Britney Spears’ Manager Larry Rudolph Talks Vegas Ticket Sales, Album 8

Sam Lansky | September 26, 2013 10:56 am

One measly tabloid report of poor sales isn’t enough to derail the great Britney Spears — and her manager, Larry Rudolph (who also reps Miley Cyrus, so no big deal) explains why in a new Q&A with Billboard. As it turns out, he says, Spears’ ticket sales to her just-announced Vegas residency are more than healthy — and the show is shaping up to be nothing short of spectacular. (Then again, he is her manager, so it’s his job to say stuff like that, but he also seems like a refreshingly no-bullshit guy, doesn’t he? Yes, he does.) More importantly, though, he shares some details of Spears’ upcoming eighth album (and details have, frankly, been hard to come by), which makes it sound very good indeed.

So! First up, Rudolph says, it’s not going to be a lip-syncing spectacular (although feel free to expect generous use of backing tracks). “She’s going to be singing live,” Rudolph assures. “She does choreography and vocal coaching every day. The vocal coaching is really just to strengthen her voice and get her to a point where she can go out there every night and do a full show.” Good! We all want Britney to be able to do a full show. That’s essential.

As for those rumors of sales underperformance via some shady “insider”? Untrue, he says. “Caesars told us that a highly successful launch would be selling 10% of the ticket stock on the on sale. I think we either tripled or quadrupled that. They told us it was literally the best on-sale they’d ever had.” Well, that also sounds promising.

But the real meat and potatoes here is the tea on her upcoming eighth opus, which has been (lamentably) executive produced by Will.i.am. (On “Work Bitch,” Rudolph concedes, “I don’t know that it necessarily defines the album,” which will relieve fans who were less than thrilled about the song.) About the rest of the album, he had this to say:

There’s a ballad called “Perfume” that she recorded recently. Britney wrote it with Sia. It’s a breakup song that’s about wanting the next girl to smell your perfume on the guy afterwards. The lyric is really unique and she sings the shit out of it. I think everyone will be really impressed by the song. I don’t know if it will be the second or third single, but it will definitely be a single.

There are a couple other songs that have a really modern EDM vibe and other stuff that has more of a “Ray of Light” (Madonna) vibe. I really think of this as Britney’s “Ray of Light” album — it’s kind of like that in a lot of ways. She wrote everything on the album with collaborators. There’s one or two she wrote herself. That’s something she wanted to do coming in. She wanted to make it very personal. They’re all custom made for her, based on what’s going on with her life and in her head.

Britney’s Ray Of Light? I can practically hear the screams of “RT for Brazil” from here.

[via Billboard]