Maps of Music

Circus (2008)

Where the lyrics of Circus take you, and where it was really made.

Recorded after Spears was placed under a conservatorship earlier that year, Circus was released on her 27th birthday and was later called her comeback record.

Key places

Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles (2008)

Recording site Chalice Recording — Producer Danja reported working on tracks at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles. The point uses the studio's building coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank (2008)

Recording site The Enterprise (Burbank) — Spears recorded the tracks that Danja worked on at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank, California. The point is placed at the city center. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Radar recorded at Sony Music Studios (2006)

Recording site Sony Music Studios — The song Radar was recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 8, 2006, for Blackout. It was later included on Circus. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Circus: sixth studio album by American singer Britney Spears
• Released by Jive Records, timed to Spears' 27th birthday on December 2, 2008
• Primarily a pop and dance record; lyrical themes address fame, infidelity, and infatuation
• Deemed Spears' comeback record
• Four singles: “Womanizer”, “Circus”, “If U Seek Amy”, and “Radar”

Background

• Followed Blackout (2007); Spears wanted to move from its “darker and more urban” themes to “a little bit lighter”
• Blackout debuted at number two, becoming her first studio album not to debut atop the US Billboard 200
• January 2008: hospitalized after police found her apparently under the influence of an unidentified substance
• Court placed her under a conservatorship led by her father Jamie Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet
• Work on the sixth album began soon after the conservatorship; the planned fourth Blackout single “Radar” was canceled

Recording

• Spears recorded much of the album between March and September 2008
• Executive producers Larry Rudolph and Teresa LaBarbera Whites brought back Max Martin, Bloodshy & Avant, Guy Sigsworth, and Danja
• New collaborators included Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, and Claude Kelly
• Danja worked on tracks at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles; Spears recorded them at Glenwood Place Studios in Burbank
• Spears said Circus was the longest time she had spent recording an album

Cover

• Cover artwork and booklet images photographed by Kate Turning
• Images show Spears in circus-styled settings
• Spears revealed the cover along with the track listing on October 31, 2008

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Born December 2, 1981 in McComb, Mississippi; American singer known as the "Princess of Pop".
• Began in the early 1990s in the musical Ruthless! and The All-New Mickey Mouse Club.
• Signed with Jive Records in 1997; debut single "...Baby One More Time" topped the US Billboard Hot 100.
• Debut album ...Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!... I Did It Again (2000) are among the world's best-selling albums.
• Credited with driving the late-1990s revival of teen pop.
• Sold an estimated 150 million+ records; one Grammy, six MTV VMAs, seven Billboard Music Awards.
• Placed under a conservatorship; it was terminated in 2021 after her testimony.
• Announced leaving the music industry in 2024; catalogue reportedly sold for about $200 million in 2026.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: average score 64 out of 100 from 22 reviews, read as “generally favorable reviews”
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine: favorable review, calling it a “friendly remake of the hedonistic Blackout”
• Erlewine preferred Blackout for being more “sleek or addictive”
• Genevieve Koski (The A.V. Club): appreciated that Spears seemed to put real effort into her Circus performances
• Nick Levine (Digital Spy): Spears “sounds more confident” than on Blackout
• Chris Willman (Entertainment Weekly): praised the production but criticized her pattern of albums promising more self-revelation
• Robert Christgau: two-star honorable mention, “still fun more often than not”
• Jon Pareles (The New York Times): enjoyed the “crisp” material and “catchy melodic interludes”
• Caryn Ganz (Rolling Stone): “clubby, adventurous pop” could have been a satisfactory successor to In the Zone
• Alexis Petridis (The Guardian): more mixed, saying Spears “frequently sounds disconnected, even a bit bored”
• The Independent: negative, saying her vocal delivery sounded emotionless on mid-tempo and ballad tracks
• Hamish MacBain (NME): disappointed that Spears was “quite simply rubbish at being sexy”

Records

• US Billboard 200: debuted at number one with first-week sales of over 505,000 copies, her fifth number-one album
• Second-biggest debut-week sales of 2008 for a female artist, behind Taylor Swift's Fearless
• Placed sixth on the year-end Billboard 200 for 2009
• Certified platinum by the RIAA on January 29, 2009
• Canada: debuted at number one with over 51,000 units in its first week
• Canada: certified triple platinum by CRIA in March 2009
• UK: debuted and peaked at number four, spending 31 weeks on the chart; certified platinum by the BPI
• Australia: peaked at number three and was certified double platinum by ARIA
• Worldwide: over four million copies sold by September 2009
• “Womanizer” was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album shared its release date with the similarly titled album The Circus by British group Take That.
• Spears said she titled the album Circus because her life was “a circus” at the time.
• The Circus video drew criticism from PETA, which condemned the use of animals in the video.
• The If U Seek Amy double entendre led the Parents Television Council to threaten indecency complaints against stations that played it.
• The winning entry in a February 2009 fan-fiction contest was based on Kill the Lights and was made into an animated music video.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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