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BRITNEY Spears has announced her first Australian tour. The controversial singer will play Rod Laver Arena on November 11 and 12.

The trip had been in a state of limbo while the singer's legal team approved an extension of her Circus tour.

Spears, whose father controls her estate, has been allowed to bring her two sons for the three-week tour.

"I've wanted to tour Australia for quite some time," Spears said in a statement.

"My Circus tour is the best show I have ever created and I can't wait to perform it."

Steve Dixon, the tour's producer, said Spears pushed for the visit.

"Britney really wants to come to Australia," Mr Dixon said.

The tour is based on an old-fashioned three-ring circus.

"It's part traditional circus, part pop show," Mr Dixon said.

"This is one of the largest arena tours to play Australia, if not the largest. It's quite an undertaking."

The show features nearly 50 performers, including a dance team, acrobats, aerial performers, contortionists, a fire breather, stilt walkers and magicians.

Tickets will be $99, $149 and $199 and go on sale from July 3 from Ticketek.

While reviews have highlighted the stunning circus feats, critics have criticised Spears for lip-synching.

The star's Australian tour contract reportedly includes a no-interview clause - meaning Spears has yet to address her miming.

"I don't comment on that," Mr Dixon said of the lip-synching.

"People are there for the spectacle that is Britney Spears. She's a great performer. She's every bit as good as any pro dancer. It is a big, giant music event.

"When you play at her level people are always taking pot shots at everything. One minute they're attacking her costumes, the next she's lip-synching . . . people spend so much time building up celebrities just to bring them down.

"She's a worldwide phenomenon, she's a super nice person and she's a great entertainer."

Dixon insisted Spears was physically and mentally on top of her game, after a breakdown two years ago.

BRITNEY SPEARS - SPEARS DREAMS OF TEACHING CAREER

BRITNEY SPEARS dreams of giving up her life as a pop star to become a school teacher, according to her cousin ALLI SIMS.
Sims grew up with Spears in their hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana and worked as the star's assistant in 2007.
The 28 year old was dismissed by the singer's father Jamie when he took control of her personal and professional affairs following a public breakdown last year (0 .
But Sims insists the Toxic hitmaker, who has two young sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline, frequently discussed her desire to work with children and even thought about giving up her music career to retrain as a teacher.
Sims tells British magazine Reveal, "Britney would always say, 'Maybe I just want to be a teacher. I just want to do something on a normal level. I've been something big for so long.'"

Source: Contact Music

Britney 'demands private jet for UK tour'

Britney Spears has reportedly demanded that she be flown to Manchester in a private jet when she performs in Britain next month.

The 'Womanizer' singer, who plays a mini-residency at London's O2 arena before doing a single night in Manchester, has refused to stay overnight in the northern city and will leave directly after the show.

"She has decided she will travel by private plane to Manchester - then fly straight back to London," a source told the Daily Star.

Spears has reportedly detailed an extensive rider for her short stay in the country.

"Britney may only be staying in the city for two weeks but she knows exactly what she wants," the source added.

Among the singer's demands are a room that has never been smoked in, fresh flowers that she will arrange herself, a variety of the latest magazines, DVDs featuring Marilyn Monroe and a selection of topical, chick-lit books.

She has also requested horse riding and running sessions in Hyde Park and a different route to her venue each night to deter paparazzi from following her.

Source: digitalspy.com

Britney Spears' 'If U Seek Amy' Poses Censorship Problems For Radio
Scare some stations might not play the third Circus single, due to its not-so-subtle profanity.

Profanity in pop songs is old news. Hell, the chorus to Christina Aguilera's recent single, "Keeps Gettin' Better," kicks off with the phrase, "Some days I'm a super bi---." That one is easy enough for radio stations to edit out in order to avoid any fines from the FCC or threats to yank their licenses.

But what will they do with a new single from a major artist that doesn't actually contain a four-letter word, but rather spells it out in a not-so-subtle way? That dilemma is beginning to dawn on top-40 radio programmers across the country as the third single from album, "If U Seek Amy," starts to make its way to the airwaves.

The cheeky title (try saying it fast) joins the tradition of album titles like Van Halen's 1991 For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. The chorus doesn't even try to make grammatical sense of the phrase: "But all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy."

The spelled-out profanity puts the song into a legal gray area for radio stations.

"It's OK to put in on an album, have fun with it, but we're publicly owned, you know?" said Patti Marshall, program director at Cincinnati's Q102, a pop station in a decidedly conservative Midwestern market. "We have a responsibility to the public ... you put this ... out and act like we're all fuddy-duddies, like we're trying to make moral judgments. It's not about us. It's about the mom in the minivan with her 8-year-old."

Like several programmers we talked to, Marshall said she had not yet been told that "Amy" was the next single from Circus. She's still busy playing the album's title track, which was recently released as the second single. Asked if she would play "Amy" if it came to her as a single, Marshall said likely wouldn't. She likened its chorus (which she has not heard) to "a little boy in sixth grade doing arm farts."

A spokesperson for the Federal Communications Commission did not return calls for comment, and Spears' label confirmed the choice of the single but would not comment on its content or any potential issues at radio.

Sharon Dastur, program director at Z100 in New York, also had not yet heard the song and said she's not sure what the station's plans are for it. She compared its possible problems to those faced by her station in 2005 upon the release of the Black Eyed Peas single "Don't Phunk With My Heart."

"Listeners thought it was the other word, and so we had to change it to 'mess,' " she said. That example was also the first that popped to mind for KIIS FM Los Angeles program director John Ivey, who said he knew he couldn't play the Peas' song as originally recorded but felt that censoring it would make it sound more nefarious, so he asked the group's label for a new version.

"It's a potential issue for every station," Ivey said of the Spears single. "I'm certain that I would run it by my legal department first. My first job is to protect [the station's] license. ... It's better to be safe than sorry."

Asked if he would recut the song to edit out the naughty bits, Ivey said he probably wouldn't because he felt the phrase was included in the song to provoke, so an alteration would change its intention. "[Spears' label, Jive,] might also be just floating it out there to see if they can stir things up a bit."

Source: mtv.com