Britney Spears

I don't normally write about musicians that I don't like but Britney is the exception to my rule. She's grown up in the media spotlight and was touted as a "media darling" until her emotional break down over the past few years.

But even before her fame she was a sweet little girl from Kentwood, Lousiana.





From a young age Britney's mother Lynne Spears knew that she was budding young star in the making. She had some powerful vocals and at the age of 8 she auditioned for the New Mickey Mouse club even though the producers were looking for kids over the age of 9.






The beginning of Britney's musical endevours started on Star Search which was a talent search show hosted by Ed McMahon. Britney won twice before being overtaken by another junior vocalist.









When the New Mickey Mouse Club was on the Disney Channel Britney took the opportunity to audition for the show. Her vocal stylings were liked by the producers of the show and she was added to the cast right away.

After the show was canceled in 1995 Britney wouldn't be seen or heard from again for another 4 years.







Britney's first album entitled Baby One More Time was the start of her rise to fame.

The album reached #1 on the Billboard charts for and sold an astonishing 120,500 copies in the first week. Second only to Millenium by the Backstreet Boys. It stayed on the Billboard top 200 charts for an astonishing 60 weeks and has been certified 14 Xs platinum in the U.S. which was quite a feat for a 19 year old. This beat the previous record which was held by Tiffany.









Britney's second effort entitled Oops........ I Did It Again sold a whopping 20 million copies world wide and went 10 Xs platinum.






In the years following the release of Britney's album this was the only album of hers that failed to hit the number 1 spot on Billboard's pop charts and the selling numbers were somewhat disappointing.





At this time Britney had developed a "platonic" relationship with ex-MMCer Justin Timberlake. It's not to say that his breaking up with her wasn't a good thing. But they both took cheap shots at each other in their music videos. I mean what disgruntled ex wouldn't have done some of the things that Justin and Britney did to each other.





So what happened to Britney and Justin's relationship? Who even knows? But we do know that each took such cheap shots at each other in their music videos that it's hard to say exactly what happened?








This is the point at which Britney's star started to plumet.

But first there was that infamous kiss at the MTV Music Video Awards.









In January of 2005 Britney eloped in Las Vegas with her friend Jason Alexander, no not the actor, for a span of 55 hours before her mother had the marriage anulled.

Britney needed to grow up a little bit but she had already found several soulmates in that year including Collin Farell, Fred Durst, and a little known JT back up dancer named Kevin Federline with whom she had 2 boys. Sean Preston, and Jayden James, a year apart.











This is the time when things started to crumble around Britney after having 2 boys with Kevin Federline and helping him to launch his music career she suddenly decided that she had enough of him and filed for divorce.







Britney's meltdown started when she lost custody of her boys to her ex. She had ample visitation rights with her boys but then her visitation rights were suspended on nummerous occaisions due to inmaturity and incapability of properly caring for her children.

The final straw was when she put her boys's lives in danger by locking herself in a bedroom and refusing to return them to their father.

This was when Kevin had requested an emergency hearing to revoke Britney's visitation with the boys while she was on a suicide watch.

But then her behaviours got even more odd when she started to have, what seemed to be, symptoms of bi-polar disorder.

Her all nighters were a sign that Britney was incapable of handling her finnances and care and conservatorship of the fallen angel went to her father. Britney wasn't happy with that decision and decided to appeal without much success.







Blackout was the only other album that Britney did that didn't chart and didn't sell as many copies as her previous attempts.

She had a harrowing year that year that included a rather embarrassing performance at the MTV Music Video Awards.





These days it seems that Britney is pretty much done with partying at all hours, boozing, drugging, and having bad people around her. She decided not to persue a restraing order agains a man whom she dated but she didn't want this man around her again.

These days she's getting ready for a comeback and on the eve of her 27th birtday will release her new album Circus.

It remains to be seen if Britney's star will rise again but judging by her new music video it seems that the kid's going to do alright.

I know that I'm currious to see if Britney can reclaim her throne as the "teen queen" but for now I'm just glad that she's going to be okay.

So here's to you Britney and hopefully you'll have a good life with your kids.