This Britney Performance From 1998 Is A Must-Watch

It only took 18 years, but the Heart of the Ocean of bootleg Brit Brit recordings is here. I might be so bold to say someone dropped the clip into the Internet Ocean, and then someone else went down and got it for us. (Aw, you shouldn’t have!) On Thursday, Bradley Stern at MuuMuse shared a video of a 16-year-old Britney Spears singing at a showcase in Singapore back in 1998. If I'm being honest, "singing" feels like an understatement; In this pre-...Baby One More Time mini-concert, the doe-eyed teen who would one day become the queen of the Las Vegas Strip belts. It. Out. Call me Captain Obvious all you want, but this vid is essential viewing for any and all members of the Britney Army.

In the 12-minute vid, Godney stands on what looks like a makeshift stage (or maybe it's a waiting room decor storage space? Seriously, what's with the table lamps and fake plants and paintings?) and performs “…Baby One More Time,” “Sometimes,” and a cover of Jets track “You Got It All." So, who were the ducks lucky enough to nab seats in that room and see Spears sing these future hit singles before she became one of the biggest stars on the planet? As Stern explains, this preview of the songstress' debut album was probably for record execs.

And just under two decades later, the rest of us can finally put it in our eyes.

The live vocals are everything, that strappy camisole dress is everything, the fake flora is everything, and when the stage lights are jusssst right (the 1:15 mark), the whole video looks like a beautiful Blingee. Dare I say, this recording was Blingee-yond worth the wait.