LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A year after her disastrous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears opened the event's 25th annual installment on Sunday in anti-climactic fashion, leaving the singing to others.

After weeks of hype, the pop singer took the stage simply to deliver four sentences, shielding her lower face with her microphone.

"Thank you so much. Thank you for all the love. I'm here tonight to celebrate a very important birthday, the 25th anniversary of the VMAs. This is the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards and it starts right now."

Looks like someone’s been hitting the gym trying to get tight to make up for that god-awful fuckery that went down last year at the MTV VMAs awards. Here is a bright-eyed Britney Spears looking almost like her old self holding her award for best whatever. Whomever told her to leave the E and horse tranquilizers alone tonight needs a pat on the back.

The awards are being held in Los Angeles for the first time in a decade, on the historic studio lot of MTV's corporate sibling, Paramount Pictures. The lifestyle cable network is using the faux city streets, rooftops, and sound stages all over the Paramount lot to show various performances.

Besides Spears, other video of the year nominees are: R&B singer Chris Brown's "Forever," teen idols the Jonas Brothers' "Burnin' Up," girl group the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up" and English pop duo the Ting Tings' "Shut Up and Let Me Go."

Last year, 7.1 million MTV viewers watched the festivities, according to Nielsen Media Research. While viewership was up from 5.8 million the year before, the numbers were a far cry from the record 12 million viewers for the 1999 version.