Today we celebrate the 12^th Birthday of the iconic fan fave (arguably), ‘Onyx Hotel Tour.’

The Onyx Hotel Tour was the fourth (fifth depending on if you count the split in her Baby/Oops tour) concert tour by Britney, in support of her fourth studio album, ‘In The Zone.’ The show was inspired by Broadway Musicals and films by Joel Schumacher and Tim Burton. Tour merchandise sold over $30 million in total, making Britney the highest grossing female artist at the time.

It’s original name was, ‘In The Zone Tour,’ however this had to be changed due to trademark infringement. After a law suit, Britney was banned from using the name.

The tour was split into seven segments; Check-In, Mystic Lounge, Mystic Garden, The Onyx Zone, Security Cameras, Club and Encore. Critics praised the tour, stating it was more a spectacle than an actual concert and some calling it one of a kind.

The tour was commercially successful and grossed an impressive $34 million on just 2 short legs of the tour. It was cancelled after the second leg when Britney hurt her knee during the ‘Outrageous’ video shoot.

On May 17, 2004 a hotel in Boston opened it’s doors under the name, ‘The Onyx Hotel.’ Britney and the Kimpton Group decided to promote the hotel by featuring a room, The Britney Spears Foundation Room. It was designed by Britney’s mother, Lynne Spears, reflecting Britney’s personality and taste. The room was opened six weeks later and a portion of the earnings went to the Britney Spears Foundation.

MTV played as the tours major sponsor. Vice President of music marketing and promotion Joe Armenia said, ‘’There are not that many artists that appeal to every territory with an MTV channel, but Britney Spears is one of the select few. We have been waiting for the opportunity to make a global splash, and the Britney tour is it. For the better part of the rest of the year, we’ll be on the road with Britney. This is more support than we’ve ever given an artist in the U.S., let alone all over the world. We love the association with Britney, she has always been a core part of this channel and our fans love Britney.’

On March 18, 2004, during the Moline, Illinois show, Britney fell during the performance of, ‘(I Got That) Boom Boom,’ and injured her knee. She left the stage and returned shortly after, wearing a white robe and apologising to the audience, for not being able to deliver the encore performance. The physician examined her knee and indicated that the injury was not linked to her 1999 knee injury. Britney had problems with her knee way before the, ‘Outrageous’ video shoot.

Britney, in 2005, sued 8 insurance companies that denied her reimbursement of $9.8 million. The companies tried to get away with a technicality. When Britney was questioned by her insurance companies whether she had surgery on her knee in the last 5 years, Britney said no, the insurance companies claimed that it had only been 4 years and 11 months, since her 1999 surgery and this was their argument.  Britney did not deny surgery on her knee and informed them of every operation she had.

On March 28, 2004, Showtime announced that they would broadcast the Miami Show, in a one off TV special.

The advert featured Britney in a Roberto Cavalli dress that was later auctioned on Ebay and all proceeds offered over to the Britney Spears Foundation.

There are multiple different commercials available online.

There was also a documentary filmed for the show.

On April 2004 Britney announced that she would be doing a behind the scenes documentary, titled, ‘On-tourage,’ alongside MTV, however this was scrapped due to the tour cancellation. Some of the footage filmed can be seen in her reality TV show, ‘Chaotic.’

The concert for Rock In Rio in Lisbon, was broadcast live on June 5, 2004. Unfortunately we have never received an official DVD of either the Miami or Lisobon leg.

Let’s celebrate this epic milestone by watching the full tour here:

Happy Birthday Onyxney!!

Break The Ice turns 8 today! This iconic track was picked by critics as the best possible lead single off Blackout instead of Gimme More, due to the opening lines of the track where Britney states she is back and should not have kept us waiting.

Regardless of the critics perception of the opening lyrics, the initial intention was Britney apologising to a love interest. The song was co-written by Keri Hilson who explained the lyrics to MTV, ‘It’s about two people, a girl and a guy and the girl is saying, ‘You’re a little cold. Let me warm things up a bit and break the ice.’ She added that she was impressed by Britney’s work ethic, ‘When we were arranging the vocals in the studio at her house, she was about 8 months pregnant and she was standing up in the vocal booth, just banging it out. Three weeks later she had the baby.’

The song was written by Marcella Araica, Nate Danja Hills, Keri Hilson and James Washington (Jim Beanz) who were also responsible for the smash hit Gimme More. Digital Spy asked Keri if she wished that she had kept the song to herself, she replied, ‘ No way! When I am writing a song for another artist, I purposefully make it not for me, otherwise I get too attached. I mean I do not party the same way Britney parties, we don’t go to the same clubs and we do not have the same influence. If you tailor something to Britney, you know it would not be anything Keri Hilson would sing.’

The video was the first animated music video for Britney, which features Brit as a superhero in a futuristic world. It was made in South Korea in Japanese style anime, directed by Robert Hales.

The break in the song, where she sings, ‘I like this part, it feels kinda good,’ is a nod to Janet Jackson’s hit ‘Nasty’.

Britney had planned a dance sequence on a chair for the, ‘Break The ice’ video, but the video was never shot, due to personal problems at that time, so the idea was scrapped and an animated video was made instead. Britney was unhappy about how her last 2 music videos turned out and wanted to take control and she immediately booked in dance lessons for the new music video. Unfortunately, things took a negative turn and it was not used.

The owner of the Millennium dance hall, Robert Baker, mistook the name of the song for, ‘Hot As Ice’, which is coincidentally the name of another track on her, ‘Blackout’ album said, ‘After the dance class wrapped up at 7pm, Spears, who has rehearsed at Millennium three times since last Friday,  spent another hour and a half working on a dance routine for her single, ‘Hot As Ice.’ She seemed focused and getting back into her old life, focusing her energy on creating and dancing.’ He followed on to say, ‘She rehearsed an amazing dance routine with a chair.’ He followed on to praise Britney and how she seemed to be back to her usual self and confirmed that the dance routine was not similar to her, ‘Stronger’ video. This also created a lot of confusion, whether her new single would be, ‘Hot As Ice,’ or in fact, ‘Break The Ice,’ with the latter proving to be the confirmed single. Then again there could have been a last minute change.. Another day another mystery.

Although we received the album version of, ‘Break The Ice,’ the intention was to release a remixed version of the song featuring rapper, ‘Fabolous.’He said, ‘It was a great joint. We will have to see in the future if it happens again. We weren’t able to do a video because of what was going on with her at the time, but I would love to do it again.’ Fortunately, we still have the version below..

The video concludes with, ‘To Be continued,’ which has left many wondering whether the video would have a follow up. Although never clarified, it seemed the continued version was the, ‘Kill The Lights’ music video. The video was an official, fan made video, that won in a competition hosted by Britney’s record label.

The video was a very similar concept to her ‘Toxic’ video and many believed this to be a continuation of the superhero, in cartoon version. Fans soon then started to believe that, ‘To be continued,’ meant that there would be a cartoon spin off from the video, based on the Toxic and BTI character. Obviously, this did not happen..

The original recording of the track was rumoured to include extra lyrics that were removed in the final edit. You can hear parts of these lyrics in remixed versions of the track, for example the Wideboys remix where she says, ‘Can You Take This.’

‘Break The Ice,’ was also not released in several countries, Japan being one of them..

Let’s celebrate this epic milestone by watching the music video:

‘Break The Ice,’ followed on to be one of the favourite performances on Britney’s Vegas residency, so it would only be appropriate for us to celebrate by watching the performance here:

Happy 8^th Birthday!