| Lyrics | Critical Analysis |
| This is a story about a girl named Lucky… |
The two defining characteristics of Britney's lyrics are 1. the inherent tragedy and 2. the inherent irony. It is the interplay and duality of these concepts that enriches her lyrics. (Another irony is the mismash of her upbeat tempo with her depressing message.) "Lucky" is an especially tragic piece because it deals with the dark underbelly of being famous, and how sometimes being well known isn't as lucky as we might think. |
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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 They go… "Isn't she lovely, this Hollywood girl?" And they say… |
Britney expresses the constant pressure of fame, starting here with the moment she wakes up. She must immediately conform to the expectations that her fans have of her, but knows she can never live up the perfect ideal. This is another repeated theme in Britney music (see "Oops...I Did it Again"): her fear of falling short of perfection. |
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Chorus:
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 |
Again, the irony of fame becomes apparent in the chorus. Everyone wants to be famous, but Britney sees that fame doesn't equal happiness. |
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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? They go… "Isn't she lovely, this Hollywood girl?" And they say… |
Begins the dream sequence. This surreal verse gives us a glimpse into the subconcious thought process of Britney while she is experience REM [Editor's note: Rapid eye movement, part of the sleep cycle, not the band] sleep. With a clever word dance, Britney turns the world on it's head, inverting our concept of reality by ascribing the characteristics of the living world to the dream world, and describing the real world as a dreamlike state. This confusion of reality/dream mimics and echoes the confusion surrounding Britney and her own future. Now, she is "winning" with hit after hit, but she fears fading into oblivion. We all know what happens when her world stops spinning: because of Britney's rotational intertia, she will continue to travel in a straight line with a constant angular momentum with reference to axis of rotation of the sphere on which she was previously rotating, which of course represents how she will steadily drift away and eventually disappear from our hearts and memories forever. |
| Chorus |
Now we must ask ourselves, "What is missing from her life?" because of the indirect proof set up by the chorus. Assumption 1: Nothing is missing from her life. Assumption 2: If nothing is missing, then she must be happy. Empirical evidence: She cries at night, therefore must be unhappy. This contradiction of evidence with our assumptions reveals that one is incorrect, and it obvious that the first one is. Now, we must continue the logic and apply it to our own lives: What is missing from our lives? The answer is not fame, because that obviously hasn't worked for Britney. Instead, Britney is telling us we must look within ourselves or to our loved ones to find what will make us truly happy. |
"Best actress, and the winner is…Lucky!" "I'm Roger Johnson for Pop News standing outside the arena waiting for Lucky" "Oh my god…here she comes!" |
A keen reader at this point might notice that Lucky is a Hollywood actress and Britney Spears is a pop singer, but rest assured that Lucky is simply a projection of Britney's own life. |
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Isn't she lucky, this Hollywood girl? She is so lucky, but why does she cry? If there's nothing missing in her life Why do tears come at night? |
In case you didn't pick up one what she was trying to tell you, she is pleading again for you to listen. |
| Chorus |
And a final plea for you to understand the terrible plight Britney is in and not to make the same mistake. Being Britney Spears is tough, and her depressing anxiety bleeds into every song she sings. Thank you for warning us, Britney. Now we know that heroes, they truly exist. |
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