BIOGRAPHYSpears was born December 2, 1981 , in Kentwood Louisiana. The daughter of Lynne, an elementary school teacher, and Jamie, a construction contractor, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel’s Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 8.
Producers for the show decided she was too young, but one was impressed enough to help her find an agent in New York.
Accompanied by her mother and younger sister, Spears lived in Manhattan for the next several summers, studying at the Professional Performing Arts School.
In 1991, she landed a part as a demonic child in Ruthless, an off-Broadway production based on the 1956 horror film, The Bad Seed.
At age 11, Spears auditioned again, this time successfully, for the Mickey Mouse Club. For the 1993 and 1994 seasons, she lived in Orlando, Florida, where the show is filmed, in a dorm with the rest of the cast—including two future members of the group ‘N Sync and Keri Russell, future star of the WB’s Felicity.
After her run on the MMC, Spears attended high school at home in Louisiana for a year, before heading back to New York at age 15 to audition for executives at Jive Records.
She signed a development deal with Jive and over the next two years recorded her debut album with producers Eric Foster White, who had worked with Whitney Houston (one of Spears’ professed influences, with Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey), and Max Martin, who worked with fellow pop stars the Backstreet Boys.
The album, Baby One More Time, was completed by early 1998 but wasn’t released until January 1999. During the interim, Spears set out on a promotional tour to shopping malls throughout America, prompting inevitable comparisons with ‘80s teen pop stars such as Tiffany and Debbie Gibson.
Her first single, also titled “Baby One More Time,” was released in October 1998; its success got Spears a gig opening for ‘N Sync, by then a popular teen band.
When Spears’ album was released on January 12, 1999 , it went straight to the top of the Billboard charts, becoming the first album of the year to debut at No. 1. The single, spurred along by a racy video featuring Spears dressed as a bare-midriffed Catholic schoolgirl, also shot up to No. 1.
By September, Baby One More Time had sold over 6 million copies. Spears’ first eagerly-awaited solo tour opened in June 1999.
Some controversy surrounded a Rolling Stone cover story in March 1999, picturing the 17-year-old Spears in a seductive, Lolita-esque pose. Spears has vigorously denied the widespread rumor that she has breast implants, as well as the rumor that she is actually in her 20s.
Before the Grammy Awards, held in February 2000, Spears had emerged as one of the leading contenders for Best New Artist. She eventually lost the award, to fellow ex-Mickey Mouse Clubber and teen pop sensation Christina Aguilera.
Spears' second album, Oops!...I Did It Again, hit stores in May of 2000. With 1.3 million copies sold in its first week in stores, the album became the top-selling debut by a solo female artist ever. It earned Spears two more Grammy nominations, for Best Vocal Pop Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for the single “Oops!...I Did It Again”).
Spears released her third album, Britney, in November 2001, which featured the breakout single, I’m A Slave 4 U. With her next album, In the Zone (2003), she tried to sound more adult while at the same time playing up an even sexier image. She collaborated with Madonna on the popular track Me Against the Music and scored a top ten hit with Toxic.
In recent years, Spears has become more famous for her personal life than her music. She dated fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum Justin Timberlake of the blockbuster boy band 'N Sync for a number of years. Their much-talked-about breakup was followed by an annulled impromptu marriage to childhood pal Jason Allen Alexander in 2003.
Spears married dancer Kevin Federline in a much-publicized wedding in September 2004. Their first child, a son, was born on September 14, 2005. Their second son was born on September 12, 2006. Spears filed for divorce in November 2006. The divorce became finalized in July.
After her break-up with Federline, Spears’ personal life seemed to spin out of control. Within days, she was photographed without underwear arriving at various parties. In February 2007, she shaved her head with electric clippers at a tattoo shop in Sherman Oaks, California.
Britney made several attempts at rehabilitation before completing a program at a Malibu, California-based treatment facility on March 20, 2007. But Spears' former bodyguard said he saw her doing drugs shortly after.
Tony Baretto revealed in an interview on Sept. 24 that Spears had done drugs twice at a nightclub, but didn’t say what kind of drugs she did. Baretto, fired two months after that alleged incident, also filed a deposition in her child-custody case claiming to be witness to “nudity, drug use and safety issues” involving her kids.
Spears, who is trailed almost everywhere by a mob of celebrity photographers, has also became notorious for distracted driving. In February 2006, she was photographed driving with her son on her lap.
On August 6, 2007, paparazzi photographed Spears steering her car into another vehicle as she tried to park in a space in a lot in Studio City. The video showed her walking away after assessing the damage to her own car.
The owner of the other car, Kim Robard-Rifkin, learned it was Spears who had hit her car through a video posted on the Internet and filed a police report three days later. Investigators later determined that Spears also did not have a license.
A hit-and-run charge against Spears was dismissed Oct. 25 after she paid an undisclosed amount to the other car's driver in the fender-bender. She also pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving without a valid driver's license and later obtained a temporary California license.
The damage continued to pile up into that October and November as three people, including two paparazzi and a Los Angeles sheriff's deputy, reportedly had their feet crushed as Spears drove her car through crowds.
In addition to her motoring misfortunes, Spears was also dropped by her management company, the Firm, on Sept. 17, eight days after her widely panned performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Still, her new album Blackout came out October 30 to broadly favorable reviews.
She also suffered from pinkeye, a common infection when you have little kids. Spears made that revelation coming out of the Los Angeles courthouse Oct. 15 where she was booked on charges in the Aug. 6 incident. She was wearing large designer sunglasses at night to hide her infection, which she said hurt “really bad.”
The biggest blow, however, was yet to come. Citing concerns about her use of drugs and alcohol, Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon removed Spears from physical custody of her children Oct. 1. Gordon ordered Spears to undergo random drug and alcohol tests and meet weekly with a parenting coach who would report back to the court about her parenting skills.
Gordon later granted some visitation rights to Spears, but reversed that on Oct. 17 after finding she had failed to comply with some conditions for shared custody. He withdrew the visitation ban a few days later, but only in the presence of a court-approved monitor.
Gordon also ordered both parents to complete the court's “Parenting Without Conflict” class. Indeed, they attended their first of six sessions on Oct. 24 at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Spears and Federline reportedly discussed how a divorce can affect children, and received instructions on what they should be doing to be good divorced parents.
Spears failed to regain custody of her children Oct. 30, following a damning review of her parenting skills. She was, however, granted two supervised visits per week with her kids if she has regular drug and alcohol tests, childproofs her home, buckles the kids in car seats and continues meeting with a court-appointed parenting coach.
In that ruling, Gordon also noted that Spears had failed to keep appointments with a court-appointed parenting coach, Lisa Hacker, on three occasions before finally holding a series of sessions. Gordon added that while Hacker felt Spears “loves her children and the children are bonded” to her, she had expressed “several observations that are of concern.”
“It seems that her (Spears) choices are dependent more upon what she wants to do at any given time rather than what would be more enjoyable for the children,” Hacker stated in the Oct. 19 report. She added that the Spears household: “Ranged from chaotic to almost somber with no communication at all.”
During all three visits, Hacker said Spears “rarely engaged with the children in either conversation or play” and had displayed a “lack of general attention at times.” Hacker closed her report by stating bluntly: “The problem is that unless Ms Spears realizes the consequences of her behavior and the impact that it has (on) her children, nothing is going to be successful.”
Gordon's nine-page ruling said Spears could have overnight visits with her kids. She would get two visits a week from noon to 7 p.m. and one from noon to 10 a.m. the next morning. All the visits would be monitored. Spears and Federline were also ordered to meet to agree a holiday schedule.
The Oct. 30 ruling followed a tense three-hour hearing Oct. 26 attended by both Spears and Federline. During a break, Spears reportedly began cursing, Access Hollywood reported.
“Eat it! Lick it! Snort it! F*** it!” she was overheard repeating when a reporter tried to ask her a question. Spears also seemed distraught when she eventually left the courthouse for the day.
Spears was ordered to show up for a deposition to determine whether she misused alcohol and substances in front of her young children. But she missed several sessions, including ones scheduled for Dec. 12, 2007 and Jan. 2, 2008.
Another deposition was scheduled for Jan. 3, but Spears arrived so late that it was called off after only 14 minutes. Later that night, she was taken to a hospital after a standoff in her Beverly Hills mansion when she refused to return the children to Federline's bodyguard following a visit.
Spears finally turned over her children after ambulances showed up. She was conscious, alternately smiling and looking distraught, when paramedics took her out of her home in a gurney.
The exact reasons for Spears being taken to hospital were not revealed although there was speculation she was suffering from a long-standing psychological illness, possibly bipolar disorder.
Spears discharged herself Jan. 5, but couldn't get out the door without bumping into psychologist and television talk show host “‘Dr. Phil” McGraw. He had been asked to meet with Spears by her parents. After they chatted, Dr. Phil reportedly escorted Spears to her car.
And then, Dr. Phil started telling everybody about his encounter with Britney, including the media. Britney’s parents, not happy about it at all, said through a spokeswoman that “‘he (Dr. Phil) was not invited to make this part of a public display or part of the media” and called it “‘an example of a trust being betrayed.”
Lou Taylor, a business manager for Spears' mother, Lynne, and younger sister, Jamie Lynn, said Jan. 9 McGraw was planning to do a show on Spears (her parents reportedly declined to participate), but cancelled it, saying her predicament was “‘too intense.”
Mental health professionals also criticized McGraw, saying he went too far. McGraw fired back at his critics in an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Jan. 7.
“‘Somebody needs to step up and get this young woman into some quality care — and I do not apologize one whit, not one second, for trying to make that happen,” he said.
Meantime on Jan. 4, Commissioner Gordon gave sole physical and legal custody of the former couple's two toddler sons to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights. That decision was upheld during closed-door meetings on Jan. 14 and Jan. 23.
Spears’ attendance at those hearings were erratic. On Jan. 14, she left the courthouse almost as fast as she arrived with her car surrounded by paparazzi. On Jan. 23, she bolted less than a half-hour after arriving. Although her attendance was not required at either hearing, Spears' lawyers had told the singer she should appear to have any hope of regaining access to her children, as reported widely by celebrity news websites.
Spears did finally show up to a deposition Jan. 21, according to published reports. People.com and TMZ.com said Spears drove to the Los Angeles office of Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, with a friend and was seen leaving more than two hours later.
Meantime, the lawyers representing Spears in her custody battle declared their intention to quit. The law firm Trope and Trope asked a court on Jan. 2 to be relieved as her attorneys, citing a “breakdown” in communication with Spears that makes representing her “impossible,” according to a filing obtained by CelebTV.com.
The fact that Spears didn’t show for a scheduled deposition Jan. 2 may have been a factor in her lawyers’ decision to drop her. The celebrity website TMZ.com reported that it was the fifth deposition the pop princess had missed. Attorney Stacy Phillips took the reigns in Britney's custody case on Feb. 19.
On Jan. 28, journalist Barbara Walters cited Spears’ friend and sometimes manager Osama "Sam” Lutfi when she broke that news on her ABC television show The View that Spears was suffering from "mental issues" and is seeing a psychiatrist.
"He said that Britney is suffering from what he describes as mental issues which are treatable," Walters said. "He said that she has been to a psychiatrist and that she, I assume, is starting some kind of treatment."
Walters said Lutfi told her Spears was having mood swings and trouble sleeping. But Spears was back in touch with her mother, who had been very supportive.
In the hours following Walters' announcement, a visibly distraught Spears was seen bolting out of a car with Lutfi at her Beverly Hills home. And a few hours after that, her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, arrived from their home in Louisiana for a possible "intervention."
The operation to commit Spears to UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric ward appeared to have been "carefully planned over a period of time," the Los Angeles Times reported. A psychiatrist treating the singer had contacted police to set the events in motion.
Authorities entered Spears’ hilltop home in Studio City, known as the Summit, shortly after 1 a.m. on Jan. 31
They were inside for about ten minutes before they spirited Spears away, under the code name "package,” through a side entrance by a motorcade nearly the length of a football field. It included police on nearly a dozen motorcycles and two cruisers. Two police helicopters also followed overhead.
Spears’ mother, Lynne, was seen leaving the UCLA Medical Center psychiatric ward at about 5:30 a.m. When asked whether Britney was doing all right, Lynne Spears replied, "Yeah," before departing in a Range Rover.
Britney was committed on what was supposed to be a 72-hour hold. When the 72 hours were up, her stay was extended Feb. 3 by another 14 days. Hospital staff members cited a section in the state law that allows patients to be retained for medical treatment if they are found to be gravely disabled or a danger to themselves or others.
But on Feb. 6, just three days after that extension, Spears was released against the advice of a psychiatrist. A private security detail reportedly escorted Spears out with relatively little fanfare.
Spears was almost immediately hounded again by paparazzi as she drove around Los Angeles in a black Mercedes-Benz with an unidentified man. At one point, more than 15 people circled the car, shooting still pictures and video. Spears’ parents said they believed their daughter's life is at risk.
"As parents of an adult child in the throes of a mental health crisis, we were extremely disappointed this morning to learn that over the recommendation of her treating psychiatrist, our daughter Britney was released from the hospital that could best care for her and keep her safe," Spears’ parents said in a joint statement.
"We are deeply concerned about our daughter's safety and vulnerability and we believe her life is presently at risk,” the statement read. "There are conservatorship orders in place created to protect our daughter that are being blatantly disregarded. We ask only that the court's orders be enforced so that a tragedy may be averted."
On Feb. 1, Los Angeles Court Commissioner Reva Goetz had named Spears' father as conservator of her person and he and attorney Andrew Wallet as conservators of her $100 million estate. A July 31 hearing extended the conservatorship through to the end of 2008 with a hearing scheduled in October.
Lutfi, who has been at Spears’ side throughout much of her well-documented public breakdown, was also ordered to stay away from the pop singer and stop harassing her. Lynne Spears claimed that since Britney met Lutfi in October 2007, he had moved into her daughter's home and taking over her finances, controlling the paparazzi following her and putting drugs in Britney's food to keep her quiet.
Lynne Spears also said Lutfi had disabled her cars so she couldn’t leave, "cut Britney's home phone lines and removed her cell phone chargers. He yells at her. He claims to control everything -- Britney's business manager, her attorneys and the security guards at the gate.”
Lynne Spears said when she, her husband and a friend went to Britney's home to stage an intervention, Lutfi told her if she tried to get rid of him, Britney would be "dead.”
"I have no problems with anyone writing anything negative against me,” Lutfi responded in a text message to The Associated Press. "My image is not of concern, hers is.''
The restraining order, approved Feb. 1 and publicly released by the court on Feb. 5, required Lutfi to remain 250 yards away from the medical center where Spears was being held, her home and the homes of her parents, siblings and children. Spears' father allowed the restraining order to expire July 31, citing his daughter's renewed mental clarity.
On May 6, Spears was granted increased visits with her two sons. A lawyer for the singer’s former husband, Federline, said the longer visits were “recognition of the progress that has been made.”
Spears and Federline reached a custody settlement on July 18 in which Federline retained sole custody while Spears kept her visitation rights.
Spears returned to the MTV Video Music Awards on September 7. While she did not perform, she did pick up three trophies, including video of the year, best female and best pop video for Piece of Me. She thanked God, her children and her record label for each of her award wins.
"This is such an honor to have this award right now," she said, wearing a glittering silver dress and her hair in soft blonde waves. "I want to thank my fans, this is dedicated to you."
On September 15, it was announced that her six studio album Circus would be released on December 2, her 27th birthday. The first single from the album, Womanizer, was released to radio stations on September 26.
On October 21, 2008, a mistrial was declared in Britney Spears' misdemeanor trial for driving without a valid license. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict after they deadlocked at 10-2 in favor of acquitting the pop star, the foreman said in open court. In light of the jury split, prosecutors decided to drop the case.
The charge stemmed from an August 6, 2007, fender-bender in a parking lot that was caught on video and in pictures by photographers who trail the singer whenever she ventures out in public. A hit-and-run charge in the case was dismissed after Spears compensated the other driver for damages. (Source: Biography.Com)
Download Britney Spears latest album Circus HERE or download selected tracks off the album by clicking on the following single track download links:
Donwload Links
1. Womanizer
2. Circus
3. Out From Under
4. Kill The Lights
5. Shattered Glass
6. If U Seek Amy
7. Unusual You
8. Blur
9. Mmm Papi
10. Mannequin
11. Lace And Leather
12. My Baby
13. Radar (Bonus Track)
14. Rock Me In (Bonus Track)
15. Phonograph (Bonus Track)
16. Amnesia (Bonus Track)
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