I’ve always been a Britney Spears sceptic.

When the former Mouseketeer first pranced around in her sexy schoolgirl outfit for her Baby One More Time music video in 1998, I rolled my eyes and dismissed her as another flash-in-the-pan pop tart.

Turns out I was wrong, because Spears went on to become a pop princess and survive 18 more years in the music industry.

Her ninth studio album, Glory, which will be released this Friday on iTunes and in digital music stores, is billed as a comeback for the 34-year-old US singer.

In truth, it’s just the latest in a series of comebacks for Spears, who has been through many ups and downs in her career.

While her 1999 debut album Baby One More Time racked up 30 million global sales, her last record, 2013’s Britney Jean, was her least successful, selling 700,000 copies worldwide.

In a fickle world where most artists have the shelf life of a packet of keropok, she alternates between staying fresh and reinventing herself, and risking getting stale with the same old shopworn ideas.

So is the 2016 Britney Spears growing Stronger, or suffering from a case of Oops!… I Did It Again?

IMAGE

Britney Spears in her video for Make Me… her single from her ninth album Glory. Photo: YouTube Screenshot

Over the years, Spears has favoured full-on sexy costumes a la her I’m A Slave 4 U era that leave little to the imagination.

She often looks like she is posing for a 90s issue of Playboy, and the black-and-white lace lingerie-inspired outfits in the MV for new single Make Me… are no exception.

Would it kill her to be more fashion-forward and ooze sex appeal in a classier way? Seems like Spears is stuck in a fashion time warp… and a serious rut.

VERDICT: OOPS!… I DID IT AGAIN

MUSIC

Catchy dance anthems like Womanizer and Toxic have always been a staple for Spears.

But her attempt to stay current with Pretty Girls, last year’s pop-rap collaboration with Aussie rapper Iggy Azalea, was a flop.

She might have more luck with her latest offerings though. Make Me… and Do You Wanna Come Over? combine that classic sultry Spears vibe with slick dance beats. It’s familiar to fans, yet has a fresh electronica sound courtesy of songwriters Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels, who also worked on Justin Bieber’s Sorry.

During an interview with On Air With Ryan Seacrest this month, Spears said of the 12-track Glory: “It’s cool, it’s really different. I think this is probably the most hip-hop album (I’ve done).

“There are like two or three songs that go in the direction of more urban that I’ve wanted to do for a long time now…

“It’s a really good record, and I’m very, very proud of it.”

She added: “It’s kind of like my baby and I took it very seriously.”

VERDICT: STRONGER

LIVE SHOWS

In her heyday, Spears could really command the stage.

Her last performance of Gimme More at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in 2007 was shot down for being dull, but she’ll have another chance to wow audiences at this year’s show with Make Me…

Her return to the VMAs stage is one of the highly-anticipated highlights of the annual ceremony, which will air over MTV Asia (StarHub TV Ch 533/SingTel TV Ch 350) on Aug 29 at 8am.

Having helmed her Las Vegas residency show Britney: Piece Of Me since 2013, Spears has had lots of practice honing her dance moves and stage presence.

No wonder she received rave reviews for her electrifying performance at the Billboard Music Awards in May, where she shimmied to hits like Work B**** and I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.

There’s nothing particularly fresh about her moves, but she dances like a woman recharged and raring to go.

VERDICT: STRONGER

LOVE LIFE

Poor Spears has not had much luck with men.

She has been married twice, to childhood friend Jason Alexander and to former backup dancer Kevin Federline, with whom she has two sons, Sean Preston, 10, and Jayden James, nine.

She dated TV producer Charlie Ebersol for eight months before splitting up last year and she broke her engagement with former agent Jason Trawick in 2013.

Still, she called herself a “hopeless romantic” during an interview with Australian radio show Rove and Sam on Hit 104.1 earlier this month.

She said: “I’ve been through horrible relationships, but unfortunately, I still believe in love and I think you should protect your heart and stuff like that.”

Looks like her quest for love is set to continue… for now.

VERDICT: OOPS!… I DID IT AGAIN

Spears has managed to retain her retro 90s appeal while pulling some new tricks out of the bag. She is clearly chasing Glory with her latest album and with a long-overdue style overhaul and hopefully a great new man in her life, she could soon be having it all.

This article was first published on August 24, 2016.
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Even though local actor Li Nanxing famously played a father of quadruplets on the 2003 Channel 8 TV series Baby Boom, it was not as scary as handling a four-month-old infant for the police drama C.L.I.F. 4, which starts next month.

Even after all these years, the 51-year-old still does not have the “baby touch”.

What is ironic is that his co-star Rui En does. Ironic because she said, before filming for C.L.I.F. 4 started, that she would rather not work with babies because “they can be difficult (and) do not care that the camera is rolling”, though she later retracted her comments.

In C.L.I.F. 4, which premieres on Sept 6 at 9pm, Li reprises his role as Wei Lantian, assistant superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department and the husband of Rui En’s inspector character Huang Zhijie.

This season, they become first-time parents and have a four-month-old girl.

Li Nanxing stars alongside Rui En, playing her husband, in the Channel 8 police TV drama C.L.I.F. 4. Their characters have a four-month-old daughter. Photo: Instagram

At the show’s press conference yesterday, Li told M in a mix of Mandarin and English: “(In Baby Boom), the quadruplets were older. (This baby) was very fragile because she was only four months old, so we had to be patient with her. I felt nervous handling her, especially when she cried. I panicked.”

He joked: “Rui En told me, ‘Can you treat her more gently?’ Whenever Rui En carried the baby, she would be calm, but when I carried her, she would be crying.”

Rui En did not attend the press conference because she is on leave. According to Lianhe Zaobao, she is in New Zealand for a month to visit her father, who emigrated from Singapore years ago.

On Rui En’s 7kg weight gain for her previous TV drama If Only I Could and the fact that she still appeared chubby in C.L.I.F. 4, Li said: “I think it suits her mum role (here) because it is after her confinement period, where she has to take care of the baby.”

Although they have been paired up for three seasons of C.L.I.F., Li said they are not close outside of work.

While in the middle of filming C.L.I.F. 4 in April, the 35-year-old local actress was involved in a high-profile accident at the Clementi Avenue 2 carpark. She was turning right into an open air carpark and lost control of her black BMW, which mounted a kerb and collided with a parked motorcycle.

The episode put her in a bad light with the public, as many were unhappy about the way she handled things initially.

GAVE HER SPACE

Li himself was infamously involved in a drink driving accident in 1997. He was fined $4,000 and given a 30-month driving suspension. He did not offer Rui En advice on how to cope because his case was different from her situation.

He said: “What I did was to give her space to calm herself down because it happened suddenly. We needed to give her time to process and reflect on her own… because everyone makes mistakes.

“I could tell that she was very sad on set (after the accident), but we just had to leave her alone.”

Li said Rui En was still a “professional on set” and knew how to separate her personal problem from work.

He also commended the way she apologised and bowed on stage at the Star Awards Show 1 in April, saying: “I think it is up to the individual (on how he handles his own situation), but for her to (do that), I could tell that she was sincere.”

This article was first published on August 24, 2016.
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