Britney Spears made her first live stage appearance since her disastrous performance at the MTV VMAs last year - and used the opportunity to emulate her pop mentor Madonna.

The Toxic hitmaker attended Germany's annual Bambi awards where she received the gong for Best International Pop Star - an annual television and media prize hosted by the Hubert Burda Media Group.

Spears received her award from designer Karl Lagerfeld at the event on Thursday (Thurs27Nov08) before taking to the stage to thrill fans with a remixed version of her U.S. number one smash Womanizer.

And the singer seemed to be taking inspiration from fellow superstar Madonna - as she wore a replica of the Material Girl's top hat and mesh-corset ensemble she has been sporting on her worldwide Sticky + Sweet tour.

And despite not performing for over a year - Spears proved to fans she has put her troubled past behind her and was ready to make a global comeback.

Earlier in the day, the singer's mother Lynne Spears told British morning show Gmtv, "I think Britney is just ready to get started again. This is when she's most in her element."