Britney Spears Reveals How She Really Felt Dancing With a Snake During Her Iconic 2001 VMAs Performance

Britney Spears was ready to dance off the VMAs stage to another time and place.

While commemorating the 22nd anniversary of her "I'm a Slave 4 U" performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards—which remains one of the most iconic moments in MTV history—Britney admitted that she was a bit nervous about her guest performer.

"One of my favorite performances was with an albino python," Spears said on Instagram Sept. 6 alongside a clip of the snake on her shoulders. "I still remember how scared I felt when I was handed this snake and took the stage !!!"

The Grammy winner went on to note that she talks more about this performance and other favorites in her upcoming memoir, The Woman In Me, which is set for release Oct. 24.

Spears had reflected on her iconic performance with the snake in an exclusive E! News interview in 2016.

"It's insane!" she said. "Why did I do that?"

She also said she does not plan to do it again.

"Hell, no!" Spears said. "It's so dumb. No! Never!"

In 2021, the snake's handler, Michael Hano, told Yahoo! Entertainment that Spears' performance could have been "really risky" because the snake could have mistaken the singer for prey.

He also Today that contrary to popular belief, the reptile was actually an amelanistic Burmese python, not an albino one. He also recalled working with Spears before the ceremony to make her more comfortable with the snake.

"At one point, she said, 'He's not gonna bite me, right?'" he shared. "And my answer is always, and my agent hates me for this, 'Probably not.'"

He also remembered telling the singer, "You're freakin' Britney Spears, you know, if this thing bites you, I think my career is over."

But, as fans around the world witnessed that night, the performance went off without a hitch.

"She was very good," Hano told Today. "She was very focused and initially she was scared of the snake, but you could see that she was able to focus and kind of push yourself to be able to work with the thing and look comfortable doing it."

Look back at more of the most memorable MTV VMAs moments of all time below:

Who could forget when Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford expressed his displeasure at the band losing an award to Limp Bizkit by storming the stage and scaling a display tower? Although his moment was short-lived on television—since the network cut to a commercial—in reality, Tim's night was not since he was arrested and sentenced to a night in jail.

Believe or not, the Kanye West-Taylor Swift incident was not the only impromptu onstage moment to happen during the 2009 show. After the now-infamous interruption, Lil Mama decided to unexpectedly join fellow New Yorkers Jay-Z and Alicia Keys during their duet of "Empire State of Mind."​

The "Material Girl" famously sang "Like a Virgin" while rolling around the stage in a white wedding dress. 

The Shock Jock lived up to his raunchy reputation when he was lowered onto the stage as a superhero named Fartman.

The two were involved in one of the most famous rock feuds. At the 1992 VMAs, tensions ran high backstage, where Cobain's wife Courtney Love, who also brought along then-newborn daughter Frances Bean, taunted Rose, prompting the Guns N' Roses frontman to threaten to beat up Cobain if he didn't shut his "bitch" up. Kurt then told Love, sarcastically, "Shut up, bitch!"

After he performed with his band Nirvana, the group's drummer Dave Grohl kept saying "Hi, Axl!" into his mic.

Shortly after their wedding, the couple walked on stage holding hands as the audience cheered. After Jackson declared, "I'm very happy to be here and just think, nobody thought this would last," the King of Pop and Elvis Presley's daughter shared a kiss and walked off. 

The songstress won the award for Best New Artist in a Video, but used her acceptance speech as an opportunity to speak out against Hollywood, telling viewers, "This world is bulls--t."

While presenting Best Hip-Hop Video, the legendary singer unexpectedly tapped Lil' Kim's exposed left breast.

The pop princess unforgettably took the stage for her performance of "I'm a Slave 4 U" with a snake draped over her shoulders.

Amid an ongoing feud between Eminem and Moby, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog poked fun at their beef while roasting the latter artist to his face in the VMAs audience. Triumph then attempted to do the same to Eminem, who was not in the mood.

Eminem later took to the stage to accept the award for Best Male Video and said mid-speech, "That little Moby girl threw me out of my zone for a minute."

To open the show, Britney, Madonna and Christina Aguilera joined together for a rendition of "Like a Virgin" and "Hollywood," sealed with a headline-making kiss between the women. 

The pop princess made her highly anticipated return to the VMA stage, though her performance of "Gimme More" was panned. 

The rapper crashed the stage when Taylor Swift won Best Female Video because he thought Beyoncé "had one of the best videos of all time." When Bey later won for Video of the Year, she asked T.Swift to join her on stage to have her moment.

Gaga made headlines when she sported the now-unforgettable meat dress by Franc Fernandez as the most awarded star of the night. 

The pop star announced she and Jay-Z were expecting their first child together when she cradled her baby bump on the red carpet and literally dropped her mic and rubbed her baby bump at the end of her performance of "Love On Top."

 

The Biebs had his own snake moment when he brought a baby boa constrictor named Johnson to the show.

Hannah Montana who? The former Disney star twerked her way into MTV history with her performance of "We Can't Stop" and a duet of "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke.

While accepting the award for Best Hip-Hop Video for "Anaconda," Nicki confronted Miley, who was hosting, over negative comments she had made about the rapper in a New York Times interview. She called the pop star a "bitch" and asked her, "What's good?"

At the end of his lengthy Video Vanguard acceptance speech, the rapper unforgettably announced his plan to run for president in 2020. 

The rapper sparked headlines when he declared his love for the songstress while presenting her with the 2016 Video Vanguard Award, telling the audience, "She's someone I've been in love with since I was 22-years-old."

On the heels of Camila Cabello's exit, the girl group shocked the world when they opened their performance with the image of a fifth member falling off the stage. 

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