WhileBritney Spearsrose to stardom primarily through her hit songs, she occasionally performed covers during live shows. In the past, the pop princess has covered throwback hits like Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” andMadonna’s “Material Girl” during her concert tours. These performances served as tributes to artists she was inspired by, while also allowing Spears to experiment and express her current musical preferences.
By singing covers, Spears could also better connect with her fanswho, besides enjoying her music, certainly enjoyed other artists as well. More importantly, singing covers outside her usual repertoire allowed Spears to demonstrate that there was more to her than just the “pop princess” public persona. Indeed, there’s no better illustration of this than her 2009Circustour performance of an Alanis Morissette classic, “You Oughta Know.”
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Few musicians were hotter than Britney Spears in the early years of the 21st century. Her immense popularity made her a concert tour goldmine. From 2000 to 2004, her consistently sold-out concerts set a new standard for pop music productions. Unfortunately, her early touring success was cut short in 2004 following a knee injury Spears sustained while filming the music video for her single “Outrageous.“Spears subsequently canceled the remainingOnyx Hotel Tourshows because she required surgeryandwould need time to fully recover.
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Spears didn’t launch another full-fledged concert tour until 2009, due to various circumstances (including becoming a mother and ongoing personal issues). It’s safe to say thatthe Spears who emerged on theCircustour was not the same one fans saw in 2004. While Britney Spears had covered other artists on tour throughout her career, theCircustour marked the first time she performedAlanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.”
In 2007, Spears embarked on a brief tour consisting of six performances known asThe M+M’s Tour, which took place in smaller venues in California, Nevada, and Florida. This tour was largely perceived as a rehearsal for a larger production that eventually became theCircustour.
Indeed, according toSetlist.fm, she performed the song six times (U.S. tour stops only), making it her ninth most-performed cover, just behind her idol Madonna’s “Burning Up.” The cover was well received; when Andy Cohen asked Morissette onWatch What Happens Liveabout Spears’s inclusion of her song in the tour, Morissette responded, “Awesome.”
Spears' “You Oughta Know” Showed Her Darker Side
The Morissette Song Angrily Holds Wrong-doers Accountable
By 2009, Spears had become a single mother of two, having navigated two tumultuous marriages and numerous high-profile controversies involving her lawyers, family, and romantic partners. The innocent, carefree image that defined the pop stars' early rise to fame had given way to a more mature reality. Now, approaching thirty,Spears had spent her entire adult life in the spotlight, accumulating the scars and wisdom that came with it. As such,there is perhaps no better song to capture Britney Spears’ tumultuous transition from a widely adored teen idol to an often-criticized global icon than Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.”
While Morissette’s lyrics convey raw anger and heartbreak over betrayal by a former lover, in Spears’ case, her anger could be directed at multiple “targets.” The anger and vulnerability Morissette expresses in the song closely mirror Spears’ own experiences during the difficult years between 2004 and 2009. Furthermore, it evokes a darker side of Spears — a Spears who, as the song implies, wishes for her persecutors to truly feel the weight of their actions. Indeed, the number of times she performed the cover during the tour suggests thatSpearswanted her message to be heard as loudly and clearly as possible.
