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I Spent Thousands Of Dollars To Meet Britney Spears For Exactly 1 Minute
Photo credit: Pinterest
There was Britney Spears, smiling, in a pale pink, midriff-baring top and low-slung skinny jeans, with her hair messily thrown up in a not-cute ponytail. Her extensions were showing. She smelled sweet, like candy, like a teenager who had just discovered fragrances for the first time. Her eyes were darkened black with too much makeup. It was very Britney.
“Hi,” she said, in a tiny mouse-like voice. Also very Britney, because Britney, if you don’t know, is extremely shy. She is the most shy person.
“Hi,” I replied, also in a tiny mouse-like voice. I am also extremely shy.
That was in 2018, and it was the first and only time I met my idol, during which, I promptly blacked out.
Strangers think it’s insane that I willingly spent $2,500 to meet Britney for all of one minute. Actually, people who know me also think it’s crazy, but they get it. They understand. I’ve been obsessed with Britney for more than two decades.
I bought her first album ...Baby One More Time in 1999, along with 10 million other people. And even now, I can’t quite pinpoint what it was about her that made me listen to her album on repeat at 11 years old. Was it her energy? Her enthusiasm? Her songs? I’m pretty sure it was all of the above. I do want to note here that I’m known to have an obsessive personality: If I like something, I really, really like it. I idolized Britney from the first album, but this deeply profound, next-level, all-consuming obsession didn’t present itself until the third album, which surprises a lot of people, who assume it began right away.
I was in seventh grade when Britney dropped, and I listened to the album over and over again. I have really intense memories tied to a lot of songs—my favorite track is “Cinderella,” by the way, which you’re not going to know because it wasn’t a single or a hit like “I’m a Slave 4 U” or “Not Yet a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” But it was catchy, and I don’t know, it just spoke to me. This album was at the peak of her career, and it defines that era of my life. When you’re becoming a teenager, and you’re beginning to have crushes, every emotion feels incredibly intense. Britney is older than me, though not that much older—just by a few years—so I felt that a lot of things she was singing about were things I was going through, too.
Everyone loved Britney (my friends and I did choreographed dances to her songs back then, and we’d perform these routines for our families), but I knew I loved her more than others because I was always talking about her and I was always listening to her. And I knew everything about her, or at least as much I could gather without Instagram, Facebook, or, well, technology at my disposal. I had to sift through every magazine to find information about her. I bought every issue with her on the cover, and I cut out every article I came across, carefully saving them in protective plastic sleeves and archiving them in binders so I could re-read them again and again. There were about 400 articles in total. My parents thought I was insane. They still think I’m insane, actually.
My parents aren’t concert people—and they definitely don’t go to concerts if they don’t like the artist. But on my 16th birthday, they got me concert tickets to her Onyx Hotel tour. And these were good tickets—first or second row and center seats—and it came with an autographed picture. There are photos of me from that night, opening the card with the tickets in it, with the biggest smile on my face. I was so happy. But then she canceled. She filmed a music video for “Outrageous” and hurt her ankle (she still has that injury) and canceled the whole last leg of her tour. I was devastated. I cried. I was angry, hurt, frustrated, and I took it very personally. I told everyone that I was mad at her, that I didn’t like her anymore, that she ruined my life.
Of course, that didn’t last long.
My first Britney concert happened completely by accident. I was 20 and on the night before her birthday—December 2—my friend and I went to New York City to attend an album release party at the Virgin megastore in Times Square for Circus, which had dropped days earlier. We were going to go back home to Connecticut after, but there were rumors at the party that she was planning to perform at Big Apple Circus for the Good Morning America show the very next day at 7 a.m. So around midnight, my friend and I, along with random people we met at the party, headed to Big Apple Circus, and waited on the street, not knowing if we were going to see her at all. There weren’t signs or staff or anything. It wasn’t until 6:30 a.m. that people started showing up, and around 7, E! News filmed the scene and I was interviewed, which I don’t remember at all. Eventually, we got in, and she performed “Circus,” and it was amazing. I remember screaming a lot because this was my first time seeing her! I was supposed to see her when I was 16, and it took only four more years!
As an adult, I’ve seen her in concert 10 times. I really think it’s to make up for the fact I didn’t get to see her when I was younger. I felt like I missed out. When she announced her Las Vegas residency, my boyfriend Liam and I immediately bought tickets for her first show in February—and we went again later that year. We saw her in Vegas a total of four times. I like to think that Britney brought us together, because Liam is also obsessed with her—though not as much as me. He’s a few years younger than me and we met one summer while we were both working at a restaurant after I graduated college. His girlfriend at the time was working with us and she knew I loved Britney and she said, “My boyfriend really loves Britney Spears—let me introduce you.” That’s how we bonded. I think he was surprised to find that I was the first person he ever met who liked Britney more than he did.
And then when she announced her 2018 Piece of Me tour, I knew I had to go. There was a New York City date and a Connecticut one, and Liam and I got tickets to both. For the Connecticut show, I bought a $2,500 meet-and-greet ticket on pre-sale, which comes with a front-row seat, but no one else wanted to do it with me, which is fine. I’ve been to her concerts by myself—there’s a sense of solidarity, of comfort that I feel when I’m among other Britney fans. I’m alone, but not really.
For months leading up to the meet-and-greet, I was freaking out. I planned exactly what I wanted to say to her. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her, how I looked up to her, how she brings joy to my life, and how I have a tattoo that symbolizes her. My Britney tattoo, which I got when I was 19, is of a fairy that used to be a part of her signature and is an emblem on her first few albums. I didn’t want her face, but something that was representative of her—and Britney loves fairies. It’s a symbol she has in her home, and she has a fairy tattoo (a different one) on her back. I had my speech prepared—it was just a few sentences long—so I thought I was prepared.
Meet-and-greets happen before the concert. So an hour before, with a group of about 20 others, we took a backstage tour and then waited in line to meet her. I was very nervous. I could not breathe. I was sweating. I started breaking out in hives. All of a sudden, it’s my turn, and they’re shoving me into this room. I didn’t say my speech at all. Didn’t mention my tattoo. Nothing. I think I mumbled, “I love you?” and gave her a hug, and we both awkwardly posed for the photo.
When I was about to leave, I heard someone from Britney’s team tell me that she loved my palm tree tattoo. She called Britney over and Britney goes, “It’s so beautiful, I love it.” So we had an extra 30 seconds to talk about my tattoo, even though it wasn’t the Britney fairy one. I wish I actually talked to her. I wish I said what I wanted to say, but I’m happy with the experience. When I shared our photo on Instagram, people who I haven’t spoken to for 10-plus years reached out and were like, “I can’t believe you actually met her,” or “your life must be complete,” or “I’m so happy for you.”
Would I do it again? Yes. I would love to meet her again. And again. And again and again. I don’t know if she will ever do meet-and-greets again, because she’s on a hiatus. And did I mention she’s extremely shy?
And blacked out.
