Britney Jean Spears was born on Wednesday, December 2, 1981 in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana. She first came to fame as a member of the Disney Channel's New Mickey Mouse Club in the 1993 and 1994 seasons.

Her castmates on the show included Justin Timberlake and Joshua Chasez (who later became members of the pop band NSYNC), Keri Russell (star of the TV show Felicity), Christina Aguilera, also a pop singer, and actor Ryan Gosling. Spears dated Timberlake for about five years.

...Baby One More Time
Her first album on Jive Records, ...Baby One More Time, debuted in the number one spot on the Billboard Charts in early 1999, and also topped the charts in the UK. The single of the same name was also a number one hit in many countries, and was accompanied by a music video in which Spears wore a schoolgirl outfit and danced down a high-school corridor.

Britney Spears broke the record for the youngest artist, at age 17, to have their first single debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. (This record was recently broken by 13-year-old artist, JoJo, whose single "Leave (Get Out)" debuted at number one.) Britney Spears also broke the record for the youngest artist, at age 17, to have their first single and first album debut simultaneously at number one on the Billboard charts. Britney Spears still holds this record.

In 2000, Britney Spears was nominated for two Grammy awards:

(1) Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single "...Baby One More Time", and

(2) Best New Artist. She did not receive either award.

Oops!... I Did It Again
Her followup album, Oops!... I Did It Again, released on May 16, 2000, also debuted at number one, and was a similarly huge hit.

Following the success of her first two albums, Spears' career skyrocketed, and a multimillion-dollar music, film, advertisement, concert and TV-special "industry" sprang up around her. Her most popular ads were for Pepsi. In 2003 there was media speculation that the soft drink behemoth were planning to replace Spears with Destiny's Child frontwoman Beyoncé Knowles. This speculation turned out to be false, and Spears has gone on to sponsor other Pepsi products.

In 2001, Britney Spears was nominated for two Grammy awards again:

(1) Best Pop Vocal Album for Oops!...I Did It Again

(2) Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single of the same name. She did not receive either award.

Britney
Her next album, Britney, was released on November 6, 2001, and debuted at number one in the charts. The first single "I'm A Slave 4 U" was produced by The Neptunes, and its R'n'B stylings heralded the starlet's attempt to grow with her audience, young and old. Over 4 million copies of Britney were sold in the United States alone, and the album went on to sell over 12 million copies worldwide. While the album was very much a hit by anyone else's standards, these figures are low in comparison to the sales of her other albums.

In 2002, Britney Spears starred in a movie, Crossroads, which reached number two in the box office charts. Songs from the album Britney appeared in the film. Spears' performance was poorly received by critics and she netted herself a Razzie Award for worst performance of 2002. In June 2002, Spears branched out as a restaurateur with the opening of a New York City eatery, NYLA, but the venture was not a success and the restaurant closed in 2003.

In September 2002, she took a break from the spotlight, and in 2003 many music industry critics speculated that her career was in decline. Over the course of her first three albums, Britney Spears had sold approximately 54 million copies worldwide.

In 2003, Spears was nominated for two Grammy awards yet again:

(1) Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Overprotected", and

(2) Best Pop Vocal Album for Britney. She did not win either award.

In The Zone
Her fourth album, In the Zone, was released on November 18, 2003. Jettisoning the Max Martin produced synth pop of her earlier releases, the album takes in lesser-known producers such as RedZone as well as such big names as Moby and R. Kelly. Spears co-wrote eight of the album's thirteen songs. The first single, "Me Against the Music" (featuring Madonna), while a staple on MTV's Total Request Live, fared less well on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, though it performed well on other charts.

On Saturday, January 3, 2004, Britney Spears married her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at The Little White Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple promptly arranged for an annulment, which occurred on Monday, January 5, 2004, ending their 55-hour marriage.

The second In The Zone single, "Toxic", was released on March 1, 2004, and was followed by a piano-driven ballad, "Everytime", released on May 17.

In June 2004, Spears canceled her planned summer tour after injuring her knee during the filming of a video for her next single, "Outrageous". Shortly after returning from hospital, Spears, 22, announced her engagement to dancer Kevin Federline, 26. The couple are set to wed in November 2004. Federline, who performed as a backup dancer for Justin Timberlake, Spears' former boyfriend, was previously involved with Shar Jackson, star of TV's Moesha. Federline and Jackson have a two-year-old daughter and are expecting another baby.

On November 9, 2004, Britney Spears released her first hits collection: Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. The album debuted at number four on the U.S. charts (becoming Spears' first album to not debut at number one domestically), selling over 255,000 copies in its first week of release; since hitting shelves, the set has sold over a million copies in the States alone. The collection includes all of her biggest hits, such as "...Baby One More Time", "Oops!... I Did It Again" and "Toxic", as well as two new songs and a cover of Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative", which was featured as the lead single. A second single entitled "Do Somethin'" was released in early 2005.

On May 17, 2005 Spears' reality show with husband Kevin Federline, entitled Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, premiered on UPN. In total, the series included five episodes that debuted weekly every Tuesday at 9PM ET/PT up until the hour-long finale on June 14, 2005. Both Spears and Federline were credited as executive producers. The series was panned by most critics, and ratings were not as high as expected.

On September 14, 2005, the 6lb. 11oz. baby boy Sean Preston Federline was born in the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California by an elective caesarean section.

On November 22, Spears released a remix album entitled B in the Mix: The Remixes. Lacking promotion, the album debuted at number 134 in the U.S. and sold less than 15,000 copies in its first week of release.

Controversy
Spears' success has rested on a mixed fanbase. Millions of prepubescent girls became enthusiasts for her work, adopting her as an idol. It also appears that many young adult males are also fans. Writers on popular music for the mainstream press, however, have generally been dismissive of Spears' music, considering it to be commercial and shallow.

Some parents of young daughters have ambivalent or even negative feelings towards Britney Spears. To many critics, the singer has combined a very "sexy" public image with a major marketing "play" for the hearts, minds and pockets of prepubescent girls, often as young as seven or eight. The sexualization of such girls is arguably a trend that is visible elsewhere in popular culture, for example in the film and fashion industries.

Some parents take the view that their daughters deserve a chance to participate fully and happily in the pleasures of childhood before being led into an early emotional adolescence. There is also an open question as to whether children of age 7-8 are ready for the often complicated feelings that come with sexual maturity. Lastly, parents may worry that Britney Spears provides an unrealistic role model for their daughters' life and career plans.

The sexual iconography of Britney Spears once again became a topic of debate as a result of her 2003 semi-nude photo spread for the men's magazine, Esquire. Prompted by this, Playboy reportedly offered the star over a million dollars to pose nude for their magazine. Spears has publicly declined the offer.

While young girls seldom address this debate in the same terms as their parents, many are divided on whether they consider Britney Spears appealing, especially in the light of more recent developments in her career.

For her part, Spears has responded to their concerns by stating that she is "not their babysitter. It's the parents' responsibility. If you don't like it, turn the T.V. off. The only person I want to be a role model is to my sister, Jamie Lynn." (From ABC's Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer).

The criticisms leveled against Spears are similar to those Madonna received at the start of her career. Indeed, Madonna's early fans belonged to a similar demographic to Spears' current fanbase.

In common with a number of other popular female figures in show business, Britney Spears' private life has attracted considerable media attention. Indeed, some people feel that she has courted it by cultivating, in her early years at least, a chaste, God-fearing and "wholesome" image 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 songs. Regardless of where the responsibility for the gossip industry surrounding the pop star lies, Spears' public response has been to repeatedly express regret and resentment at the intrusive media coverage.

Trivia
Britney's younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, is currently starting a career as an entertainer in the Nickelodeon shows All That and Zoey 101; Britney herself wrote the theme song "Follow Me" for Zoey 101, though it is sung by Jamie Lynn. Zoey 101 drew record numbers with the premiere of the show which gave the kids channel 1.6 million viewers age 9-14 — its biggest viewership in that demographic for a premiere in eight years.

Her older brother, Bryan Spears, is one of her co-managers. Britney's parents, Jamie and Lynne, have divorced.

One of Spears' best friends, Jenny, was in the unsuccessful girl-group Innosense. Spears was also a member of the group, but she left and debuted as a solo artist before the band released their first record. One of Spears' closest friends is Felicia Culotta, her assistant.

Is an accomplished gymnast (she did a backflip for the "...Baby One More Time" video and several for the New Mickey Mouse Club).

In 2001, her supposed death in a car crash was announced on the radio by two Texas DJs as a joke; the radio station was subsequently sued.

Spears publicly declared that she was a virgin early in her career and would like to remain one until marriage, but after her split from Justin Timberlake, he revealed that this was no longer true. Spears has been quoted as saying, "I thought he was the one".

In 2002, Forbes named Spears the most powerful celebrity in the world.

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.

Britney Spears is a good friend of Sarah Michelle Gellar and she was asked to appear in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "I Was Made to Love You". Sadly, she could not appear due to scheduling conflicts, and the role eventually went to Shonda Farr who also did a voice in the Britney's Dance Beat video game.

Britney Spears topped FHM magazine's 2004 U.S. and world polls for sexiest woman.

In May 2004 Britney Spears had a Hebrew tattoo (מהש) inked into the nape of her neck. She was under the impression that it meant "new era", while a more scholarly reading would be "protection". 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 Japanese Kanji character 奇) read "strange" rather than "mysterious" .

Her numerous other tattoos include pink dice on her forearm. Her husband, Kevin Federline, has tattooed blue dice. She also has a butterfly tattoo.

Briteny Spears cites Marilyn Monroe as one of her idols.

Britney has hosted Saturday Night Live twice and been a musical guest three times. Spears also had a notable guest appearance with former cast member, Will Ferrell, in 2003.

She publicly declared her belief in President 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."

In 2005, she became the third Mickey Mouse Club Member (after Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake) to win a Grammy award.

Britney has a character modelled after her on Fairly Odd Parents, Britney Britney AKA "The Platinum Princess".

 

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Curious by Britney Spears tempts the senses with fragrant blooms of Louisiana magnolia touched with golden Anjou pear and dewy lotus flower. The anticipation builds with a fresh bouquet of white flowers. Pink cyclamen brings an unexpected twist to the rich floral heart, while bottom notes of vanilla-infused musk enveloped in rich, creamy sandalwood and radiant blonde woods weave an addictive aura into the fragrance.