Oops!... I Did IT Again World Tour - Development

Development

Jamie King was chosen as tour director. Tim Miller and Kevin Antunes served as director of production and musical director, respectively. Mark Foffano was chosen as the lightning director. Spears described the tour as "like a Broadway show". The setlist included material from her first studio album ...Baby One More Time (1999) as well as seven songs from Oops!... I Did It Again. Spears explained, "I've been singing the same material for so long now. It'll be nice to change it up a little bit." She also talked about her expectations for the tour, saying, "I can't wait. I'll have a world tour. I'm going to have more dancers, a bigger stage, more pyro… just a lot bigger". The proscenium stage was much more elaborate than the stage of her previous tour and included video screens, movable platforms and different props. It cost $2.2 million to build. The tone of the show variated from the beginning: for the performance of "Born to Make You Happy", Spears sang in a set resembling a children's bedroom, complete with large toys and a pillow fight routine. On the contrary, she unveiled a more sophisticated image for "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know", and followed it with raunchy performances for "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again".

The sound equipment was provided by Showco who used the PRISM system, which adapted the show for each venue according to its height, width and the coverage required. The sound was mixed by Front of house engineer Monty Lee Wilkes on a combination of Yamaha PM4000 and PM3000 consoles, an unusual choice for Spears's shows. He used dbx 903 compressors for kick and snare drums. The compressors were also used on Spears's microphones, a Shure Beta 58A handheld and a Crown CM-311AE headset-mounted capsule. Spears's vocals were mostly live—pre-recorded vocals ran in parallel on an ADAT machine during the shows, and were used to replace her live microphone when the dance routines became too energetic for good voice control. Spears's band, backline technicians and monitor engineer Raza Sufi were all fitted with in-ear monitors and headset mics, enabling rapid and clear communications around the stage area. Spears did not use them, preferring the ambient sound of a battery of eight Showco SRM wedges spread across the downstage area. These were augmented by Showco SS full-range sidefills and a pair of one-by-18-inch subs on each side of the stage. Sufi also used a dbx 160A to limit Spears's louder moments, while backing vocalists were controlled by a duo of BSS DPR901 dynamic equalizers. Effects were limited to vocal and drum reverbs. Amplification for the wedges and the FOH system were all Crown-based, with a pair of drum stool shakers completing the line-up. All the cables used during the tour were brought from the US, even in Europe, something unusual in audio production.