Britney covers Bonnie Raitt

Photo: All rights reserved.

Britney Spears

Britney Spears fired back at critics who don't believe she can perform live without a backing track by wowing fans with a cover of Bonnie Raitt's Something To Talk About on Saturday night.

The pop star rarely veers from her set list during her Piece of Me Las Vegas residency, but she had a point to prove at the weekend following reports she never sings completely live anymore.

Dressed in skimpy attire, she introduced the track by stating, "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately... One minute they (media) tear you down and the next minute you're on top of the world, but I've never really spoken about it... I'm a Southern girl, I'm from Louisiana, I'm from the South, and I like to keep it real, so I just want to make sure I keep having you motherf**ckers something to talk about (sic)."

She then belted out Raitt's bluesy classic, struggling at first but then belting out the track.

Back in June, she slammed critics who refused to accept she's not lip-syncing.

"A lot of people think that I don't sing live," Spears said during a TV interview in Israel ahead of her historic Tel Aviv gig on 3 July. "Because I'm dancing so much, I do have a little bit of playback, but there's a mixture of my voice and the playback.

"It really p**ses me off because I am busting my a** out there and singing at the same time and nobody ever really gives me credit for it."

The lip-sync 'haters' really turned on Britney after footage of her fumbling with her microphone during an onstage mishap in Tokyo, Japan went viral. As she untangled her hair from the microphone, her vocals continued, even though she clearly wasn't singing.

The singer's current Piece of Me Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood will be her last - she wraps up the run with a show on New Year's Eve.