Britney Spears Says This Music Video Was “The Worst”

One of Britney Spears’ favorite albums came with one of her biggest regrets. In her new memoir The Woman In Me, the singer revealed that she thinks the music video for “Gimme More,” the lead single from her 2007 album Blackout, is the worst video she’s ever made, calling it “so tacky.”

Spears said that recording Blackout was a creative escape, as she was being hounded by paparazzi and struggling in her marriage to Kevin Federline at the time, which affected how she approached things like music videos.

Rather than go through the process with her record label, she decided to make them on her own.

“The album was a kind of battle cry,” she writes. “I quit doing business the way I always had before. I started doing videos on the street myself. I would go into bars with a friend, and the friend would just bring a camera, and that’s how we shot ‘Gimme More.’”

“Gimme More” Is “So Tacky”

The “Gimme More” video, as fans may recall, shows Spears taking over a bar, dancing on a pole, and drinking with friends in a platinum blonde wig. But over 15 years later, she isn’t happy with how the video turned out.

“To be clear, I’m not saying I’m proud of it,” she clarified. “‘Gimme More’ is by far the worst video I’ve ever shot in my life. I don’t like it at all—it’s so tacky. It looks like we only spent 3,000 dollars to shoot it.”

However, the “Gimme More” video still reaped some rewards. It didn’t stop the song from becoming an instant hit, charting in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100, and Spears said it opened up new creative outlets within the industry.

“Even though it was bad, it worked for what it was,” she admits. “The more I started going and doing things myself, the more interesting people started noticing and wanting to work with me. I wound up randomly finding really good people, just by word of mouth.”

Spears Loves “Baby One More Time”

One music video that Spears doesn’t regret is her very first one for “...Baby One More Time” in 1999, revealing that she came up with the concept herself. In the book, she recalled how her label presented her with the idea of her playing a “futuristic astronaut.”

“The mock-up I saw had me looking like a Power Ranger,” she writes. “That image didn’t resonate with me, and I had a feeling my audience wouldn’t relate to it, either. I told the executives at the label that I thought people would want to see my friends and me sitting at school, bored, and then as soon as the bell rang, boom—we’d start dancing.”

Many of Spears’ other suggestions were incorporated as well, including having “cute boys,” wearing the iconic schoolgirl uniforms, and casting her family friend Felicia as a teacher. “Making that video was the most fun part of doing that first album,” she says.

“Gimme More” At The VMAs

While Spears regrets the music video, it was her infamous performance of “Gimme More” at the 2007 VMAs that more people criticized. She also addressed this moment in her book, detailing everything that went wrong prior to the show and her reaction to the intense backlash she received.

“I went out there and did the best I could at that moment in time, which—yes, granted—was far from my best at other times,” she writes.

“I’m not going to defend that performance or say it was good, but I will say that as performers we all have bad nights. They don’t usually have consequences so extreme.”