A Critical Analysis of Britney Spears’ “Lucky”

Oh Britney. You meteoric rise to stardome and subsequent nosedive and rebirth have given the world at large so much fodder over the years. But did you know that you predicted your own future? In a strange attempt at self-reference (which is giving her a lot of credit) the song “Lucky” tells the story, in simple story form of course, of a famous girl named Lucky who is so, so sad to be famous. Let’s break it down.

Lyrics

“Lucky”
This is the story about a girl named Lucky.

Early morning,
She wakes up.
Knock, knock, knock on the door.

It’s time for makeup,
Perfect smile,
It’s you they’re all waiting for.

Isn’t she lovely
This Hollywood girl?

And they say..
She’s so Lucky,
She’s a star,
But she cry cry cries in her lonely heart.
Thinking, if there’s nothing missing in my life
Then why do these tears come at night?

Lost in an image, in a dream
But there’s no one there to wake her up.
And the world is spinning and she keeps on winning,
But tell me, what happens when it stops?

Baby.

Isn’t she lovely?
This Hollywood girl.

And they say..
She’s so lucky,
She’s a star,
But she cry cry cries in her lonely heart.
Thinking, if there’s nothing missing in my life,
Then why do these tears come at night?

Isn’t she lovely?
This Hollywood girl.

She’s so lucky,
But why does she cry?
If there is nothing missing in her life
Why do tears come at night?

And they say..
She’s so lucky,
She’s a star
But she cry cry cries in her lonely heart.
Thinking, if there’s nothing missing in my life
Then why do these tears come at night?

She’s so lucky.
But she cry cry cries in her lonely heart
Thinking, if there’s nothing missing in my life
Then why do these tears come at night?

Conclusion
Oh Britney. Perhaps there was a time when we felt bad that you’ve been cry, cry crying in your lonely heart. But you make millions of dollars. You are an international superstar. You have (had) a husband, you have (had) custody of your two kids, then why do these tears come at night?

First of all, any song that starts with “This is the story about a girl named Lucky”, you know can only get worse.

I have to believe that whomever the songwriter for this song was, thought that they were making a great commentary on somebody like Britney Spears. The song tries to highlight the high cost of fame. But I bet they never banked on the braintrust that is the Britney Spears camp to actually pick this song and have her perform it.

The song is more or less three minutes of bitching about fame, which in this world, people have very little time for. I also don’t quite understand if Lucky is telling the story about herself, or another person, or if Britney is Lucky, or Lucky is Britney; its all very confusing. Lucky is also very confused because she seems to not know why her tears come out at night. I can solve this Lucky / Britney, loneliness. You sing it like four times in the song. “Lucky” really is just a bubblgum mess being spearheaded by the biggest bubblegum mess of them all taking what could be a meta-commentary on fame and turning it into a sappy sob story that allows Britney Spears to wear a prom dress and throw glitter around the stage.

The Numbers

Creepy: 13%
Sweet: 7%
Sad: 80%

There aren’t a lot of words for this mess of a music video except that, well, it just gets sadder. The song, I’m pretty positive is about 30 seconds long, and the video tacks on a good four minutes of terrible acting, phantom Britney talking to Lucky, talking to Britney, or being Lucky, and ends with her throwing glitter and receiving crowns and awards on a red carpet. Way to learn a lesson Lucky. Way to learn a lesson.