Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears first appeared on national television in 1992 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star on the television series The New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994. After a brief membership with the pop musical group Innosense, Spears signed a recording contract with Jive Records, releasing her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999. The album established her as a pop icon and "bona fide pop phenomenon", credited for influencing the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s.

Spears's personal life began to gain substantial media attention after her marriage to Kevin Federline in 2004. Their marriage ended two years later, resulting in an ongoing custody battle over their two children, born in 2005 and 2006.Spears released her fifth studio album Blackout in 2007. The following year Spears released her sixth studio album Circus.

Spears is ranked as the eighth best-selling female recording artist in the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America with 31 million certified albums and one of the world's best-selling music artists having sold an estimated 83 million records worldwide.Spears also holds the title to multiple Guinness World Records.

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 building contractor. Spears also has two siblings, Bryan and Jamie Lynn. 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.

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 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 demo solo 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.

Spears's debut single "...Baby One More Time", which was released in October 1998, peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January 1999, and topped the chart for two weeks. Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002) documented that "eyebrows were raised over the schoolgirl-in-heat persona Spears projected in her [music video for ...Baby One More Time], along with an increasingly revealing series of stage outfits.Spears's debut album ...Baby One More Time peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 album charts in January 1999.Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "While several Cherion-crafted kiddie-funk jams serve up beefy hooks, shameless schlock slowies, like "E-Mail My Heart," are pure spam". NME commented "[Spears's debut album and its title-track] are the kind of soullessness that saturates Stateside charts and consists of nothing but over-chewed bubblegum beats and saccharine sensibilities".n contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote: "Like many teen pop albums, ...Baby One More Time has its share of well-crafted filler, but the singles, combined with Britney's burgeoning charisma, make this a pretty great piece of fluff"....Baby One More Time was later certified fourteen times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting fourteen million units shipped within the United States.