Chapter 1: The Childhood of Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981 in the small town of Kentwood, LA. Britney Spears began performing as a singer and dancer at a young age, where she would fight to compete in competitions for dancing or singing. At the age of eight, Spears’ first big audition was for The Mickey Mouse Club. As Spears auditioned, most of the producers rejected her (due to her young age). Her mother (Lynne), moved to New York, where Spears appeared in several commercials and off-Broadway plays. At age eleven, Britney auditioned again for the Mickey Mouse Club, where she finally made the final cut. The show included other celebrities such as (Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Christina Aguilera and Keri Russell).
Three years later from when Spears joined The Mickey Mouse Club, the show suddenly cancelled. Just a couple of years later, Spears found herself in a deal with Jive Records. Although she wasn’t in a music group such as the (Backstreet Boys or the Spice Girls), there was something that this young girl offered to the music industry.
Chapter 2: The Success of “Baby One More Time”
Britney’s very first studio album was released in 1999, which entered the charts at number one and stayed there for six consecutive weeks. “Baby One More Time” debuted at number one. To promote her new material, Spears hit the road for a shopping mall promotional tour. Spears was also the opening act for another musical group/band “N Sync” (featuring an old friend of hers “Justin Timberlake” from The Mickey Mouse Club). Following the success of Baby One More time, other singles off of Spears’ first album included “Crazy”, “Sometimes”, and “From the Bottom of my Broken Heart”.
Spring 1999, Spears graced the cover for Rolling Stone, which quickly became “too sexual” for such a young girl. It was as if this young star committed a crime to the world because she posed in a bed with short pants and a white open button down shirt revealing her bra. Her sex life became a highlight in her career. After revealing that she was a virgin and that she would stay a virgin until she was married, media that surrounded her wouldn’t let her live a lie if she couldn’t keep her promise.
In 1999, Spears also made a cameo appearance in the comedy show “Sabrina the Teenager Witch”. Her appearance was very short, but was also very important to the episode. Melissa Joan Hart, who plays as “Sabrina” also made an appearance in Spears’ video “Crazy”. The official music video was included in the movie “You Drive Me Crazy”, featuring Melissa Joan Hart and was also added to the film soundtrack as “Stop Remix!”, which was used in the music video.
Chapter 3: Growing Up (Oops!…I Did It Again)
Oops!… I Did It Again, her second studio album, was released in May 2000. later that year, Spears embarked on the Oops!… I Did It Again World Tour. Her second studio album sold between 15-20 million copies. A performance was also done for “Oops!… I Did It Again” at the MTV Video Music Awards. Spears also performed “Satisfaction” in a black suit with a hat, which she later ripped off and was captured in a tan/diamond colored bodysuit. Heavy dancing from Spears was revealed at the award show only leading to her “Oops!… I Did It Again” performance. Her status as a performer was now “provocative”.
Minor projects included a book with her mother “Lynne”. The book was a gift to fans from both Britney and Lynne (co-written), which talks about a mother and daughter relationship and the success building up to Spears’ career. The book was titled “Britney Spears’ Heart-to-Heart”.
As rumors speculated, Spears was also dating N Sync member “Justin Timberlake” who she grew up with as a child.
Chapter 4: The “Sex Symbol”
On November 2001, the third studio album from Britney Spears released as “Britney”. Her first single “I’m a Slave 4 U” was performed at the following MTV Video Music Awards. A jungle theme was created for this particular performance. There were about two or three tigers featured in the performance, along with a snake (python), which was wrapped around Spears that created this all-time performance from this pop star.
Spears later embarked on the Dream Within a Dream Tour, which would support her third studio album that was released. The theme behind this tour was to create a vivid dream. The goal was accomplished from Spears and dancers as they created a whole different world of water, fireworks, props, and etc. Dream Within A Dream became the second highest grossing tour of 2001-2002. Spears was also listed as a powerful celebrity by Forbes.
Her movie “Crossroads” lead her as the main character of the movie, which released in February 2002. The movie was based on a road trip that these three girls took in search for their dreams and lost memories that they dug up as little girls.
Along with Crossroads, Spears also worked with the Pepsi company. The promotional deal included Spears in a number of commercials, tv ads, promotional signs and was also a proud sponsor during the Dream Within A Dream tour. Along with the success from Dream Within A Dream and Crossroads, Spears and her mother Lynne released another book titled “A Mother’s Gift’.
Early Summer 2002, Spears opened her first restaurant Nyla, in New York City. Her relationship with Justin Timberlake was very rocky. A sudden breakup between the two was announced. Rumors from the press stated that Spears was “unfaithful” to Justin. It wasn’t completely clear what happened. Spears moved on and Timberlake’s solo-career shot off with his single “Cry Me A River”. A Britney Spears look-alike was used in his music video for “Cry Me A River”. Spears’ ballad in her album “In the Zone” was in response to her relationship with Justin, which she wrote. Only months from the break-up Fred Durst confirmed that there was a relationship between Britney and himself. The statement by Durst was later denied by Spears herself.
in 2003 (after a six month break) Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears joined forces to open the MTV Video Music Awards. The two performed “Like A Virgin”. Spears and Aguilera was greeted on stage with Madonna who shared a lip-lock with the two girls. The kiss between Madonna and Britney was deeply looked at and was stated to be a publicity stunt.
Chapter 5: In the Zone
in November 2003, Spears released her fourth studio album “In the Zone”. Spears took on a second role from her album by not only recording new songs, but also co-writing songs such as “Everytime”, which was written based on her relationship with her ex (Timberlake). The album was noted as confident, dance and mature. On January 3, 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The marriage was annulled fifty-five hours later after her mother and father flew in from their hometown. Two month later (March 2004), Spears prepared for her next world tour “The Onyx Hotel”, which was in support of her album (In the Zone). In June 2004, Spears injured her leg while recording for her new music video “Outrageous”. Plans for continuing her worldwide tour and her latest video (Outrageous) were quickly dropped.
In Summer of 2005, Spears announced her marriage with Kevin Federline, who met Spears during the kick off of her “Onyx Hotel Tour”. The new relationship caused a lot of commotion as Federline broke up with Shar Jackson, who was pregnant with their second child. Federline’s background wasn’t taken too lightly. Fans were quickly alarmed as they found out that Spears was dating a guy that they felt wouldn’t create happiness in her life. Despite the media’s insight, Spears and Kevin held their wedding ceremony in September of 2004. The prenuptial agreement followed a month later (October) until Spears agreed to have it signed, which would save her in a dirty divorce. Shortly after, she released her first fragrance with Elizabeth Arden. Her first perfume fragrance was titled “Curious”. Heavy promotion was achieved with the fragrance and was proven to be another successful product by Spears.
In October 2004, Spears announced a break. In November, her Greatest Hits: My Prerogative album/DVD released, featuring her first greatest hits compilation. Spears’ cover version of Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative” was the lead single, following her second single titled “Do Sometin”. Both songs climbed the charts and featured it’s own music video. In late 2004, Spears released a new song titled “Mona Lisa”. The song was supposedly off of her new album “Original Doll”, but plans were later dropped and a album was never released.
Chapter 6: The New Mother
Spears gave birth to her first child (Sean Preston Federline) on September 14th 2005. In fall of 2005, Spears released her first remix compilation titled “B in the Mix: The Remixes”. Remixes from this album included hits such as Slave 4 U, Stronger, Toxic, baby One More Time and an additional unreleased song “And Then We Kiss”. In February 2006, pictures surfaced of Spears with her child in her lap while driving. Drama from the media quickly unfolded. Spears explained that it was an accident on her part, but was nervous from the paparazzi that were too close to her and her baby. In March, Spears guest-starred on the Will & Grace episode “Buy, Buy Baby” as “Amber Louise”. A photoshoot with Spears in Harper’s Bazaar was later released, which featured Spears and her new baby bump. Spears gave birth to her second child, Jayden James Federline, on September 12, 2006.
Chapter 7: Personal Struggles (Finding Yourself):
On November 7, 2006, Spears filed for divorce from Federline. The divorce was finalized in the summer of 2007. It was agreed that the two would share joint custody of their children. Fighting through tough times, Spears’ Aunt Sandra died of ovarian cancer in January of 2007. In February 2007, Spears was said to have stayed in a drug rehabilitation facility for one day. On February 17th, Spears shaved her head with electric clippers at a hair salon in California. Following that night, she was pointed to treatment facilities. After a month of rehab, Spears wrote on her website, “I truly hit rock bottom. Till this day I don’t think that it was alcohol or depression. I was like a bad kid running around with ADD.” In may 2007, Spears came back to her original roots by performing. Britney produced a series of promotional concerts at House of Blues venues, which was titled “M+M’s Tour”. Fans were disappointed in how she lip-synced and barely performed. Spears continued to fight her personal struggles once she lost physical custody of her children to Federline on October 1, 2007. The reason for her losing custody was not revealed.
Her first studio album since “In the Zone” was released titled “Blackout”. This was the fifth album that Spears has released with Jive in October 2007. Blackout won Album of the Year at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008. Spears performed her lead single (Gimme More) during the MTV Video Music Awards 2007. The performance received negative comments from critics. It was said that the performance was to go down on MTV’s worst performances in history. Despite what the critics said about her Gimme More performance, the single reached number one on the charts and was an instant success. Her second single “Piece of Me”, also received a well amount of success, but her third single “break the Ice” was moderate due to lack of promotion. Three music videos were released for this era. One of them (Break The Ice) was turned into a animated music video, which later ended the era for Blackout. After Spears’ release of “Blackout”, Spears was caught with paparazzi “Adnan Ghalib”.
In January 2008, Spears was hospitalized after police arrived on her property for not accepting the custody conditions. Later Spears’ visitation rights were suspended and Federline was given full physical and legal custody for their children. The court placed her under temporary conservatorship of her father, giving them complete control of her assets and her life.
Chapter 8: The Return of Miss Britney Spears
After her resent breakdown, Spears was ready to turn the tables around. Britney first appeared on two episodes of “How I Met Your Mother”. Spears played a character named “Abby” who was a receptionist. The total views for the episodes were quite high and ratings for her performance were received well. In Summer 2008, Spears regained some of her visitation rights.
On September 2008, during the MTV Video Music Awards, Spears won three awards for her “Piece of Me” music video. That same night, Britney kicked off the show with an announcement looking sharper than ever with a short skit that featured Jonah Hill and herself. Spears also teamed up with Russell Brand (host) in a number of commercials for the award show.
Chapter 9: The Ring Leader
Spears asked cameras to follow her around as she preps for her next studio album “Circus”. In November, the documentary from MTV premiered showing Spears in a different light to critics. The documentary was a way to return Spears into the recording industry. In December, her sixth studio album “Circus” released. Four videos (“Womanizer”, “Circus”, “If U Seek Amy”, and “Radar”) were released from the album as part of the promotion for the sixth studio album.
Early that year, Spears’ team made an announcement for her upcoming tour titled as “The CIRCUS Staring Britney Spears”, which kicked off in New Orleans on March 3rd 2009. During the CIRCUS tour that was kicked off in North America, Spears’ documentary (For the Record) was released on DVD early April 2009. The tour wrapped up in the United States and Canada on May 5th 2009. The first leg for the tour in Europe kicked off early June and wrapped up on July 26th 2009 which fans received an exclusive as Spears added another song from her sixth studio album “Mannequin” to the show.
As the tour continued, Britney was the Candie’s girl of 2009. Spears had worked with Candie’s on her tour and music video “Radar”. The Candie’s promotion contained a huge amount of new photoshoots, information and exclusive video content. On August 10th 2009 the Teen Choice Awards 2009 aired, where Spears won the ultimate Choice. The ultimate choice was an award that was handed out by Miley Cyrus for Britney’s decade of success. Later that month Spears and her team added more dates for North America from August 20th-September 27th 2009, which marked the second leg for North America.
On September 13th 2009, Spears wasn’t able to attend the Video Music Awards 2009, but that didn’t stop her from receiving an award for “Womanizer” in the best pop video category. The CIRCUS tour wrapped up in late September 2009 and Spears added a few personal touches by adding new costumes and a new number where she performed a cover by Alanis Morisette’s for the song “You Oughtta Know”. Spears’ team announced in September that the “singles collection” will be released on November 24th 2009. It features all of Spears’ number one singles, DVD of her music videos and her new song “3″ that premiered worldwide on radio stations on September 29th 2009. The CIRCUS Tour continued and wrapped up completely in Australia from November 6th-24th 2009.
Chapter 10: Calling the Shots
On January 19th 2010, BritneySpears.com made an announcement in regards to Spears re-signing again for Candie’s. Spears was confirmed to be the face of Candie’s for the whole year of 2010.
The campaign also featured it’s special limited edition clothing line, which was designed by Britney Spears herself. The limited edition clothing line was geared for fall 2010 and was launched in Kohls on July 2010.
In July 2010, Spears also posed in the August edition of Cosmo magazine. The magazine featured a short interview with Britney. The magazine hit stands early July 2010, with another photoshoot of Spears.
Late summer 2010 (August) Glee confirmed that a Britney Spears themed episode was in the works. It started off as a tweet by Spears’ manage “Adam Leber” who inspired fans to lead a trending chain for a themed episode, which was directed towards FOX and Glee. After weeks of decisions and polls (which Spears dominated), it was finally confirmed that an episode and was ready for premiere on September 2010.
On August 2010, Ryan Seacrest confirmed on his Twitter webpage that Spears would officially appear on the show. Days later, Spears teased fans with tweets regarding Glee and some behind the scenes photos, which features her in a spoof edition of her “Me Against the Music” video. The episode titled “Brittany/Britney” released on television on September 28, 2010. The episode earned it’s highest ratings.
Months later, producers such as Dr.Luke revealed hints from a new single that he produced along with Max Martin, who also written songs for Spears (Baby One More Time, Stronger, Oops I did it Again, If U Seek Amy, and 3.) The two wrote the first single from Spears’ new un-titled album.
Between November and December of 2010, Spears was in the spotlight with her boyfriend Jason Trawick. There was claims over a broken relationship and abuse that Britney received while in the relationship with Mr. Trawick. It was confirmed, but claims later died down. It wasn’t until Spears posted a tweet message regarding the false story, romantic trip and her 29th birthday. Later that week, pictures of Spears and Jason surfaced, which seemed to purposely show the happy side of both Spears and Jason. Fans believed it was a publicity stunt, but brushed it off due to the hype of Spears’ new album.
Chapter 11: Introducing Femme Fatale
A new album wasn’t confirmed until late December 2010 by Spears herself via Twitter. During the week of her birthday (December 2nd), Spears made a tweet in regards to her new album. A release date wasn’t confirmed, but it was scheduled for release sometime in March 2011. The album was still un-titled. Between December and early January 2011, rumors arose regarding Spears’ new single. Dates, titles, the un-confirmed track list and information from the album was now the highlight of Spears’ career. Although fans had their hopes, the rumors became false, which was cleared up by Spears’ manager “Adam Leber”, who stated that there is a new single releasing but not at this time. Leber mentioned to fans that a single will release sometime in January, but no specific date was given. Following Leber’s statement, Spears’ new single “Hold It Against Me” released on iTunes January 11, 2011.
Kicking off the new era, Spears and her team started a new tradition. Heavy promotion for the new album became number one priority on her Twitter account. In February, Spears announced her seventh studio album as “Femme Fatale”. This French word “Femme Fatale” is a mysterious woman who’s smart, strong and overall a very seductive person. Fans agreed that this new powerful title was a smart move from Spears and her record label (Jive Records).
Just days later from the announcement of Femme Fatale, Spears and her team started heavy promotion for her new single (Hold it Against Me). The success of the song was just outstanding. Hold it Against Me shot into the number one spot as soon as the song was released on iTunes. In support of her new single, Spears’ team finished her new music video late January and started to release around fourteen teasers/trailers that would release each day leading to it’s premiere of the Hold it Against Me music video on February 17th 2011. Following the debut of the (Hold it Against Me) music video, Spears confirmed a small mini concert in a GMA (Good Moring America) commercial for March 29th, also the same day as the release for “Femme Fatale”.
Early March, Spears posed for a special issue of “V Magazine” and “Out”. The new issue was a five page spread, which featured Spears in a various amount of colorful takes, which centered it’s attention around the Femme Fatale era. In a exclusive interview from V, Spears explained that “The bitch is back and better than ever!”. Following the new issue of V Magazine, Spears also released her second single from Femme Fatale “Till the World Ends” on the Ryan Seacrest’s show. A small tour promo first launched in Las Vegas on March 25th where Spears surprised a couple of hundred fans at the Palms Hotel, performing Hold it Against Me, Till the World Ends and Big Fat Bass. The same tour promo was used during the filming for Spears’ Good Morning America special that was taped on March 27th and aired at 8am on March 29th 2011. Again Spears took the stage at midnight following the release date, where she appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and filmed two skits with not only Jimmy Kimmel, but also the Jackass 3 crew called “Poo Cocktail Supreme”. Later that weekend (during the Femme Fatale launch), MTV launched a special “I Am the Femme Fatale”, which was a new documentary following Spears behind the scenes of her new music video (Till the World Ends”). Not only did this documentary feature behind the scenes and an exclusive interview, but MTV also caught Britney performing at Las Vegas and aired the performance during the (I Am Femme Fatale) show. Weeks later, the official music video for Till the World Ends premiered on Vevo. Following its premiere, it’s alternate dance version was also released.
Early April, the Femme Fatale tour was fully announced. The opening act for the tour included, Jessie and the Toy Boys, Nervo and Nicki Minaj. Tickets went on sale beginning April 30th 2011. In a press release for the tour announcement, Spears explained “This is the Femme Fatale tour and I’m thrilled to have the hot Nicki Minaj join me and Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nervo will get everyone on the dance floor. Can’t wait to take the Femme Fatales on the road.” In the middle of rehearsals for the Femme Fatale Tour, Rihanna re-released her single “S&M” as a remix, which featured Britney in a new collaboration. The single was released on iTunes. Only weeks later, another powerful girl collaboration was released titled “Till the World Ends: Remix” featuring Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj. Both songs were rumored for music video pans, but plans were never scheduled from the start. Along with two new remixes, Spears graced the cover of Harpers’ Bazaar. Spears explained “I love “S&M” and “Only Girl” by Rihanna; that’s why I jumped on the “S&M” remix. She’s really cool. I like her a lot”, during her exclusive interview with Bazaar. In support of Rihanna’s remix, Spears took the stage to perform S&M during the Billboard Music Awards on May 22nd 2011. Spears opened the show with Rihanna and closed the show with Nicki Minaj during a very short performance of Till the World Ends.
The third single off of Femme Fatale was confirmed as “I Wanna Go” on May 2011. It was planned that “The Big Fat Bass” was the official third single, but plans quickly changed/altered when “I Wanna Go” dominated the polls from fans as their summer song of 2011. The single premiered on radio stations early June and followed with a music video. Early summer, Selena Gomez released her new album “When the Sun Goes Down”, which features a song titled “Whiplash”. The song was co-written by Britney from her Circus album that never made the debut. Gomez explained that she was later doing a Britney tribute, which would feature songs such as “Toxic, Baby One More Time, Crazy and Hold it Against Me” while on the road for her summer tour.
The Femme Fatale Tour kicked off on June 16th in Sacramento, California and later ended in North America on August 25th in Charlotte, North Carolina. DUring the closing of the tour, Spears and her team announced a live DVD for the Toronto, ON date in Air Canada Centre. Filming was recorded by EpixHD and presented on November 12, 2011. Just weeks after her DVD recording, on August 28th 2011 MTV presented Spears with a lifetime award and a very special Britney tribute for the past success and memories that she has brought to the Video Music Awards with the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award.
Early September; “Criminal” was selected as the fourth single off of Femme Fatale by fans which dominated other potential songs such as “Inside Out” and “Drop Dead Beautiful” for single status. “Criminal surfaced airways on September with an edited radio version. The Femme Fatale Tour continued in Europe on September 22nd in Russia. Spears also sat down for a handful of radio and tv interviews in promotion of her Femme Fatale Tour. Scenes from the Criminal music video were also filmed in Europe around a town thats known as (Hackney) today. Before its exclusive premiere on iTunes; Spears recieved controversial issues for filming her video on location a month later where gun riots were taken place. Although she showed off a fake gun in the music video which was on location of previous riots, the music video has zero reference to what played out in the town of Hackney. The premiere of “Criminal” surfaced on October 18, 2011. The video recieved great reviews in its love, sex and violent storyline that was directed by Chris Marrs Piliero. Fans agreed that Criminal is the best music video to date since Toxic (2006).
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