So … I know that I just hosted a Britney Spears-themed contest here on Pink is the new Blog but a new opportunity has come up to host another contest that I just couldn’t pass up. On Tuesday December 2, Britney Spears announced that she is hittin’ the road next Spring on a new tour called The Circus starring Britney Spears and that very same day tickets for some shows went on presale. Later in the week, those concert dates went on sale to the general public and sold out so quickly that new concert dates had to be added to keep up with the demand. Among the new cities added to the tour is Oakland, CA which goes on sale tomorrow via Ticketmaster but only for those folks who use the password: funambulist. You can click HERE to buy tickets for that show … or, if you’re feelin’ lucky, you can enter for a chance to win tickets to see Britney Spears for free right here on Pink is the new Blog:

Britney Spears is taking center ring for one of the most highly anticipated and in-demand tours of 2009, as six shows have been immediately added to her “The Circus Starring Britney Spears” 2009 North American Tour. In the days following her tour announcement on Good Morning America – on December 2, 2008, the singer’s 27th birthday – Britney’s fans have purchased more than 400,000 concert tickets in North America alone. In order to meet the overwhelming rush for tickets, tour promoter AEG Live immediately added six shows in Los Angeles, Toronto, New Jersey, Chicago, Long Island, NY and Anaheim, CA, expanding Spears’ tour to now include 41 concerts. Across the pond, Spears’ Circus-mania has also reached a feverish pitch, as six additional dates were just added at London’s O2 Arena, with more than 100,000 tickets sold for eight total shows over the 1st weekend of sales. “The Circus Starring Britney Spears,” her first arena tour in five years, features special guests The Pussycat Dolls. “The company that was the foundation for AEG Live was jump-started by Britney Spears’ 2001-02 ‘The Dream Within A Dream’ sold-out arena tour, so it is with poignant satisfaction that we are Brit’s promoter again,” said Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live. “We’re honored to have been entrusted with the live career of one of contemporary music’s greatest performers. ‘The Circus Starring Britney Spears’ is on target to be one of 2009′s great success stories, based on early box office reaction, and it’s a wildly imaginative production.” “Britney and I are both thrilled to see how excited her fans are for the Circus tour,” said Larry Rudolph, Britney Spears’ manager. “This show will blow people’s minds, and promises to show Britney’s fans something they will never forget!”

So here’s the deal … 1 lucky Pink reader will win a pair of tickets for the Anaheim, CA show at the Honda Center on April 20, 2009 and another lucky Pink reader will win a pair of tickets for the Oakland, CA show at the ORACLE Arena on April 22, 2009. If YOU are interested in entering for a pair of tickets for either of these two shows all you have to do is send me a picture of a handmade sign that YOU CREATE that reads Pink is the new ____________. Signs that are Britney Spears-themed will most likely get my attention (hint: do try to incorporate Britney in some way and do try to make the signs as elaborately cool as possible). You have to be able to get yourself to the venues either in Anaheim or Oakland, CA but the tickets will be waiting for you at the box office. Email photos of you and your amazing signs to pinkisthenewblog@gmail.com with the subject line: Britney Concert Tickets Contest and make sure you let me know which show you’d like to attend. Remember, you can still buy tickets for these or any of the shows on her tour at BritneySpears.com/tour but I think this is a fun way to get to see The Circus starring Britney Spears for free!!! Get to work on those signs, y’all … you have until Friday December 19 to submit your entries!!!

Good Luck, y’all!!!

About 3 weeks ago, the official No Doubt website was updated with a new band photo and a curious iChat session that plainly alluded to the fact that the band was getting ready to announce a set of tour dates for the coming year. This weekend, NoDoubt.com was updated again with a direct message to fans from the band confirming that the band is planning to tour next year … but, have yet to announce any concrete dates. We’re getting closer tho:

Hey Everyone,

As most of you saw from our little iChat (yes, it was really us), we have decided to go on tour next year while continuing to work on our album. We are working on tour dates now and can’t wait to get out there and play for all of you – it’s been too long! We’ll announce tour dates soon so be sure to check back for updates. Have a safe and happy holiday and we’ll see you on the road in 2009!

- No Doubt

This is amazing news. I was pretty confident that the last message we got from the back a few weeks ago meant that the announcement of tour dates was imminent … now we know that to be the case. I am really excited for the band to get back on the road … and I’m *dying* to hear new music. Hopefully when next we hear from the band we’ll have concrete dates to plan for. 2009 is already lookin’ like it’s gonna be a great year for live music!

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Here are a few really cute pics of Britney Spears and her sons Sean Preston and Jayden James (along with mama Lynne Spears and various members of her security detail) doing a bit of pre-Xmas toy shopping at FAO Schwartz in NYC yesterday. Even tho Britney is scheduled to appear in some fashion on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week(end?) and has been all but confirmed to appear at the Xmas tree lighting at the LA Live! complex in downtown LA tonight, she managed to find the time to spend a bit more time in Manhattan yesterday afternoon before bidding farewell to the Big Apple:

Late yesterday evening the music video for her new single Circus leaked onto the Internets days before it was to make its world premiere on Entertainment Tonight. As a result, ET has announced that a Director’s Cut version of the video will be premiering on their show TONIGHT in HD one day earlier than was originally planned. I can’t wait to see how much better that vid is than the one we’ve already been able to see. After the jump, check out a small portion of the seating chart for The Circus starring Britney Spears Tour that kicks off next year to see how the VIP seating will be handled and to get a peek at what the 3-Ring Circus stageplan will look like …

Happy Britney Day, y’all! There is a lot of fun new Britney Spears info to impart today so I’m gonna try to get it all up as soon as I can. David and I just got back from the Big Apple Circus Big Tent in Lincoln Center here in NYC where we got to see Britney Spears perform live on Good Morning America — but I’ll get to that a bit later on. First up, the really big news of the day … Britney Spears is going on tour! Just this morning, BritneySpears.com announced a whole slew of US tour dates that will begin next March … with presales in some cities already underway:

BRITNEY SPEARS has announced that she will make her highly anticipated return to stage with THE CIRCUS STARRING BRITNEY SPEARS 2009 TOUR, her first arena tour in five years, produced by AEG Live. Following hot on the heels of the December 2nd, 2008 release of her long-awaited sixth studio album, Circus, Spears will begin rehearsing for her incredible tour production this January with famed director and Emmy-winning choreographer Wade Robson, before launching the 27-city North American trek on March 3, 2009 in New Orleans with special guests The Pussycat Dolls. Spears will also dazzle British fans at London’s O2 Arena on June 3 & 4 of 2009. Tickets go on sale beginning Saturday, December 6. Fans should visit BritneySpears.com for tour and ticketing information. Spears gave fans a special taste of what’s to come on her Circus Tour during a live performance today from the Big Apple Circus tent in Lincoln Center on ABC-TV’s Good Morning America.

Pussycat Dolls have been tapped to tour with Britney when The Circus starring Britney Spears Tour kicks off next March. Tickets for shows in the Eastern US Time Zone have already gone on presale with tickets for the Western Time Zones to go on presale in about a half hour. Thus far, I think I’m gonna try to make my way to the LA and Anaheim, CA shows … so at 11AM ET (8AM PT) I’ll be logging onto Ticketmaster HERE to procure tickets. There are a couple of VIP Ticket packages which offer different things … make sure you read up on what you’re paying for BEFORE you order tickets so that you’re not disappointed. The presale password is: IHEARTBRIT. Get yo tix and mebbe I’ll see you at the Circus :)

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Woot! As has been heavily speculated in recent weeks, Britney Spears is one step closer to announcing the tour dates for her much-anticipated new world tour. You may recall that back in September Britney announced on Z100 radio in NYC that she is planning to tour next year, then in October we got our first word that she had signed with a concert tour producer to begin work on the show … until today, there has been no announcement concerning tour dates (tho, a new widget was launched last week that is counting down to a “secret” announcement to be made — speculation is that the announcement will entail concert tour dates). BBC News is reporting the first of 2 UK dates next summer that will go on sale December 5, her official website has the deets on the presale for those UK dates. She’s really hittin’ the road, y’all:

Tickets for the dates on 3 and 4 June will go on general sale on 5 December – although fans who register with her website can buy them 24 hours earlier. “It’s going to be very special,” said Rob Hallett of tour promoter AEG. The concert, he said, would take its theme from her latest album The Circus, which is released next week. “We’re creating a musical circus,” he said. “Expect to see jugglers, dancers, tattooed ladies and acrobats.” According to the promoter, the concerts will be Spears’ only dates in Europe “for the foreseeable future”. Spears last performed in the UK in 2004 when her Onyx Hotel tour visited Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and Wembley Arena in London. The 26-year-old will be in the capital this weekend to appear on ITV1 talent show The X Factor. Before that she will travel to Germany to attend the annual Bambi entertainment awards in Dusseldorf. The singer will be named best international pop star after achieving what organisers have called a “stunning comeback from an absolute low point”. “Britney Spears is back,” said host Hubert Burda. “Radiant and better than ever, the erstwhile idol has reclaimed her throne.” In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the performer admitted she felt “like an old person” now her much-documented troubles are behind her. “I go to bed at, like, 9.30 every night and I don’t go out or anything,” she is quoted as saying. “I just feel like an old fart.” Spears’ mother Lynne, meanwhile, has been telling the BBC how happy she is that her daughter has got her life back on track. “Britney wants to do it right,” she told Radio 5 Live’s Colin Paterson, attributing her recent turnaround to having “good people around her” and “lots and lots of prayer”.

From BritneySpears.com: Want to see Britney perform in London? You came to the right place!!! If you want to join the exclusive pre-sale to see Brit at London’s O2 Arena enter your email and postal code in the module on the upper-right side of our homepage!! You can also text BRITNEY to 81707 to join.

I’m not sure if the txt signup will work for folks outside of the UK but that is the information provided. The BBC report alludes that those who sign up with her official site will be allowed a 24-hour head-start in procuring tickets for next summer’s UK dates. Love it!!! It shant be long before the first US dates are officially announced … Woot!!!

Additionally, a new 30-second preview of Britney‘s second music video Circus has been made available online. After the jump, check it out …

Last night Sarah, Mark, Tracey, Erik and I met up for a quick bite to eat at Union Street in Detroit, MI before we headed over en masse to Ford Field to see Madonna‘s Sticky & Sweet World Tour homecoming concert last night. This show was the first time Madonna brought a concert tour to Detroit (to Michigan, even) since her Drowned World Tour so the whole Detroit metro area was very excited to come out and see her. Here are a few pics that I snapped at last night’s show:

Maddy sounded really happy to be home … she gave Detroit 13 shout-outs, made 2 mentions to her “home town”, mentioned the “Motor City” once, uttered the phrases “There’s no place like home” and “You can take the girl out of Detroit but you can’t take the Detroit out of the girl”, proclaimed that “Detroit girls don’t take no shit” and asked the audience to get loud because she “don’t come here very often, so make it big”. When I saw her in LA she didn’t really talk to the crowd very much … last night, she wouldn’t stop talking to the hometown crowd. The show was really fun, we had a blast. I also got to meet a few Detroit (and one Windsor, Canada) Pink readers at the show last night:

I have to give a shout-out to Jeffrey, Zach, Julia (and their friends Allie and Sophie), Michelle (from Windsor) — and an extra pic of Robbie (from Melbourne, Australia), who I met at the LA Madonna show a couple of weeks ago. It was great to meet you all :)

After the jump, check out a video that I shot at last night’s show of Madonna performing the requested song of the night with the entire crowd, a song she recently vowed she’d never perform again — Material Girl …

Last night Sarah, Mark and I made the 2 1/2 hour trek out to Western Michigan to see Nine Inch Nails at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, MI as they tour the US on the second leg of their Lights in the Sky Over North America 2008 Tour. Sarah and I have made the trek to GR many, many times to see NIN, Tori Amos, etc. over the years but this was the first time that Mark came along with us. Along the way, we stopped for a bite to eat at Arby’s (MMMMM) and made it to Grand Rapids in time to catch the opening act Boris on stage. Here are a few pics of NIN that I snapped thruout the night along with the night’s setlist:

11.16.08

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
The Wretched
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
The Great Destroyer

Ghosts 17
Ghosts 21
Ghosts 19
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good

Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
Ghosts 31
Only
The Hand that Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Encore

Echoplex
The Beginning of the End
The Good Soldier
Hurt
In This Twilight

The show was pretty phenomenal, as usual, but was also plagued with a few technical difficulties and musical errors. Honestly, the mistakes weren’t that noticeable … well, except to me ;) To be honest, I was too preoccupied by a tragic-looking lady who was standing near us and was wearing a red leather outfit from heat to toe (seriously) OH and a scary guy with a creepy mask standing right behind us. Fun times! Trent Reznor, altho not in a very talkative mood, was totally on point and put on an amazing performance. After the show, I managed to snag one of bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen‘s guitar picks. Woot!

On the ride home, we got a little bit lost and had to brave the falling snow but it was a very fun night and I’m glad we got to go together. I’m seeing NIN one more time on this second leg of the tour with Darion, Kirsten and Josh in Las Vegas, NV next month.

I believe Tracey and Zakiya are coming over to Sarah and Mark’s so that we can all hang out. It’ll be great to see the little princess again. Oh and the snow keeps falling … I kinda hate it.

Letters to Cleo reunited in concert on stage at The Roxy here in LA last night and I was very fortunate to be able to be there to bear witness. Kay Hanley, lead singer of LTC, and I have been sorta-cyber pals over the past few months (exchanging emails, txts and Tweets) and last night was our first chance to spend quality time together. We previous got to meet in person at the Veruca Salt show at the Viper Room back in August but tonight was it. I met up with Kay before the show and joined her and her friends and family members for a quick bite to eat at the Rainbow Room. I got to meet her sister-in-law Justine and her brother-in-law Gary and we all hit it off. We didn’t want to miss The Oohlas, who were opening up for LTC last night, so we got over to the venue in time to catch their amazing performance … here are a few pics of The Oohlas rockin’ out last night:

Ollie and the boys were in fine shape. They sounded amazing and their new songs really rocked out. I’m so anxious to hear more. Greg announced from the stage that an EP of new stuff is on the way. Woot!

Then it was time for Letters to Cleo to take the stage … here are a few of the pics that I took last night:

I kid you not, LTC sounded just as awesome as they ever have … they rocked out as if no time had passed since the break-up. Kay sounded divine, USA Mike was jumpin’ around like a madman and Stacey … well … he was just a flurry of drumsticks and flying hair. It was a raucous and extremely fun night all around. I took a TON of photos and some of them are pretty amazing. Click HERE to check them all out. Awake is prolly my fave LTC song and I was too bizzy jumping around while they performed it to video it … but I did manage to vid their performance of Here and Now. After the jump, check out that video …

Last night I asked Jordan to be my guest at Madonna‘s LA stop on her Sticky & Sweet World Tour at Dodger Stadium. Overall we had a really fun time, it was the first time that Jordan saw Madonna in concert, but I gotta tell you … last night was not without its travails. Because the traffic sitch was so horrible and because we did not want to miss a single second of the show, we had to park our car about a mile away from the venue in order to make our way into the stadium. Trust me, it was not the best way to start out the evening but … sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Once we arrived, tho, we had a blast. My very good friend and Semtex Girl Denise not only got us amazing floor seats but we also got passes for the Hospitality Tent backstage before the show. We ran into Fergie, Lisa Rinna, Lucy Liu, Hayden Panettiere and Kristin Cavallari all within 10 feet of one another … but because we were more interested in Madonna, we didn’t stick around to chat. Here are a few pics from the show last night:

The show was very cool but I have to admit that I preferred last year’s Confessions on a Dancefloor tour. Even still, there was quite a bit of show to enjoy last night. My least favorite song on the new album Hard Candy is She’s Not Me — I think it’s silly and a bit ridic — but the live performance of it in this show (with the Madonna wannabes) was pretty inspired. I may not like the song but I loved the performance. I was also very taken with the “rock” version of Borderline. There are a lot of fun surprises peppered thruout the show, I can see how diehard Madonna fans really love this show. Clearly the biggest and best surprises were the guest appearances by Britney Spears (which we talked about earlier today) and Justin Timberlake. JT came out to perform all of 4 Minutes with Maddy and did a pretty spectacular job with the choreography (it was the same routine he did with her in NYC earlier this year at her Hard Candy Promo Show at the Roseland Ballroom). The show overall was really very fun. Near the end of the show, Madonna addressed her sadness that Prop 8 was passed in California … she encouraged proponents of equal rights to continue the fight to end discrimination. Then she told the crowd to “come near the stage” and a sea of people overrun the security guards and pressed up against the barriers, filling the empty spaces left by the celebs who were not in their seats. Twas fun. I can’t wait to see the show again in Detroit in a couple of weeks ;)

I got to meet a few Pink readers last night … including Robbie from Australia and Katie who is pictured below. Here are some personal pics from last night’s fun:

Jordan and I met up with Darion and Cameron after the show to hang for a bit before we all made our way home. Jordan and I, of course, had the long mile trek back to our car but since we were walking downhill and were still on a Madonna high, it wasn’t that bad a trek at all. The show got a very late start and we got home later than I anticipated but it was a freakin’ awesome night. Much, much love goes out to Denise for taking such good care of Jordan and me. I love her to bits, thanks again!!

No plans for tonight … I think I’m gonna veg like a mofo. The weekend looks bizzy so I might want to rest up.

Britney Spears, as was expected, briefly joined Madonna on stage in LA last night during Madge‘s Sticky & Sweet World Tour stop at Dodger Stadium. While Britney did not offer a full performance of any song, she did come out for a short cameo during Madonna‘s performance of her song Human Nature to offer up some backing vocals — and her, now, trademark phrase “It’s Britney, bitch!” Here are a few pics of Brit and Maddy on stage together:

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake each took the stage in separate appearances at Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet tour at L.A.’s Dodger Stadium Thursday night. But, PEOPLE has learned, the two actually crossed paths during rehearsal. Timberlake was first, and then Spears came on stage to run through her part. “They said ‘hi’ to each other. Justin was very cool,” a source says. Adds another source, “This was a night for [Britney] to enjoy, and not stress over. This was a good moment for her to just enjoy and have fun.” And enjoy she did. Dressed in satin black pants and white suit shirt with ruffle, Spears has been appearing in a taped segment during Madonna’s “Human Nature” performance since the beginning of the tour. Her “It’s Britney, bitch!” segment she did live. Madonna greeted her with “Hi Britney!” And Spears, with her blonde hair flowing and red lips smiling, moved to the beat as she sang the last chorus on “Human Nature” with Madonna. “She’s not your bitch” Madonna proclaimed, pointing at Spears who replied with her classic line: “It’s Britney, bitch!” Madonna had to swing her around three times to get her to loosen up a little bit and, in a far cry from the 2003 smooch, kisses Spears on the hand as her platform sunk below the stage. “4 Minutes” came on and remixed into “Vogue” as Spears disappeared from view.

Woot! I was lucky enough to be in the hiz at Dodger Stadium last night and I gotta say … the place erupted when Britney came out onto the stage. Even tho her participation was short, the crowd was more than thrilled to cheer on her appearance last night. After the jump, check out a couple videos of Britney on stage with Madonna …