Why Britney Spears Will Probably Be Singing Live On New Year’s Eve

Its true, the world is almost out of the near-hopeless wasteland that was 2017 and here to ring us all into the new year will be none other than the legendary nostalgia bomb that is Britney Jean Spears. Spears will be joining the likes of Camila Cabello, Nick Jonas, and Sugarland as headlining performers on ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest on Dec. 31. Considering the audio difficulties that plagued Mariah Carey's performance during last years New Year's special, fans may be wondering, is Britney Spears be lip-syncing on New Year's Eve?

Well, neither Spears' representatives or Dick Clark Productions have made an official statement regarding whether Spears will be lip-syncing her performance during the New Year's special, but there are some clues to consider. First, Spears is being pretty brilliant about how she'll actually be performing on New Year's Eve. Instead of braving the winter elements and working with a less familiar production team, Spears will be performing from AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. This venue is the very home of her Britney: Piece of Me residency tour in Vegas, which will be coming to an end on Dec. 31 with this New Year's performance. The fact that Spears' performance will be streamed live from a venue that is comfortable and well-known to her, instead of in the middle of the freezing Northeast weather, suggests that she might lean a little more into singing live, as opposed to relying on background vocals.

According to Entertainment Weekly, however, the songs that Spears will be performing happen to be her fast paced, dance singles "Toxic” and “Work B*tch,” which require a lot of dancing and a lot of physical energy on her part. Everyone knows that Spears is a truly amazing dancer who doesn't ever skimp on the overall performance, even if it means having a background track as a safety net so she can groove full-out. So, it is possible that there will be a little help in that respect, but Spears herself told Rolling Stone that she was finding it really disheartening to hear that fans were accusing her of lip-syncing during her Vegas shows. "Because I'm dancing so much I do have a little bit of playback, but there's a mixture of my voice and the playback," Spears said. "It really pisses me off because I am busting my ass out there and singing at the same time and nobody ever really gives me credit for it."

So, the performer readily admits to using a background track to beef up the sound on her regular residency shows, and that could mean that she is going to be using the same set-up for her special performance on Dec. 31. Considering that ABC is already touting this show as “the first television performance of 2018,” there is a lot riding on it to be a great experience for the audience. It isn't out of the realm of possibility to assume that Spears would like to cover all of her bases and ensure that her year-end set goes off without a hitch.

It does seem like there will more than likely be some track playing alongside of Spears during her New Year's Eve performance, based on her own comments about her residency production. However, it doesn't look like there will just be straight lip-syncing without any live vocals at all from Spears. That just doesn't seem like the performer's style, especially for such a milestone. Tune into Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest to check it out for yourself and ring in the new year with a true pop icon.