The Onyx Hotel Tour (2004)

The Onyx Hotel Tour (2004)

The Onyx Hotel Tour was the 4th concert tour by American recording artist Britney Spears. It supported her 4th studio album In the Zone (2003) and visited The United States and Europe. An excursion to advertise the album was introduced in December 2003. Its original title was the In the Zone Tour, but Spears was prosecuted for trademark violation and banned by using the title. Spears felt inspired to produce a show having a hotel theme which she later combined with the idea of an onyx stone. Happens, inspired by Broadway musicals, was less elaborate than her previous tours. The setlist was composed mostly by tunes from In the Zone in addition to a few of her past tunes reworked with various aspects of jazz, blues and Latin percussion. Tour promoter Obvious Funnel Entertainment promoted the tour to some more adult audience than her previous shows while sponsor MTV highly marketed the tour on television shows and also the network’s website.

The tour was split into seven segments: Check-In, Mystic Lounge, Mystic Garden, The Onyx Zone, Video Security Cameras, Club and also the encore. Check-In displayed performances with dance and advanced within the hotel theme. Mystic Lounge featured an homage to Cabaret along with other musicals, while remixing a number of Spears’s early hits. Mystic Garden displayed a jungle-inspired stage. The Onyx Zone displayed a ballad performance with acrobats. Video Security Cameras was the raciest area of the show, with Spears and her ballroom dancers emulating different sexual practices. Club displayed a performance with urban influences. The encore comprised of the system malfunction interlude and Spears carried out putting on a red-colored ensemble. The tour received mixed reviews from contemporary experts, who recognized it to be an entertaining show while demeaning it for searching “more [like] a spectacle than a real concert”.
Onyx Pictures

The Onyx Hotel Tour was in a commercial sense effective, grossing $34 million. In March, Spears experienced a knee injuries onstage which forced her to reschedule two shows. In June, Spears fell and hurt her knee again throughout a music video shoot. She went through arthroscopic surgery and the rest of the tour was canceled. In 2005, Spears prosecuted her insurance providers for denying her a compensation for that cancellation. Showtime broadcast live the March 28, 2004 show in the American Air carriers Arena, inside a special entitled Britney Spears Live From Miami. Backstage footage was incorporated within the reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic.

The Onyx Hotel
Britney Spears Biography