Britney Spears Tribute Artist Jude Prince Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an iconic American pop singer, songwriter and dancer. Her career encompasses chart-topping records, high-profile advertising, and forays into acting and reality television. She remains very popular throughout the world despite some controversy surrounding the perceived sexual nature of her music and image. Childhood and discovery Born to Jamie Spears and Lynne Bridges in McComb, Mississippi, USA and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears performed in local dance revues and church choirs as a young girl, and was auditioning for the Disney Channel's New Mickey Mouse Club by the age of eight years old. Although she was too young to join the series at that time, a producer on the show introduced her to a New York agent; she subsequently spent three summers at the Professional Performing Arts School Center and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions, including 1991's pop hit Ruthless!. Spears then returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on the New Mickey Mouse Club and was accepted. She was featured for two years between the ages of eleven and thirteen during the 1993 and 1994 seasons. Her castmates on the show included Justin Timberlake and Joshua Chasez (who later became members of the pop group *NSYNC), Keri Russell (star of the TV show Felicity), fellow pop singer Christina Aguilera, and actor Ryan Gosling. Before long, Spears had recorded a demo tape, which eventually landed in the hands of a Jive Records executive. She was quickly signed to their label and began touring American venues for a series of concerts sponsored by U.S. teen magazines before joining *NSYNC and becoming their opening act. It was at this time that Spears became romantically involved with Justin Timberlake. 1998-2001: Early commercial success By late 1998, Spears' debut single "...Baby One More Time" was beginning to impact radio stations and MTV. Led by a music video that featured her dressed as a saucy schoolgirl, among other belly-baring outfits that would soon become her trademark, the song became an international success, earning platinum sales and going to number one in the U.S., as well as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, among many other countries. Her debut album of the same name, ...Baby One More Time, topped the LP charts in the U.S. and Canada for six non-consecutive weeks. Within a year of the record's release, the album had become the best-selling LP by a teenager in history, spawned two U.S. top ten hits (in "...Baby" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy") and shipped over ten million copies in the U.S. alone; it would go on to ship another four million copies on top of this. In April of 1999, she was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. The sexually suggestive Lolita-themed photo spread began a whirlwind of rumors that the still-seventeen-year-old had gotten breast implants. These claims were denied by Spears' camp, and seemed to have little impact on the young starlet's rising popularity. That summer, she kicked off her first headlining tour, titled the ...Baby One More Time Tour. By late 1999, Britney Spears had become one of the year's biggest stars, a claim backed-up in the amount of award nominations she received that season. In December, she took home four Billboard Music Awards, including Female Artist of the Year. The next month, at the American Music Awards, she was nominated for three trophies, of which she won one: Favorite Pop/Rock New Artist. 2001-2004: Artistic development In early 2001, she struck a $7-8 million USD promotional deal with the soft drink giant Pepsi; her first commercial for them premiered during the 2001 Academy Awards. She then released the follow-up novel to Britney Spears' Heart-to-Heart, with this one being entitled A Mother's Gift. In September 2001, Britney again performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. This time around, she was dressed in one of her usual revealing outfits, drenched in 'sweat' and on a jungle stage environment. She lip-synched her new single "I'm a Slave 4 U" and danced around the stage with an albino snake. Along with another blitz of media attention, she was also criticized by the PETA organization for her use of animals (both the snake and four cheetahs) as a part of her performance. The music video for "Slave" made its debut not long after the controversial performace. Only seeming to add to the hype of Spears' sexual image, the video featured the singer soaking wet, panting heavily and dancing suggestively. The sexual campaign for her new album was not limited to her performances, however; much steamier photospreads ensued in such magazines as Rolling Stone and Maxim. In November 2001, she released her third album, Britney. It debuted at number one on both the U.S. and Canadian charts, selling over 745,000 units during its first week in the U.S. This made her the only female artist in SoundScan history to have her first three albums debut at number one. Over four million copies of the record have been sold in the U.S. alone [4], and while this is by no means low, these figures can not compare to the sales of her first two albums. Britney also failed to spawn any U.S. top ten hits; in fact, the only successful single released from the album was "I'm a Slave 4 U," which became a top thirty hit. This album is also notable for being the first of which Spears really began to take some creative control; she co-wrote five of the album's tracks.
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