Britney Spears - Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American pop singer, dancer, and occasional actress, author,and songwriter. She is best known for her studio albums, music videos, and pop songs such as '...Baby One More Time', 'Oops!...I Did It Again','Toxic','Lucky' and 'Everytime'. Spears has sold over seventy-six million records worldwide according to TIME magazine.[1] Having sold over 31 million albums in the U.S., Spears ranks as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history. Spears first came to fame as a member of the The New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s, after which she took a five-year break from entertainment. She subsequently emerged at the forefront of the pop music scene in late 1998, thanks to her chart-topping debut album, ...Baby One More Time, which was crafted by producer-songwriter Max Martin. Her second album, Oops!...I Did It Again, which was released the following year, was a similarly huge hit. In the early 2000s, Spears' success as a singer led her way to high-profile advertising deals, most notably for Pepsi, as well as forays into other forms of media, including film and reality television. Along with her highly-publicized relationship with 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake, her third and fourth albums were released during this era and included more artistic input from Spears, but yielded lower sales. In 2004, she married dancer and aspiring rap artist Kevin Federline and the following year she gave birth to their son, Sean Preston. Their second son, Jayden James, was born in 2006. Eight weeks after the birth of her second child, Spears filed for divorce from Federline, citing irreconcilable differences. Spears' fifth studio album is due to be released in early 2007. Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi [2] and raised Southern Baptist in Kentwood, Louisiana. Her parents are James Parnell Spears, a building contractor, and Lynne Irene Bridges (born 1956), a former grade school teacher. Spears' brother, Bryan (born 1977), is one of her managers, and her sister, Jamie-Lynn (born 1991), is an actress and singer. Her maternal grandmother, Lillian Woolmoore (1924–1993), was an English war-bride, who met Spears's maternal grandfather, Barnett O'Field Bridges (1919–1978), in England during WWII, and subsequently moved with him to the US. Her paternal grandparents were June Austin Spears (born 1930) and Emma Jean Forbes (1934–1966). Spears was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions. She performed in local dance revues and her local Baptist church choirs, and was auditioning for the Disney Channel's The New Mickey Mouse Club by the time she was eight. Although she was considered too young to join the series at the time, a producer on the show introduced her to a New York agent. Spears subsequently spent three summers at NYC's Professional Performing Arts School and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions, including 1991's Ruthless!. In 1992, she landed a spot on Star Search, and though she won the first round, she lost in the second (her opponent would later appear on a 2001 episode of the game show I've Got a Secret with his 'secret' being the win against Spears). Spears then returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on the New Mickey Mouse Club and was accepted. She was featured in the 1993–1994 seasons from the ages of 11–13. She performed several backflips for the New Mickey Mouse Club, which she would later repeat for the '...Baby One More Time' video. Other performers on the show included Justin Timberlake, future boyfriend of Spears, and Joshua Chasez (both of whom later became members of the pop group 'N Sync), Keri Russell (star of the TV show Felicity), fellow pop singer Christina Aguilera, and actor Ryan Gosling. Spears and her five friends (Jenny Morris (singer), Vernoica Finn, Mandy Ashford, Danay Ferrer, and her MMC co-star Nikki DeLoach) co-formed American pop dance girl group Innosense. Finally, once Spears was not part of the group, she could go as a solo artist. A few years later, Spears recorded a demo tape, which landed in the hands of a Jive Records executive. She was signed to their label and began touring American venues for a series of concerts sponsored by American teen magazines, before joining *NSYNC and becoming their opening act. Towards the end of 1998, Spears' debut single '...Baby One More Time' began to appear on radio stations and music television networks. Led by a music video that featured the 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) brown-eyed bottle blonde in a schoolgirl outfit, the song became an international success, earning platinum sales and going to number one in both the U.S. and UK, among several other countries. Released in early 1999, her debut album ...Baby One More Time topped the charts in several countries, including the U.S. (where it is certified 15x Platinum [3]). Spears was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone[4] magazine in April 1999. The photo shoot triggered widespread speculation (denied by her representatives) that the still-seventeen-year-old had opted to have breast implants. That summer, she kicked off her first headlining tour, the ...Baby One More Time Tour. By late 1999, Spears had become one of the year's biggest stars, a claim backed-up by the amount of award nominations she received that season. In December, she took home four Billboard Music Awards including one for Female Artist of the Year, and the next month won for Favorite Pop/Rock New Artist at the American Music Awards. At the Grammy Awards, held in February 2000, Spears received two nominations, including one for Best New Artist, losing out to Christina Aguilera. Oops!... I Did It Again (2000) broke a record for selling over 1.3 million units during its first week in the U.S. Enlarge Oops!... I Did It Again (2000) broke a record for selling over 1.3 million units during its first week in the U.S. Following the short-lived Crazy 2K Tour, the lead single from Spears' second album, 'Oops!... I Did It Again', was released. The song broke a record for most radio station adds in a single day [5] and quickly became a U.S. top ten hit and number one single in other countries. Released in May 2000, the album Oops!... I Did It Again debuted at number one in the U.S., where it sold over 1.3 million units during its first week (breaking the record for biggest first-week sales of an album by a female artist). Concerning both musical content and sales, the album was very similar to Spears' debut, although it fared better with critics.[6] 'Oops...' also had input from country queen Shania Twain, who penned the track Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know with husband Mutt Lange. Twain, arguably the most successful female in terms of album sales and exposure in the late 90s, contributed her adult-40 brand of country-crossover infusion to the record. The lyrics of the song also pay homage to fellow blonde superstar Madonna, as in 'come on baby, come on darling,' an obvious ode to Madonna's 'Borderline.' Spears kicked off her first world tour (titled the Oops!... I Did It Again World Tour) in the summer of 2000, and co-wrote the book Britney Spears' Heart-to-Heart with her mother, Lynne. During a performance at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, she ripped off a black suit to reveal a provocative nude-colored and crystal-adorned outfit that generated controversy due to her young age. In late 2000, she won two Billboard Music Awards, and in early 2001, she was nominated for two American Music Awards. At the Grammys, one of her two nominations was for Oops!... I Did It Again in the category of Best Pop Vocal Album, but again she did not win. In early 2001, Spears struck a USD$7–8 million promotional deal with the soft drink giant Pepsi. In September of the same year, she performed at the MTV Video Music Awards, and in addition to criticism for being scantily clad, she angered animal rights organization PETA for the use of animals, including an albino python, in her performance. In November, she released her third album Britney. It debuted at number one on both the U.S. and Canadian charts, selling over 740,000 units during its first week in the U.S. The success of this album made Spears the only female artist in SoundScan history to have her first three albums debut at number one. Although four million copies of the record have been sold in the U.S. [7], it was a decline from the sales of her first two albums, and the lead single 'I'm a Slave 4 U' was the album's only hit in the U.S. Britney was the first album on which Spears assumed some creative control; she co-wrote five of the album's tracks. To help promote the album, Spears embarked on the Dream Within a Dream Tour during the same year. In 2001, Fort Worth, Texas KEGL-FM DJs Kramer and Twitch on created a panic for her fans when they falsely reported that she and her then-boyfriend, 'NSYNC's Justin Timberlake, were in a car accident involving a pretzel truck and that she had died in the crash. In reality, they were both alive and well and had not been in any car wreck. [8] Later, in October 2001, a website spoofing CNN also stated that she had been killed in a car crash. [9] In February 2002, Spears had her first starring role in the film, Crossroads. The next month, Spears' four-year relationship with Justin Timberlake ended. The break-up was publicized, with rumors circulating that Spears had been unfaithful. Timberlake himself left the impression that she had cheated on him through his song 'Cry Me a River', and its subsequent music video. In response to this, Spears later said, 'I'm not technically saying he's wrong, but I'm not technically saying he's right, either.' [10] Afterward, despite Spears' claims that she had remained a virgin ? and wished to remain one until marriage ? Timberlake insisted they had sex during their relationship. Spears later acknowledged this to be true, saying, 'It was two y