Britney Spears

Birth name:    Britney Jean Spears

Born:               December 2, 1981 (1981-12-02) (age 28), McComb, Mississippi,United States

Origin:            Kentwood, Louisiana,United States

Genres:           Pop, dance-pop, Urban Pop

Occupations:  Entertainer

Instruments:   Vocals, piano

Years active:  1993–present

Labels:            Jive

Associated:     The New Mickey Mouse Club,

Acts:               innosense

Website:        www.britneyspears.com
www.britney.com

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer and entertainer. Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Spears first appeared on national television in 1992 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. In 1997, Spears signed a recording contract with Jive, releasing her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999 which include the number one hit single ...Baby One More Time (song). The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. Her success continued with the release of her sophomore album, Oops!... I Did It Again in 2000, which established her as a pop icon and credited for influencing the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s.

In 2001, she released Britney and played the starring role in the film Crossroads. She assumed creative control of her fourth studio album, In the Zone released in 2003, which made her the only female artist of the Nielsen Soundscan era to have her first four albums debut at number one. Her fifth studio album, Blackout was released in 2007. Her sixth studio album, Circus released in 2008, which include singles like Womanizer (song), Circus (song), If U Seek Amy, and Radar (song), also debuted at number one in the Billboard 200 albums chart.

According to Zomba Label Group and Sony Music, Spears has sold over 85 million records worldwide. She is ranked as the eighth best-selling female recording artist in the U.S. with 32 million copies of her albums certified by the RIAA, and is currently the fifth best-selling artist act of the decade in the country, as well as the top-selling female artist. Spears is also ranked by Forbes 2009 issue as the 13th most powerful celebrity, and with earnings of over $35 million dollars in 2009, the 2nd-highest earning young musician of the year.

Life and music career

Early life, The Mickey Mouse Club, career debut, and Innosense

Britney Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana as a Southern Baptist. Her parents are Lynne Irene (née Bridges), a former elementary school teacher, and Jamie Parnell Spears, a former building contractor and chef. Spears is of English and distant Maltese descent, with her maternal 2nd great-grandfather Edward Portelli being born in Malta and her maternal grandmother being born in England. Spears has two siblings, Bryan and Jamie Lynn. Bryan Spears is married to Jamie-Lynn's manager, Graciella Rivera. Spears was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions. She performed in local dance revues and sang in her local Baptist church choir. Spears entered New York City's Professional Performing Arts School when she was eight. Spears's parents would often argue, and they eventually divorced in 2002.

At age eight, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel series The New Mickey Mouse Club. Although she was considered too young to join the series at the time, a producer on the show introduced her to a New York City agent. Spears subsequently spent three summers at NYC's Professional Performing Arts School and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions. She was an understudy in the 1991 off-Broadway musical Ruthless!. In 1992, she landed a spot on the popular television show Star Search. She won the first round of competition, but ultimately lost. At age eleven, Spears returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on The New Mickey Mouse Club in Lakeland, Florida. She was featured on the show from 1993 to 1994, until she was 13. After the show ended, Spears returned to Kentwood and attended high school for a year.

In 1997, Spears briefly joined the all-female pop group innosense. Later that same year, she recorded a solo demo and was signed by Jive Records. She began a U.S. concert tour sponsored by American teen magazines, and eventually became an opening act for 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. 

Musical style and performance

Following her debut, Spears was credited with leading the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s. The Daily Yomiuri reported that "[m]usic critics have hailed her as the most gifted teenage pop idol for many years, but Spears has set her sights a little higher-she is aiming for the level of superstardom that has been achieved by Madonna and Janet Jackson." Rolling Stone wrote: "Britney Spears carries on the classic archetype of the rock & roll teen queen, the dungaree doll, the angel baby who just has to make a scene." Rami Yacoub who co-produced Spears's debut album with lyricist Max Martin, commented, "I know from Denniz Pop and Max's previous productions, when we do songs, there's kind of a nasal thing. With N' Sync and the Backstreet Boys, we had to push for that mid-nasal voice. When Britney did that, she got this kind of raspy, sexy voice." Following the release of her debut album, Chuck Taylor of Billboard observed, "Spears has become a consummate performer, with snappy dance moves, a clearly real-albeit young-and funkdified voice ... "(You Drive Me) Crazy", her third single ... demonstrates Spears's own development, proving that the 17-year-old is finding her own vocal personality after so many months of steadfast practice." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic referred to her music as a "blend of infectious, rap-inflected dance-pop and smooth balladry." Spears later commented, "With ...Baby One More Time, I didn't get to show my voice off. The songs were great, but they weren't very challenging".

Oops!...I Did It Again and subsequent albums saw Spears working with several contemporary R&B producers, leading to "a combination of bubblegum, urban soul, and raga." Her third studio album, Britney derived from the teen pop niche, "[r]hythmically and melodically ... sharper, tougher than what came before. What used to be unabashedly frothy has some disco grit, underpinned by Spears' spunky self-determination that helps sell hooks that are already catchier, by and large, than those that populated her previous two albums." Guy Blackman of The Age wrote that while few would care to listen to an entire Spears album, "the thing about Spears, though, is that her biggest songs, no matter how committee-created or impossibly polished, have always been convincing because of her delivery, her commitment and her presence. For her mostly teenage fans, Spears expresses perfectly the conflicting urges of adolescence, the tension between chastity and sexual experience, between hedonism and responsibility, between confidence and vulnerability."

Her vocal ability has also been been criticized, often drawing unfavorable comparison to her pop rival, Christina Aguilera Critic Allan Raible derides her overdependence in Circus on digital effects and the robotic effect it creates. "She’s never been a strong vocalist..." writes Raible, "Could she handle these songs with stripped down arrangements and no vocal effects? More importantly, would anyone want to hear her attempt such a performance? Does it matter? No. The focus is still image over substance." Her image and persona are also often contrasted to Christina Aguilera. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly observed "Christina Aguilera may flash skin and belly button, but in her music and manner, she's too eager not to offend — she's a good girl pretending to be bad. Spears, however, comes across as a bad girl acting good ... Spears' artificial-sweetener voice is much less interesting than the settings, yet that blandness is actually a relief compared with Aguilera's numbing vocal gymnastics. In contrast, Allmusic comments: "Like her peer Christina Aguilera, Britney equates maturity with transparent sexuality and the pounding sounds of nightclubs ... Where Christina comes across like a natural-born skank, Britney is the girl next door cutting loose at college, drinking and smoking and dancing and sexing just a little too recklessly, since this is the first time she can indulge herself. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine notes, "The disparity between Aguilera and Spears can't be measured solely by the timbre and octave range of their voices ... [Aguilera's] popularity has never reached the fever pitch of Britney's.

Like other dance-oriented pop stars, it has been widely reported that Spears lip-syncs in concert. Author Gary Giddins wrote in his book Natural selection: Gary Giddins on comedy, film, music, and books (2006) that "[a]mong many other performers accused of moving their lips while a machine does the labor are Britney Spears, Luciano Pavarotti, Shania Twain, Beyonce, and Madonna." Rashod D. Ollison of The Baltimore Sun observes: "Many pop stars ... feel they have no choice but to seek vocal enhancement. Since the advent of MTV and other video music channels, pop audiences have been fed elaborate videos thick with jaw-dropping effects, awesome choreography, fabulous clothes, marvelous bodies. And the same level of perfection is expected to extend beyond the video set to the concert stage. So if Britney Spears, Janet Jackson or Madonna sounds shrill and flat without a backing track, fans won't pay up to $300 for a concert ticket." Giddins adds, "it was reported Britney Spears fans prefer her to lip-sync—despite her denials of doing so (contradicted by her own director)—because they expect flawless digitalization when they pay serious money for a concert." In Australia, NSW Fair Trading Minister Virginia Judge has advised disclaimers be printed on any ticket for concerts which contain any prerecorded vocals. She commented: "There could have been some instances where people actually go and purchase a ticket thinking that they're going to have a live performance ... for some people that means that everything is live, it's fresh, it happens instantaneously, it's not something that's been pre-recorded. You want to make sure that they're actually paying for what they think they're getting." Noting on the prevalence of lip-syncing, Los Angeles Daily News reported "in the context of a Britney Spears concert, does it really matter? Like a Vegas revue show, you don't go to hear the music, you go for the somewhat-ridiculous spectacle of it all". Similarly, Aline Mendelsohn of the Orlando Sentinel remarked: "Let's get one thing straight: A Britney Spears concert is not about the music ... you have to remember that it's about the sight, not the sound." Critic Glenn Gamboa comments her concert tours are "like her life—a massive money-making venture designed to play up her talents and distract from her shortcomings with a mix of techno-tinged sex appeal and disco-flavored flash. And, like her life, it is, more or less, a success.

Products and endorsements

In early 2001, Spears signed a multi-million dollar promotional deal with Pepsi that included television commercials, point-of-purchase promotions, and Internet ties between Spears and the company. Britney Spears has earned over US$370 million from her many, multi-million dollar advertisement and endorsement deals all around the World.. She has published four books, including A Mother's Gift, and released seven DVDs, including her self-produced 2005 reality series Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. Other Spears products include a doll and a video game. She participated in seven tours including "The Onyx Hotel Tour" in 2004. She has grossed over US$350 million from tour ticket sales and over $185 million in merchandise from her tours, the most ever grossed by a performer (male and female).

Spears endorsed her first Elizabeth Arden fragrance "Curious" in September, 2004, which had $100 million in sales in the five weeks after its 2004 release, and it broke licenser Elizabeth Arden's record for first-week gross for a perfume and went on to become the number-one fragrance in department stores on 2004. In September 2005, Spears released the fragrance "Fantasy" with Elizabeth Arden, which also saw great success. These were followed by the release of two more fragrances of "Curious:In Control" and "Midnight Fantasy" in 2006. Her latest Elizabeth Arden fragrance "Believe", was released in September 2007. In January, 2008, Spears released "Curious Heart". Spears released a new fragrance entitled "Hidden Fantasy" in January 2009. On March 22, 2009, it was announced that Spears has the #1 selling celebrity fragrance, making up 34% of sales. On March 2, 2009 it was announced that Spears would be the new face of Candie's. On April 1, 2009, People magazine released a sneak peek of what the ads will look like.

Filmography

Main article: Britney Spears filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	The Mickey Mouse Club	Various Roles	Seasons 6-7, 1991-1993
1999	The Famous Jett Jackson	Herself	She sang "...Baby One More Time" and "Sometimes" on the show.
	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Herself	Cameo (Sang "(You Drive Me) Crazy" on show)
2000	Longshot	Flight Attendant	Cameo
	The Simpsons	Herself	Episode: "The Mansion Family"
2002	Austin Powers in Goldmember	Herself	Cameo/Soundtrack
	Crossroads	Lucy Wagner	Lead Role/Feature Film
	Stages: Three Days in Mexico	Herself	Biography/Documentary r
	Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe	Donner	English version/Animation
2004	Britney & Kevin: Chaotic	Herself	Reality Show
2006	Will & Grace	Amber-Louise	Episode "Buy, Buy Baby"
2008	How I Met Your Mother	Abby	Season 3: "Ten Sessions" and "Everything Must Go"
	Britney: For the Record	Herself	Biography/Documentary

Awards

Further information: List of awards received by Britney Spears

Year	Category	Genre	Recording	Result
Grammy Awards
2000	Best New Artist	General	...Baby One More Time	Nominated
	Best Female Pop Vocal Performance	Pop	"...Baby One More Time"	Nominated
2001	Best Female Pop Vocal Performance	Pop	"Oops!... I Did It Again"	Nominated
	Best Pop Vocal Album	Pop	Oops!... I Did It Again	Nominated
2003	Best Female Pop Vocal Performance	Pop	"Overprotected"	Nominated
	Best Pop Vocal Album	Pop	Britney	Nominated
2005	Best Dance Recording	Dance	"Toxic"	Won
2010	Best Dance Recording	Dance	"Womanizer"	Pending