Britney Spears Hits the Stage Again

Britney Spears performed live late Tuesday night for the first time in nearly three years with a 14-minute set for screaming fans in San Diego.

After a career break that featured a marriage, two children, divorce and rehab, Spears, in a black wig and white pleated miniskirt, took to the stage at the San Diego House of Blues at about 10:15 p.m.

Security guards rushed to the edge of the stage to hold back the fans. Spears then began her set, lip-syncing her hits “… Baby One More Time,” “Do Somethin’,” “I’m a Slave 4 U,” “Breathe on Me” and “Toxic.”

The show featured rapid-fire costume changes, back-up dancers and light and smoke effects. Spears’s Pussycat Dolls-style choreography included plenty of quick, sexy hip-hop moves, head spins, twirls and rump-shaking.

At one point during her performance, Spears pulled one male fan up from the audience and dirty danced around him with her blonde backup dancers.

Rumors that Spears had been planning a comeback performance had been swirling for days. Last week, she was reportedly scheduled to perform three songs at the Hollywood club Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce, but plans fell through at the last minute.

The owner of the Millennium Dance Complex, where Spears has been training regularly for the last few weeks, says the singer has been working on material which resembles her earlier hits.

“They’ll be in the style we are all used to, the pop thing,” Robert Baker said. “But she’s got bigger plans brewing, with music and dancing that’s a break from her old stuff. She’s really excited about that.”

As for Tuesday’s show, a source says it was just the beginning: “It’s kind of warming up. That’s probably the best way to describe it.”

Spears’s last major performance was in June 2004 during her Onyx Hotel Tour in Dublin, Ireland, which was cut short when she injured her knee.

Spears is also planning several other performances this week, including shows at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif., on Wednesday, the Los Angeles House of Blues on Thursday and the House of Blues Las Vegas inside Mandalay Bay on Sunday.

She isn’t planning to perform any new songs during the mini-tour, a source said Tuesday.