Oops!... I Did It Again (song)

Background and composition

After attaining huge success with her debut album ...Baby One More Time (1999) and its singles "...Baby One More Time", "Sometimes", "(You Drive Me) Crazy", "Born to Make You Happy", and "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart", Spears recorded much of her follow-up record Oops!... I Did It Again (2000) in November 1999 at the Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Its title track was written and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub, while background vocals were provided by Martin and Nana Hedin. The track was released on March 27, 2000, by JIVE Records as the lead single from the record.

"Oops!... I Did It Again" is a song that lasts for a duration of three minutes and thirty seconds. It is composed in the key of C ♯ minor and is set in time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 94 beats per minute. The song has a basic sequence of C♯m–A-G♯ as its chord progression, and features a vocal range spanning from C♯₃ to C♯₅. Lyrically, the track discusses a female who toys with her lover's emotions, who mistakes Spears' flirtatiousness with a serious romantic interest. During its bridge, Spears delivers a spoken-word dialogue that references the blockbuster film Titanic (1997).

Critical reception

Upon its release, "Oops!... I Did It Again" received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, David Browne called it "ludicrously derivative" of Spears' debut single "...Baby One More Time", and commented that it "amounts to nothing so much as a jailbait manifesto". Lennat Mak of the Asian division of MTV complimented the song as "a perfect 10 on the "wow" scale, with the wacky "Jack-Rose" dialogue", referencing the Titanic spoken lyrics.

A reviewer from NME compared the structure of the recording to 1980s-style riffs of Michael Jackson and further described the track as a "harder, carbon copy" of "...Baby One More Time" that is "easily as good as her breakthrough single". Robert Christgau recognized "Oops!... I Did It Again" and Spears' rendition of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as his "choice cuts" from the parent album, Writing for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield compared the track musically to Barbra Streisand's "Woman In Love" and lyrically to The Smiths' "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish", and complimented it for being "terrific" and displaying "a violently ambivalent sexual confusion her audience can relate to". Andy Battaglia of Salon described the track as a "sweetly sadistic companion piece to the masochism lite lurking beneath her debut '...Baby One More Time'".

"Oops!... I Did It Again" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2001 ceremony, but lost to "I Try" by Macy Gray. The track was additionally nominated for the Favorite Song at the 2001 Kids' Choice Awards broadcast on Nickelodeon, but lost to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by the Baha Men.

Chart performance

In the United States, "Oops!... I Did It Again" peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. It additionally peaked at numbers 1 and 27 on the Billboard Pop Songs and Adult Pop Songs component charts. In Canada, the track topped the Canadian Hot 100 for six weeks. It topped the singles charts in both Australia and New Zealand, and was certified platinum in the former country for reaching sales of 70,000 copies.

"Oops!... I Did It Again" enjoyed success throughout Europe, and peaked atop the European Hot 100 Singles chart. It also peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, and was certified Gold for exceeding sales of 400,000 copies. As of June 2015, the song has sold 476,000 copies in the country. The song reached number two in Austria, where it was additionally recognized with platinum certification for sales of 15,000 units. It respectively peaked at numbers one and three on the Wallonia and Flanders charts in Belgium, and also respectively reached numbers one and two in Denmark and Finland.

"Oops!... I Did It Again" reached number four in France, and number two in both Germany and Ireland. In Germany, the single additionally received a gold certification, signifying sales of 250,000 units. It additionally topped singles charts in Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The song was awarded gold certifications in the Netherlands and Switzerland, respectively marking sales of 40,000 and 15,000 copies, and attained platinum certification in Sweden for reaching sales of 20,000 units.

Music video

An accompanying music video for "Oops!... I Did It Again" was directed by Nigel Dick and was filmed on March 17–18, 2000 in Universal City, California. During its production, Spears was struck in the head by a falling camera and began bleeding. Spears' mother Lynne suggested that she might have suffered from a concussion, though she received four stitches and continued work after resting for four hours. Spears created the concept for the clip, commenting that "[she wanted] to be on Mars, dancing on Mars" and "[wanted] to be in a red jumpsuit". The final product premiered on April 10, 2000, on an episode of MTV's Making the Video.

The music video begins with a brief scene of an astronaut on Mars uncovering a stone slate featuring the cover of the album Oops!... I Did It Again. A scientist back on Earth sees it through a video transmitter and says, "Cute. What is it?" As the astronaut replies, "Oh, it's cute alright. It couldn't be...", the ground begins to shake as a large stage rises from the ground. Spears then descends from a platform onto a stage in a red catsuit as the track begins to play. As she continues to sing and dance, she suspends the astronaut mid-air above her. Interspersed throughout the video are scenes of Spears wearing a short white top and skirt, lying barefoot on a white web pad with dancers on the ground around her. During its bridge, Spears does a flip in the air to where the astronaut is and appears in a white jacket, short black leather skirt, and leather boots. As a symbol of his love for her, the astronaut gifts Spears with the Heart of the Ocean, the blue diamond from the blockbuster film Titanic (1997). She questions that she "thought the old lady [Rose] dropped it into the ocean in the end", to which he responds, "Well, baby, I went down and got it for you". Spears comments "Oh, you shouldn't have" and walks away, the astronaut shrugs and leaves. The video concludes as Spears and her performers continue to dance.

At the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video for "Oops!... I Did It Again" was nominated for the Best Female Video, Best Dance Video, the Best Pop Video, and the Viewer's Choice. However, she lost in each of the four categories.

Live performances

In May 2000, Spears performed "Oops!... I Did It Again" during several television performances, including All That, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Total Request Live, and the two-hour concert special Britney Live. The following month, she appeared in an additional television special, titled Britney Spears in Hawaii. In collaboration with McDonald's, Spears and 'N Sync filmed a commercial for the fast food chain, where they lip-synced to "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "Bye Bye Bye", respectively.

On September 7, Spears performed "Oops!... I Did It Again" and her rendition of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, where she notably tore off her black suit to unveil a more provocative, flesh-colored piece. Entertainment Weekly included the performance on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, describing "the pre-breakdown pop tart, then just 19 years old, writhing and shaking her moneymaker in nude-colored rhinestone spandex" to be "pure kitsch bliss".

Spears has performed "Oops!... I Did It Again" on three of her eight concert tours. She premiered the song on the Crazy 2k Tour and later included the track as the encore to her Oops!... I Did It Again Tour in 2000, where it was performed with special effects involving fire. In 2002, it was featured as the opening to her Dream Within a Dream Tour in 2002. In 2004, Spears sang "Oops!... I Did It Again" during The Onyx Hotel Tour, held in support of her fourth studio album In the Zone. The track was reworked with "...Baby One More Time" as a jazz-style performance.

"Oops!... I Did It Again" would not be performed by Spears for nine years until it was included on the setlist of her Las Vegas residency show Britney: Piece of Me at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

Cover versions and usage in media

Since its release, "Oops!... I Did It Again" has been covered on numerous occasions. In 2001, German singer Max Raabe recorded a cabaret version of the song with Palast Orchester for their album Super Hits. Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom also recorded a cover of the song for their album Skeletons in the Closet (2009), while Rochelle released three eurodance hi-NRG renditions of the track. Richard Thompson covered the song on his album 1000 Years of Popular Music (2006), and in addition included a medieval-style version titled "Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt".

"Oops!... I Did It Again" has been featured on several television series. In 2004, it was included on the soundtrack for the sitcom Will & Grace. Irish pop rap duo Jedward performed the song live during the sixth series of the British version of The X Factor in 2009. During the episode "Britney/Brittany" for Glee in 2010, Brittany Pierce (portrayed by Heather Morris) mimicked Spears as she danced in a red catsuit while performing her later single "I'm a Slave 4 U". The song itself was later performed by Rachel Berry (portrayed by Lea Michele) during the episode "Britney 2.0" in 2012. While of tour with her band The Scene, Selena Gomez covered "Oops!... I Did It Again" during their We Own the Night Tour in 2011. In February, 2013, the song was used as a "lip sync for your life" on Season 5, episode 4 of RuPaul's Drag Race; resulting in a double-elimination of Drag Race contestants Honey Mahogany and Vivienne Pinay.

Cover versions of the song appear on the video games Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (2005), Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 (2004), and Just Dance 4 (2012), while Spears' original version is included on Singstar as DLC and her own video game Britney's Dance Beat. In 2005, the comedy website Super Master Piece released parody version of "Oops!... I Did It Again" titled "Oops I Did It Again!: The Original", which they jokingly labeled as the original recording by Louis Armstrong on April 1932 in Chicago, Illinois; their version was actually recorded by Shek Baker. The track has also been parodied under the title "Oops! I Farted Again" by producer Bob Rivers.

In 2013, it was reported that "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "...Baby One More Time" have been used by the British Navy to scare off pirates near Somalia.

The song was featured in Fox animated series The Simpsons episode "Dude, Where's My Ranch?".

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Oops!... I Did It Again.