Britney Spears
Britney Spears has been a pop phenomenon since she exploded onto the world stage with her debut release Baby One More Time in 1998. For more than ten years she has been the undisputed princess of pop and has sold more than 83 million albums worldwide. However, her life has not been without controversy and she has been as persecuted as she has been lauded by the press, which some argue was one of the contributing factors to her very public meltdown in 2007.
Like fellow pop superstars Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, Spears’ career began when she joined The New Mickey Mouse Club aged 11. She spent two seasons on the show and after a number of summers spent at the Professional Performing Arts School in New York, she eventually signed a deal with Jive Records in 1998, releasing Baby One More Time. The album was a huge success and went on to sell a staggering 22 million copies. This was followed in 2000 by Oops I did it Again which went straight to the top of the US album charts and sold 1 million copies in its first week alone.
Up until then Spears had maintained a squeaky clean virginal image. However in 2001 she began to shed this persona and at the MTV Music Awards that year, danced in a revealing outfit with a 7 foot albino python around her neck. This iconic image launched Britney the sex symbol and at the same awards two years later the sweet little girl from the South receded further into distant memory when she shared a kiss with Christina Aguilera and Madonna during a performance of Like A Virgin.
Though Britney’s musical career was hugely successful, over the next few years her personal life began to unravel. Having split with her boyfriend of four years Justin Timberlake in 2002, she seemed to lose her focus personally and after a two day marriage to her childhood friend Jason Alexander in 2004, she then started a relationship with backing dancer Kevin Federline with whom she had two children. The marriage ended in divorce just two years later and Spears found herself on a downward spiral that was to end in a very public breakdown, most graphically symbolised when she shaved her head in front of the paparazzi in March 2007. She was eventually hospitalized and lost custody of her children as well as control of her legal and financial affairs which was handed over to her father Jamie.
After some time out of the public eye following her breakdown, Spears made a comeback with the sassy single Womanizer. The single seemed to prove to fans that Britney was back to her best and the subsequent album Circus went straight to the top of the US Billboard charts. At the MTV Music Awards in 2008 she won three awards and announced embarked on a huge comeback tour which took her all over the world.
She is currently said to be dating her manager and has regained custody of her children, though her father still plays a pivotal role in her affairs.
