We got an American pop music icon sitting pretty on this segment today. She had her 1st two albums in her teenage years. She appears to be in the news lately; not for her music anyway. Before music, the fashion icon was once an aerobics instructor. More clues right! No way! Just grab your headphones or your closest dance shoes. It’s all about that pop vibe today as we will be jamming to that urban, dance, rock, Latin, country kind of music. In case you don’t know those among many key elements make up pop music. And Britney Spears has got y’all covered on that one on the show today. Britney Spears American pop singer, songwriter became the First Teen female artist in history and garnered honorific titles including the “Queen Of Pop”, “Empress Of Pop” and “The Ultimate Femme Fatale Pop Icon.”
Britney Spears is also a movie star, director, model, designer, dancer, pianist and a bunch of other things. But we are talking strictly her music as usual on our #AOTW. She has about 10 albums out but she’s rarely brought in to spotlight for her music. She’s often in the news for her personal life. Some days ago (Monday 9th December) usmagazine.com exclusively reported that Britney Spears was planning for a court appearance this coming year (2020) “to fight for her kids” (Preston, 14, and Jayden, 13) custody who she shares with an American DJ. Now, over to her music!BP released her first single, “…Baby One More Time.” at age 17. She dropped her debut -…Baby One More Time (in 1999) and sophomore (2nd) albums- Oops!…I Did It Again in 2000.
Absolutely BlackboyMCM! She didn’t just fall from heaven and started doing music. Britney Jean Spears was born on 2nd December 1981 (38) in McComb, Mississippi, US. She sang in a Baptist church choir as a child. During her childhood, she competed in talent shows and won many state-level competitions and children’s talent shows. She had gymnastics and voice lessons. She began singing and dancing at age 2. Spears made her local stage debut at age 8 singing “What Child Is This?” at her kindergarten graduation. At age 8, she auditioned for Disney’s television show The All New Mickey Mouse Club in 1990s but was deemed too young for the program. She was encouraged by being introduced to one Nancy Carson, a New York City talent agent who was impressed with her singing and suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School. Spears and her mother then traveled to Atlanta. In 1996, she returned to Mississippi and enrolled at McComb’s Parklane Academy. Spears and Timberlake reportedly graduated high school via distance learning from the University of Nebraska High School.
In June 1997, Spears got talking with manager Lou Pearlman to join the female pop group Innosense. She submitted one of her tapes singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures. She also rehearsed to an unused song of Toni Braxton for a week and recorded her vocals in a studio with a sound engineer. Spears traveled to New York with the demo and met with executives from four labels. Three of the labels rejected her, saying that audiences wanted pop bands such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls, and “there wasn’t going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson, or another Tiffany.” She was subsequently signed her to the label. Her voiced was reportedly shaped by the label from “lower and less poppy” delivery to “distinctively, unmistakably Britney.” In 1999 Britney released her debut studio album, …Baby One More Time in the United States. The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified two-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America after a month. It became the biggest-selling album ever by a teenage artist. In May 2000, Oops!… I Did It Again, her second studio album was out debuting at #1 in US breaking the SoundScan record for the highest debut sales by any solo artist. The album as well as the title track received Grammy nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, respectively.
No 4 “I’m a Slave 4 U” (a top-ten hit worldwide off her third studio album, Britney. The video/performance was harshly received by animal rights organization PETA, who claimed the animals were mistreated and scrapped plans for an anti-fur billboard that was to feature Spears at the time of release)
That was a song from her self-titled third studio album, Britney released in November 2001. She inspired by hip hop artists such as Jay-Z and The Neptunes while on tour and decided to have funkier sound. The record “…sound like the work of a star who has now found and refined her voice, resulting in her best record yet.” (Stephen Erlewin of AllMusic). The album debuted at #1 in the Billboard 200. The album clinched two Grammy nominations—Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the song “Overprotected”. She dropped her 4th album in 2002, the year Spears’s relationship with Justin Timberlake ended after three years resulting from the rumors that she had been unfaithful to him (there is a song/video from Timber to that gist).
Her fourth studio album, In the Zone dropped in 2003 debuted at the top of the charts, making her the first female artist in the SoundScan era to have her first four studio albums to debut at number one. The album produced four singles: “Me Against the Music”, a collaboration with Madonna; “Toxic”—which won Spears her first Grammy for Best Dance Recording; “Everytime”, and “Outrageous”. The album was seen as one of “The 50 Most Important Recording of the Decade”. In June 2004, Spears fell and injured her left knee during the music video shoot for “Outrageous”. Spears underwent arthroscopic surgery. This caused her The Onyx Hotel Tour to be canceled. More banter from your favs after 3 and 2!
No 3 Toxic (off her 4th album. won Spears her first Grammy for Best Dance Recording)
No 2 “Make Me…” featuring guest vocals from American rapper G-Eazy (off her 9th album. The song was released in July 2016)
Tip Off (from the previous show)
It’s been BP vibe on the show today – the youngest female artist to have a million seller in the UK back in the day. She had career success highlighted by Forbes in 2002 ranking the world’s most powerful celebrity. In 2017, Forbes also announced that Spears was the 8th highest earning female musician, earning $34 million that year. In October 2004, BP had taken a career break to start a family. After (November) embarking on the break, her first greatest hits compilation album Greatest Hits: My Prerogative was released as well as her cover version of Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative” on the album. In August 2005, she dropped “Someday (I Will Understand)”, a song dedicated to her first child, a son, who was born the following month. Also her first remix compilation, B in the Mix: The Remixes, in November 2005. In September 2006, she gave birth to her second child, also a boy.
Talking more albums now, in October 2007, Spears released her fifth studio album, Blackout. The album received positive reviews from critics. In December 2008, Spears’s sixth studio album Circus was released-positive reviews also. The album was one of the fastest-selling albums of the year. Its lead single, “Womanizer”, became Spears’s first number one in the Billboard Hot 100 since “…Baby One More Time”. It was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording. In November 2009, Spears released her second greatest hits album, The Singles Collection. The album’s lead and only single, “3” became her third number one single in the U.S. In 2011, Spears released her 7th studio album Femme Fatale. BP’s 7th album became her first album in which three of its songs reached the top ten of the chart.
Her 8th studio album, Britney Jean was released in December 2013 through RCA Records. She disbanded with Jive Records in 2011. It was her lowest-peaking and lowest-selling album in the United States. Her 9th album Glory was formally released on August 26, 2016. She released the lead single, “Make Me…” from off the album in July, featuring guest vocals from American rapper G-Eazy.
She appears to be on music hiatus since 2017 though she’s been in the news for one issue or another but since 2018 till present: Piece of Me Tour and the #FreeBritney movement
No1 “…Baby One More Time (lead single off the album “…Baby One More Time of 1999- The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for two consecutive weeks. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. 25th most successful song of all time in British chart history and one of the best-selling singles of all time. The biggest-selling album ever by a teenage artist and fastest-selling single ever by Britney Spear.
ALBUM:Baby One More Time (1999), Oops!… I Did It Again (2000), Britney (2001), In the Zone (2003), Blackout (2007), Circus (2008), Femme Fatale (2011), Britney Jean (2013), Glory (2016) plus two other compilation albums
AWARD
· Grammy awards
· In 2016, Spears was honored with the Billboard Millennium Award
· In 2017, Spears became the first recipient of the Icon Award at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards
· One other honorary award
FACT
BP is said to be a pioneer of pop and why she is regarded as a Pop Icon, World Princess of Pop, Pop Legend (credited by critics with influencing the revival of Teen Pop during the late 1990s) but some have said Madonna has always been the Queen of Pop (perhaps for some obviously reasons). Remember that August 2003 highly publicized incident at the MTV Video Music Awards where Madonna and BP both kissed. In 2008, MTV listed the performance as the number-one opening moment in the history of MTV Video Music Awards,] Also one of the twenty-five sexiest music moments on television history (Blender magazine cited)
To those critics who have seen BP as a more provocative performer. This impression came far back as 2000 when Spears was performing at the MTV Video Music Awards. Halfway through the performance, she ripped off her black suit to reveal a sequined flesh-colored bodysuit, followed by heavy dance routine.
The song “Everytime” off her 4th album was a response/ballad she wrote when she broke up with Justin Timberlake. The same year, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst said that he was in a relationship with Spears though BP denied. Later in a 2009 interview, Durst explained that “I just guess at the time it was taboo for a guy like me to be associated with a gal like her.”
In January 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander. The marriage was annulled 55 hours later, following a petition to the court that stated that Spears “lacked understanding of her actions”. Later in July, Spears became engaged to American dancer Kevin Federline, whom she had met three months before. She also divorced her a month after her second son was born.
Music video for her fourth and final single “Criminal” released in September 2011 off her 6th caused controversy when British politicians criticized Spears for using replica guns while filming the video in an area of London that had been badly affected by the 2011 England riots.
December 2008, Spears’s sixth studio album Circus was released-positive reviews also. In the United States, Spears became the youngest female artist to have five albums debut at number one, earning a place in Guinness World Records. Lead single, “Womanizer” off the album became her first number one in the Billboard Hot 100 since “…Baby One More Time”. It was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording.
