NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- The reviews are in and none of them say Britney Spears' performance Sunday night in Las Vegas lived up to the hype that preceded it.
Spears was poised for a comeback, however, pretty much everything from her not-so-synchronized lip-synching to the too-small glittery black bikini she wore has been fodder for the critics in the hours after she opened the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony.
"Britney Spears phoned it in for her 'comeback' performance. ... It was a far cry from her energetic outings at VMAs past," the New York Daily News observed.
The New York Post called the number, "Totally lame, pathetically lip-synched," while The New York Times noted: "She didn't disappoint; she was awful. Visibly nervous, she tottered around the stage, dancing tentatively and doing nothing that sounded or looked like real live singing."
A source told People.com Spears was upset about her performance.
"Britney was supposed to wear a matching corset that she opted out of wearing at the last minute," they said. "She was just plain nervous because of all the hype and she's embarrassed."
