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Britney Jean Spears
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’s professed influences, with Madonna,
Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey), and Max Martin, who worked
with fellow popstars 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’s 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’s 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.
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Live from Las
Vegas
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List: $24.98
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Sale: $18.74
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Britney: The
Videos
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Live and More!
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Time Out With
Britney Spears
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