Femme fatale: Britney Spears

DUBAI: Britney Spears: Pop princess, child prodigy, or tragic hero?

Just one or all three? For surely it takes a prodigy to conquer the world by the age of 16, a pop princess to stay on the top for over a decade, and a tragic hero's tears of rebellion to bring forth some of the most catchy music the world's ever heard.

Yes, Britney Spears is a mixed bag. She's fragile, she's a party girl, she's a mother, a rebel, an artist, a woman on self-destruct mode… Spears is the essential saint-and-sinner combination that attacked so many of the notorious 27 club. This also, unfortunately, means that the girl who once shaved her head for love, is high on our watch-her-live-before-it's-too-late list.

Not to be harbingers of the morbid, but Spears is dangerously close to not having a clue any more. She marries on a whim, gets drunk when divorced, has children but seems unable to be a mother, is a star who lacks the motivation to excel, a confused 20-something who spent a stint in a mental institution when it all got a bit much.

‘Bad girl'

Spears is the girl who went from the Mickey Mouse club to the rebel without a cause, I-survived-rehab club. In her own words, she's a "bad girl". Her costumes are risqué; her attitude is that of one who doesn't really give a flying trapeze what people think; her idol Michael Jackson. And maybe that really does say it all about this tragic princess. She's lives in a world somewhere up above, in a la-la land of sorts, where sex, drugs and rock ‘n' roll really do form the trinity of decadence.

She's kissed Madonna square on the lips just because it looked cool at the time. She's had blink-and-you'll-miss-it marriages on the spur of the moment. She flaunts every fashion faux pas possible. She's had it all, turning her into the epitome of too much too soon.

And yet, despite every moment of abusive behaviour, despite all those wrongs, despite flashing the public "accidentally', or shaving her head, piling on and shedding of the pounds, marrying, divorcing, marrying, divorcing… despite all of that, the only thing that remains predictable about Spears is that she'll stay a legend. No matter what her detractors say, the girl who claims to be "not a girl, not yet a woman" will go down in history.

Vamp you want to rescue

She'll be the girl that time remembers, the crazy one who put her heart out there, bang under the media spotlight, for all to trample over. For Spears has a secret trick up her sleeve that no one can quite put their finger on. She may ridicule herself in the limelight shed upon her, and she may be photographed once too often, bleary eyed and dishevelled. But therein also lies her charm. She's the vamp you want to rescue, the little girl who was forced to grow up too soon. And you want to give her just one more chance; one last opportunity to redeem herself.

While she makes men weak in the knees, she also makes them want to protect her. She's the little lost girl who needs her Prince Charming before it all starts making sense again.

And until then she'll go on with her wild ways; she'll abuse the privilege of being who she wants to be, regardless of what anyone else thinks about it. She'll knock herself over so often that the bruises become scars, the tears become her trademark and rebellion her signature stamp. She'll stumble and she'll fall. She'll rip off her clothes on stage to reveal a body that forgot what the inside of a gym looks like. But through it all, we'll still hold her close in our hearts. We'll remember the little girl in pigtails and a school uniform that sang Oops I Did It Again, despite watching the woman who sings songs named Criminal, Toxic and Gimme More.

So, on the eve of her concert on Yas Island tomorrow night, we applaud Britney. A Marilyn Monroe-cum-Pamela Anderson of her generation. Her public melt-downs may be many, but her courageous comebacks are just as powerful. And every time she falls flat on her face, she gets right back up and faces the world.

And you see, we should have known that a long time ago. She warned us of this 13 years ago when she screamed Oops I Did It Again (and again, and again, and again…) from every stage-front in the world.

And now, it's Abu Dhabi's turn to hear those famous words immortalised by the seductive Spears, in a show likely to be the highlight of the Yas season.

INCUBUS: November 12
Having played at the 2007 Dubai Desert Rock Festival, American band Incubus are not new to the UAE. Though they have not been touring for almost four years, they are back on the road to promote their seventh studio album, If Not Now, When?, which was released on July 12 this year.

THE CULT: November 12
The British rock band started out as a post punk outfit in 1983, but later embraced the hard rock sound, releasing several hits. Critics have compared their music to a mix of The Doors and Led Zeppelin.

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY: November 13
If you a want a piece of rock ‘n' roll history, this is it. Sir Paul McCartney. He is currently on his ‘On the Run Tour' which kicked off in July this year at Yankee Stadium in New York City. The tour has seen him playing to capacity arenas across North America and now McCartney is all set to add the UAE to the list of venues that have become part of a musical journey that ‘officially' began with a song called Love Me Do in Liverpool in 1962. Here's our turn to say ‘Thank you, sir'.