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Britney Jean Spears (born December 2 1981) is an American pop singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, author and executive producer. Spears is best known for her highly publicised personal life, music videos and pop songs such as; "...Baby One More Time" and "Toxic".

Spears first came to fame as a member of the New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s, taking a five-year break from entertainment after the show wrapped. She subsequently emerged at the forefront of the pop music scene in late 1998, thanks to the crafting of her chart-topping debut album by producer-songwriter Max Martin. Her second album, 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. Her third and fourth albums released during this era included more artistic input from Spears, but yielded lower sales. In 2004 she married Kevin Federline, and the following year gave birth to their son Sean Preston. In 2006, she is set to resume her recording career.

With worldwide record sales topping the 85 million mark (as of 2006)^[1], Britney Spears has become one of the most recognizable celebrities and sex symbols of her generation.

Career achievements

Spears is the best selling female artist of the 2000's (2000-2005).
Named "Woman of the Century" by VH1.
Record sales topping 130 million according to the IFPI.
Having thirty-one million RIAA-certified albums sold in the U.S., Spears ranks as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history.^[2]
Only female artist in SoundScan history to have her first three albums debut at number one. Then she broke her own record for a female artist by having her first four albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
In the U.S., Spears, Madonna, Céline Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks are the only female artists with multiple diamond (shipped over ten million copies) albums (Spears has two: '...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again).
Holds the record for youngest artist (at age seventeen) to have his or her first single ("...Baby One More Time") and first album (...Baby One More Time) simultaneously reach number one on the Billboard charts.
Holds the record in the UK for biggest first-week sales for a greatest hits compilation by a female artist (225,341 copies) with Greatest Hits: My Prerogative.
"...Baby One More Time" was the UK's biggest selling single of 1999, and is the 18th best selling single of all time worldwide.
Has grossed over $145 million USD from tour ticket sales.
Has grossed over $30 million USD in merchandise from her tours.
Has topped Yahoo!'s annual list of the most-searched names three times in the past four years.^[3]
According to Forbes magazine her net worth is more than $150 Million Dollars.

Voice

Although Spears does not have the power of Whitney Houston or the range of Mariah Carey, her soft vocal style has helped bring the pop soubrette into popularity. Spears' voice was seen as distinctive when she first came onto the music scene in 1999.

However, her detractors have accused her of being derivative of Paula Abdul, Madonna and especially Janet Jackson. This is a claim Spears has not outwardly denied nor confirmed, saying "I grew up loving a wide variety of music." There has also been some controversy over her singing abilities, with some even accusing her of lacking them or depending too much on backup singers, backing tracks or digital alterations, but her style has remained consistent. Her range continues to be disputed and is subject to argument. Her classification as a soubrette is due to her singing style, which is generally light, sweet, and feminine.

In 2006, during Spears' career hiatus, she claimed that when she began recording with Jive they held her back from showing off her voice and from singing to her baby. Spears reported that she has now rediscovered her full vocal ability.

Legacy

Controversial Daniel Edwards sculpture of Spears giving birth featured at the Capla Kesting Fine Art Gallery in Brooklyn. (click for rear view)

Spears' role in pop music has been largely disputed. While she is often derided as untalented, she's nonetheless become a modern day icon for popular culture. She was ranked number 20 out of the 200 top popculture icons of all time by VH1 and People magazine. Singles such as "...Baby One More Time", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "I'm a Slave 4 U" and especially "Toxic" have gone on to become major successes and pop music classics.

Her image has recently been used by sculptor Daniel Edwards, in a controversial nude sculpture of Spears giving birth to her son, Sean Preston. The sculpture visible shows a baby crowning. The statue is being promoted by anti-abortion advocates. Spears' publicist has not commented on this depiction. Spears has not acknowledged the statue in any way and its validity as Spears is widely disputed by fans. Fans claim that the appearance of the statue is too general to be claimed as Britney and many believe she 'birthed' Sean Preston via Cesarean-Section rather then the natural birth depicted in the sculpture.

Trivia

Spears' younger sister, Jamie Lynn, is an actress and singer and is currently starring in the Nickelodeon show Zoey 101. Spears wrote the theme song "Follow Me" for Zoey 101, though it is sung by Jamie Lynn. Spears' older brother, Bryan, is one of her managers.
She also performed a backflip for the "...Baby One More Time" video and several for the New Mickey Mouse Club.
Two Texas DJs 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 and that she had died in the crash. In reality, they were both alive and well and had not been in any car wreck.
She is rumoured to have had "flings" with Colin Farrell and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and has been romantically linked with Wade Robson.
For the film Chicago, producer Harvey Weinstein wanted Spears for the role that eventually went to Lucy Liu. Spears was also offered a role in Scary Movie, but was forced to turn it down due to concert scheduling. She was considered for the part of Allie Hamilton in The Notebook, but was beat out by Rachel McAdams. She also wanted the role in I ♥ Huckabees that went to Naomi Watts. Spears had also expressed interest in the role of Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard, but fellow pop singer Jessica Simpson was given the part.
She is friends with Sarah Michelle Gellar. She was asked to appear in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "I Was Made to Love You," but turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts.
She is also friends with Natalie Portman. Portman was an understudy in the off-Broadway play, Ruthless!, in which Spears had a role. At a Manhattan hotel in 2003 they co-hosted a carnival-themed New Years Eve party together.
She topped FHM magazine's 2004 U.S. and world polls for sexiest woman.
In May 2004 Spears had a Hebrew tattoo (מהש) inked into the nape of her neck. She was under the impression that it meant "new era," but Hebrew speakers insist that word (which would probably be pronounced "mahash") is gibberish, though it can be seen as an anagram of a Hebrew term for God (השמ), which literally translates to "the name." A source said, "She's taken Kabbalah pretty seriously and this was a big deal for her." This echoes a similar incident in 2003 when Spears was informed by her friend, actress Taryn Manning, that her hip tattoo (the Chinese character 奇) read "wierd" rather than "mysterious" (see Wiktionary).
Spears' other tattoos include pink dice on her inner wrist (her husband, Kevin Federline, has matching blue dice), a fairy on her lower back, a daisy on her right toe, a butterfly on her left foot, and a Japanese flower that she reportedly got "down there." Her foot is adorned with many symbols which represent freedom.
She publicly declared her trust in President George W. Bush, as reported in an interview on Crossfire and featured in the film Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore: "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens." [1] only for George W. Bush and top Republicans to ban her from appearing at the 2004 Republican National Convention citing ""We're a serious political party and don't need Britney to promote us. Besides which, with the headlines she's been recently attracting we think she'd do more harm than good to the Bush cause", mainly for her raunchy behavior .

Discography

Filmography

Year	Film/Show	Role	Other notes
1990s	Ruthless!	Tina Denmark	Off-Broadway
1993/1994	The New Mickey Mouse Club	Herself	—
1999	Longshot	Flight Attendant	Cameo
2002	Crossroads	Lucy Wagner	—
2002	Austin Powers in Goldmember	Herself	Cameo
2007	In the Pink	Drew Hart	—

Miscellaneous

Books

Year	Book
2000	Britney Spears' Heart-to-Heart
2001	A Mother's Gift
2002	Stages
2003	Britney Spears' Crossroads Diary

Official DVDs

Year	DVD	U.S. peak	U.S. certification	CAN certification
1999	Time Out with Britney Spears	7	3x Platinum	Gold
2001	Britney Spears: Live and More!	4	3x Platinum
2001	Britney: The Videos	1 (2 weeks)	2x Platinum
2002	Britney Spears: Live from Las Vegas	1 (6 weeks)	2x Platinum
2004	In the Zone	1 (1 week)	Platinum
2004	Greatest Hits: My Prerogative	1 (3 weeks)	2x Platinum

Select merchandise

In 1999, Play Along Toys released the Britney Spears Doll. It became one of the biggest-selling dolls of all time, next to the ever popular collector Spice dolls.
Britney's Dance Beat is a dance game featuring five of her songs, for the PlayStation 2, PC and Game Boy Advance.

Tours

Year	Tour
1998	Hair Zone Mall Tour
1998	Opened for *NSYNC
1999	...Baby One More Time Tour
2000	Crazy 2K Tour
2000	Oops!... I Did It Again World Tour
2001/2002	Dream Within a Dream Tour
2004	The Onyx Hotel Tour

References

External links

Britney Spears: The Official Web Site
Britney Spears at Jive Records
Britney Spears Videos on AOL Music
Britney Spears EU
Britney Spears at IMDb
Template:Nndb name
Britney Spears spelling correction, Google's data of misspellings detected in its web search system

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[1] TIME Achievers

[2] America's Best-Selling Female Artists

[3] Yahoo!'s Most-Searched 2005

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-==Controversy==
-* The sexualized public image of Spears once again became a topic of debate as a result of her 2003 semi-[[nude]] photo spread for the men's magazine, ''[[Esquire Magazine|Esquire]]''. Prompted by this, ''[[Playboy]]'' reportedly offered the star over one million USD to pose nude for their magazine, but Spears publicly declined.<ref>[http://extratv.warnerbros.com/dailynews/extra/0404/04_19e.html ''Playboy'' Controversy]</ref> In an interview with [[Diane Sawyer]], she was asked if she had ever gone further than she wished she had with the sexualized photo shoots. Spears responded, "No, I don't think so, no." After the ''Esquire'' photos were held up in front of her, she said, "Okay. Now those are a little much. Yeah, those are a little much. That's one picture, I must say, that I felt kind of weird about, yeah".
-* The 2004 ''Onyx Hotel Tour'' brought new criticism. While Spears and her on-stage dancers performed her songs "Touch of My Hand" and "Breathe on Me," they were seemingly nude and were performing routines simulating [[Human sexual behavior#Same-gender sexual practices|gay sex]], [[orgy|orgies]] and [[masturbation]]. As there were underage fans in the audience, there was some outrage at the alleged lack of decency of the performances, as well as reports of adult chaperones angrily storming out with children they brought to the concert. Spears has responded to parents' concerns by stating she is "not their babysitter. It's the parents' responsibility. If you don't like it, turn the TV off. The only person I want to be a role model to is my sister, Jamie Lynn". (''From [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC's]] Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer'')
-* Spears has also been criticized for [[lip-synching]]. Most critics and musicians publicly express a negative view on this way of performing, arguing that live entertainment should literally be what it suggests, singing included. Some argue that Spears, like other performers, can't practically sing while being engaged in complicated and demanding dance moves.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12435-2004Oct30.html Lip-synching]</ref> This has led to the counter-argument that performers shouldn't focus on things like dance moves, and instead focus more on singing.
-* Spears' personal life has attracted considerable media attention. Some people feel that she has courted it by cultivating, in her early years at least, a chaste, God-fearing and "wholesome" image. It was somewhat at odds, not only with the traditional pressures, temptations and opportunities of "pop 'n' roll," but with the increasingly sexualized content of her own image and songs. Spears' kiss with Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards received much media attention, as have her romantic relationships. Spears is frequently on magazine covers, discussing her marriage and motherhood.
-* In December 2005, Spears sued ''[[US Weekly]]'' for a story the magazine published in the column "HOTstuff" of their October 2005 publication. The column, with the headline ''"Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004."'' claimed that Spears and her husband had made a [[celebrity sex tape|sex video]] and feared it would be distributed. Spears denies the existence of any such tape while the magazine claims to have a credible source, which they failed to mention in the article, and stands by its story without any evidence or eyewitnesses.<ref>[http://asia.news.yahoo.com/051220/afp/051220054404people.html Sex Tape.]</ref>
 ==Career achievements==