No, it wasn’t 2000 and former boyfriend Justin Timberlake wasn’t fawning from the front row. But when Britney Spears opened the annual Billboard Music Awards on Sunday in Las Vegas, she did so with a platinum confidence that suggested she’d time-traveled into the present.
The pop star’s big curtain-raiser, arriving a few years after her return-to-spotlight album “Britney Jean,” was, of course, a spectacle. She wore a red spangled bikini, thigh-high boots and a head-set microphone that suggested she might have to sing a few words to augment her obvious vocal track.
Yes, she had help with the vocals, but that’s no surprise. This is the Billboard Music Awards, after all, and Britney was in dance mode. Nor was it news that she delivered a well-rehearsed medley of hits that rolled from her post-Mouseketeers beginnings through her reign as commercial pop powerhouse.
But Spears should be loose and comfortable up there. The artist is two years into a Vegas run of her show “Piece of Me.” Since late 2013, she’s been contracted to do 50 shows per year at Planet Hollywood.
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FOR THE RECORD
9:42 a.m. May 23: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Britney Spears is contracted to do 50 shows per year at the Hard Rock Cafe. The contract is for Planet Hollywood.
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Justin Bieber, Kesha, center, and Rihanna were among those who performed at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards held in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena.
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Madonna performs a tribute to Prince during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena.
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Stevie Wonder and Madonna perform a tribute to Prince.
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Musician/TV personality Questlove speaks about Prince.
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Rihanna accepts the Billboard Chart Achievement Award.
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Ariana Grande performs with dancers watching.
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Ariana Grande performs.
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Celine Dion performs “The Show Must Go On.”
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Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani perform “Go Ahead and Break My Heart” at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Recording artist Rihanna performs onstage.
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Demi Lovato performs “Cool For The Summer” at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Justin Bieber accepts the award for top male artist.
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Recording artists Zendaya and Wiz Khalifa speak onstage.
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Ben Folds, left, and Kesha perform “It Ain’t Me Babe” at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Serayah
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Joe Jonas of DNCE performs during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.
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JinJoo Lee, left, Joe Jonas and Cole Whittle of DNCE perform “Cake by the Ocean” at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Actress Kate Beckinsale
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Kesha, left, Steven Tyler and Megan Trainor at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Co-hosts Ciara and Ludacris speak onstage during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.
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Meghan Trainor performs “No” at the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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Ally Brooke, left, Dinah-Jane Hansen, Camila Cabello, Lauren Jauregui and Normani Hamilton of Fifth Harmony.
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Justin Bieber and producer Skrillex have been sued over the hook for their single “Sorry.” (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)
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Recording artist Pink.
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Singer Pink, suspended in the air as she often is in her performances, performs onstage during the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena.
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Recording artist Britney Spears opens the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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Britney Spears brings a cadre of dancers onstage at th Billboard Music Awards.
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Wiz Khalifa accepts the award for top 100 song for “See You Again” at the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena.
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Recording artist Shawn Mendes performs onstage.
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Priyaka Chopra, co-hosts Ludacris and Ciara, and Laverne Cox
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Actresses Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn and Mila Kunis attend the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.
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Rihanna, Nick Jonas and Ariana Grande.
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Singer Britney Spears attends the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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Seal arrives at the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena.
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Recording artists Abby Travis, left, Gina Schock, Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of music group the Go-Go’s.
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Singer-songwriter Rachel Platten, left pre-show co-host Laura Marano and TV personality Sibley Scoles.
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Ally Brooke,left, Normani Hamilton, Dinah-Jane Hansen, Lauren Jauregui and Camila Cabello of Fifth Harmony arrive at the Billboard Music Awards.
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Halsey
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Pre-show co-host AJ Gibson.
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Recording artists Jack Lawless, left, JinJoo Lee, Joe Jonas and Cole Whittle of music group DNCE attend the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.
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Actress Liz Hernandez attends the 2016 Billboard Music Awards at T-Mobile Arena.
(David Becker / Getty Images) As a result, Spears’ opening number was a far cry from her notoriously unpracticed gig during the 2007 VMAs. During “I’m a Slave 4 U,” she and well-toned dancers worked in lockstep while beats ran. From “Work Bitch” to a snippet of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock N’ Roll,” which she sang while grinding on a huge prop guitar, to “Toxic,” the artist moved like it was 1999.
In the audience, her inheritors and admirers, including Meghan Trainor, Demi Lovato and famous couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, showed their respect with head-nodding and smiles. Others, such as Wiz Khalifa and the Weeknd, appeared a bit more skeptical. Onstage, Spears couldn’t seem to have cared less.
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