EDMONTON - She didn't even need to be here. The Britney Spears machine runs just fine without any input from Britney Spears.

All she has to do is show up, dress in one sexy costume after another, pretend to sing, pretend to dance and pretend to perform the fizzy pop songs that have been created on her behalf. Other people - dancers, musicians, sound engineers, lighting techs - do most of the actual entertaining. In fact, I'm beginning to think that it wasn't the real Britney Spears performing in front of 18,500 delirious fans at Rexall Place last night. It was a Britney-bot, or perhaps a highly trained clone - while the real Britney was relaxing in rehab.

Does it sound far-fetched? From the widespread acceptance of lip-syncing in a supposedly live concert, it's a slippery slope to pop star simulacrums.

Just wait.

Last night had a circus theme, with a three-ring circus "in the round" stage, in honour of Britney's latest album, which is called Circus, and the title track also called Circus, which is about how Britney's life has been a circus, which opened the show. So you can see how it all ties together.

After a brief interlude of acrobats, the star descended in a cage as a whip-wielding dominatrix ringmaster, flanked by her dancing "slaves." The first words out of the speakers (if not her mouth) were: "There's only two types of people in the world, the ones that entertain and the ones that observe."

That set the tone for the evening. What followed was a riot of activity - acrobats, dancers, magic tricks, bicycle stunts, blasts of steam, props, smoke, blinding strobes, you name it - talk about sensory overload.

There's Britney writhing in a cage. There she is wrapped around a stripper's pole. Then she appears in a magic show in a sparkly cocktail dress. Now she's risen out of one of the many stage holes in an outfit with her butt cheeks hanging out. Later is a belly dancer, a leather-clad cop, a dominatrix again, must be one of her favourites. You never knew when or in what guise she would appear next.

The songs - canned or not, I couldn't tell, though I thought I heard a drum kit being tested before the show - stayed upbeat for the first while, heavy on newer material. Numbers included Piece of Me, Hot As Ice, Freak Show, Get Naked - I'm sensing a theme here.

Drawing a huge cheer from her opening "whassup, Edmonton!" She wasn't actually on stage for a third of the time. Like I said, her squad of dancers did a lot of the heavy lifting. The only time I wasn't sure if she was lip-syncing was in Everytime, during which she sat suspended on a giant umbrella. For the most part of this concert, the star was just another prop - OK, the central prop - in a thundering din of special effects.

This is the state of modern pop music.

Think of the opening act Pussycat Dolls as the new and improved Spice Girls. Anyone there last night remember the Spice Girls? Girl power? Well, never mind.

Thundering beats of such tunes as When I Grow Up, I Hate This Part and I Don't Need a Man filled the arena as the girls writhed and dirty danced around the stage, assuming one provocative pose after another, their radioactive sexuality blasting in waves from the stage.

Five super hot chicks dressed like strippers promote female empowerment - now there's a novel concept.

And we come to another confusing element to last night's show. Yet again, are witness to hot female performers flaunting their sexuality for a largely female - and gay male - audience. Are they all lesbians? Unlikely. Have these girls and women elevated Britney Spears to the very model of femininity they strive to emulate? Is this a sign of the decline of civilization as we know it? Am I asking too many deep questions about what is, at its core, complete fluff?

The fascination with Britney Spears isn't about role models. She is fascinating because so many people are fascinated by her - simple as that. Some people might come to see the potential train wreck, but remember that the Britney-bot is indestructible: No amount of head-shaving, rehab-bolting, Red Bull-guzzling, paparazzi-attacking, spoiled pop star behaviour will stop her from conquering and devouring all that she sees.