlimactic. Was this it after nine years away? One could only wish for a re-emergence of reptiles, or another makeout session with a game peer (perhaps Kim Kardashian West, who announced Spears’s performance).

In all, the “comeback” was on par with the response to Spears’s new album, Glory: OK, but just that. Perhaps there was too much anticipation for any star, even one with her own Las Vegas residency, to possibly live up to.