Britney Spears Biography

Groomed from childhood to become a teenage superstar, a 17-year-old Britney Spears managed to breathe new life into a tired and often illegal artform, the schoolgirl video. Britney's debut single, Baby, One More Time was released in 1999 accompanied by a video of a uniformed Britney high-stepping it along the High School corridors. The attendant controversy/titillation helped propel Britney to the top of the charts across the world but ever since she's been trying to grow up in public. As she tries to manage the transition from awkward teen to adult woman she's had to endure a very public break-up with former boyfriend Justin Timberlake, bad career choices (her Crossroads debut feature film) and an ill-advised liason with a portly nu-metal hero, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. What WAS she thinking?

Born in Kentwood, Louisiana on December 2nd 1981, Britney was performing as soon as she could walk and spent her early childhood performing in talent shows. At 8 years of age she was discovered by a TV producer who introduced her to a New York agent. Spears spent her summers in New York, studying at dance centres and the Professional Performing Arts School. At 11 she was cast in the Disney Channel's popular Mickey Mouse Club Show, a breeding ground for fellow pop stars Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

After two years of the Disney show in Orlando, Spears returned home to Louisiana to focus on a pop career. Her demo tapes eventually landed at Jive Records who signed her and hired top producers and songwriters to work with their new employee. Max Martin of Backstreet Boys fame wrote her UK debut No.1, Baby One More Time and the resulting album was also a worldwide chart-topper spawning the hits Sometimes, Crazy and a second UK No. 1, Born To Make You Happy in January 2000.

Spears quickly became a media sensation, sealing her squeaky clean queen of pop image by vowing to stay a virgin until she married. Musically Spears' success prompted the emergence of fellow teen stars Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore and Pink.

Spears' subsequent relationship with fellow Disney Clubber and then *NSYNC singer Justin Timberlake meant she was rarely out of the headlines. In May 2000 she released her second album, Oops, I Did It Again. The title track topped the UK charts in January, 2000 and was the sister cut to her debut One More Time with Britney, in a stab at maturity, proclaiming, "I'm not that innocent." The singles Lucky, Stronger and Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know helped to maintain Britney's reputation as the Princess Of Pop although there were titters from the critics at the cover of the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.