The excitement is all to do with the fact that Britney apparently sings it live. Many people may say "Big deal! Most artists sing ALL their songs live!" but for Britney it actually IS a big deal. It seemed like she was going the other way, since she'd sung at least a couple of songs live on her previous tours, but none on this one.

Obviously there are always the scoffers. They refuse to believe that Britney is ever singing ANYTHING live. Even if she sang "I'm singing this live" they still wouldn't believe it. And thus, on various websites, people were looking for excuses to jeer at anyone who thought her first performance of "You Oughta Know" was live. They'd managed to satisfy themselves that it was pre-recorded, mostly on the debatable grounds that it was too good to be live. Hmmmm.

But then along came the videos of another performance of "You Oughta Know" and it was both noticeably different and (some said) even better. Suddenly the scoffing voices fell slightly more silent. And a few brave souls began to mutter tentatively that she might be singing this song live after all. Then almost - and I do emphasize almost - everybody was forced to admit this "inconvenient truth".

It's especially inconvenient because it shows that she CAN sing live. And not in a little weak voice. She sings with totally unexpected power and attack. And the videos show her prowling around the mic stand full of rock-chick attitude. It's an amazing transformation for someone who has always been known for pure pop and has in recent times been unfairly castigated for her supposedly "disengaged" singing style.

You can't forget that it's Britney Spears though. There's no drab, politically correct "serious artist" costume here. She sings the song wearing dangerously low-slung, skin tight pants that show off the remarkable fullness and shapeliness of her ass, and, midway through, takes off her jacket, strips down to her bra, and promotes some of her other famous attributes to best advantage. This is sexed-up rock-chickery, Britney style!

But why did she decide to do it? Did she want to prove to the sceptics that she COULD if she wanted? Is it the start of promotion for her next album? Is she getting ready for an Awards Show performance? Or did she just wake up one day and decide "This is what I'm gonna do, it's gonna be sooo cool...."? I hope we get to find out someday.

One thing I've noticed though. There's no choreography when she's singing "You Gotta Know". None at all. She isn't exactly STATIC, but she just prowls around with a singer's natural sense of rhythm. Which makes me wonder - is the reason why she lip-synchs most of her performances simply that she finds it hard to concentrate on and/or remember several pages of choreography and several verses of a song at the same time?

If so, I wonder how fans would feel if she gave up choreography altogether, and, in all future tours and shows, sang every song the way she sings "You Gotta Know"? I have a feeling it's destined to be an either/or situation and she will NEVER sing live and perform full choreography at the same time. How would YOU feel?

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