Britney Spears

More than any other single artist, Britney Spears was the driving force behind the return of teen pop in the late '90s. Not only did she sell millions of records, she was a media fixture regardless of what she was (or wasn't) doing; among female singers of the era (many of whom followed in her footsteps), her celebrity star power was rivaled only by Jennifer Lopez. Britney Jean Spears was born December 2, 1981, in the small town of Kentwood, LA, and began performing as a singer and dancer at a young age. Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel's The New Mickey Mouse Club at age eight.

The producers turned her down as too young. At 11, she returned to The New Mickey Mouse Club for a second audition, and this time made the cut. The show was canceled after Spears' second season. She then went to New York at age 15 and set about auditioning for pop bands and recording demo tapes, one of which eventually landed her a deal with Jive Records. In late 1998, Jive released her debut single"...Baby One More Time." Powered by its video, in which Spears and a troupe of dancers were dressed as Catholic-school jailbait, the single shot to the top of the Billboard charts. When Spears' debut album of the same title was released in early 1999, it entered the charts at number one and stayed there for six weeks. By the end of 1999, “...Baby One More Time” had sold ten million copies, and went on to sell a good three million more on top of that. Its success touched off a wave of young pop divas that included Christina Aguilera, Pink, Jessica Simpson, and Mandy Moore.

Britney was a superstar, drooled over in countless magazines, including a Rolling Stone cover. By the time “...Baby One More Time” finally started to lose steam on the singles and album charts, Spears was ready to release her follow-up. “Oops!...I Did It Again” appeared in the spring of 2000, and the title track was an instant smash, racing into the Top Ten. The album entered the charts at number one and sold over a million copies in its first week of release, setting a new record for single-week sales by a female artist. A year after its release, Oops!...I Did It Again had sold over nine million copies.

Rumors that Spears was dating *N Sync heartthrob Justin Timberlake were eventually confirmed, which only added to the media attention lavished on her. For her next album, released in late 2001, Britney tried to present the singer as a more mature young woman. It became her third straight album to debut at number one, although this time around the singles weren't as successful. In early 2002, Spears' feature-film debut, Crossroads, hit theaters, but its commercial performance was somewhat disappointing; moreover, her romance with Timberlake fizzled not long after.

Meanwhile, sales of Britney stalled at four million copies, perhaps in part because a new breed of teenage female singer/songwriters, like Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne, was emerging as an alternative to the highly packaged teen queens. Spears took a break from recording and performing for several months, and began work on a new album in early 2003. The results, In the Zone, topped the charts and launched several singles into orbit, including the musically adventurous "Toxic," "Everytime," and "Me Against the Music." In the Zone hit number one on the Billboard 200, and "Toxic" snagged a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. But by 2004 it was Britney's personal life to be in the center of media attention. First there was the star's bizarre two-day marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander, and then the revelation of her relationship with former backup dancer Kevin Federline made the tabloids even more ravenous. Spears and Federline married in September and were tabloid regulars in the months after the ceremony.

The year 2005 was no less eventful for Spears. She released Greatest Hits: My Prerogative that January, but it was the announcement of her pregnancy that really garnered the headlines. Sean Preston Federline was born in September, and a bidding war ensued for first rights to the baby photos. That year Britney released a remix album just in time for the holiday season.

In 2006, Spears discovered she was pregnant again; shortly after the birth of her second son, Jayden James Federline, she divorced Federline. Early in 2007, Spears went to Malibu, CA's Promises Treatment Center; when she left, she began working on her comeback album and performed a few small shows at House of Blues locations in Los Angeles, San Diego, Anaheim, and Las Vegas. She released her fifth album Blackout in October 2007.Blackout debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. It was fairly well received by critics. Blackout's first single, "Gimme More" leaked on the internet on August 30. The song peaked at number three on Billboard's Hot 100 on October 3, making it her most successful single in the U.S. since her debut, "…Baby One More Time.”

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