Courtney Love has delivered a moving acoustic cover of Britney Spears’ 2000 song “Lucky” as part of her ongoing covers series.
The former Hole singer took to Instagram on Saturday (July 3) to share her take on the ballad, which appeared on Spears’ second album, Oops!… I Did it Again. The cover arrived shortly after The New Yorker published an in-depth article about Spears’ conservatorship, which features quotes from Love.
“Someone asked me what song I was going to cover next. I don’t have a guitar player handy, so yeah,” a pink-haired Love begins video, pointing to herself. “It’s written by one of those fantastic old Swedish people — gentleman — and it’s got like B-sharp 7th. I don’t know that s—. OK, let’s just try it.”
Performing the ballad proved to be emotional for Love, who has also covered Billy Bragg and Wilco’s “California Stars” as part of her series. “I’m actually crying,” she says toward the end of the clip. “I f—in’ hate this when it happens to me.”
Written by Max Martin, Rami Yacoub and Alexander Kronlund, “Lucky” peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000.
In The New Yorker piece, written by Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino, Love describes her ex-manager Sam Lutfi — who served in a similar capacity for Spears around 2007 — as a “street hustler.” Love later congratulated Farrow and Tolentino on Twitter, writing, “An honor to speak to an honorable man. Speak again soon.” She added to the post, “#freebritneyarmy do your thing.”
Watch Love’s cover of Spears’ “Lucky” below.
