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Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer and entertainer. Born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, Spears first appeared on national television in 1992 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994 with fellow singer Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. In 1997, Spears signed a recording contract with Jive, releasing her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with over 25 millions copies sold, and established her as a pop icon and "bona fide pop phenomenon", credited for influencing the revival of teen pop in the late 1990s.
In the years following her ascent to pop superstar, Spears's personal life has been a frequent subject of celebrity and tabloid journalism. Spears has been married twice, most notably to Kevin Federline, has two children, and was the subject of a reality TV show with Federline in Britney & Kevin: Chaotic.
According to Zomba Label Group and Sony Music, Spears has sold over 85 million records worldwide. She is ranked as the eighth best-selling female recording artist in the U.S. with 35 million copies of her albums certified by the RIAA,[6] and is currently the fifth best-selling artist act of the decade in the country, as well as the top-selling female artist. Spears is also ranked by Forbes 2009 issue as the 13th most powerful celebrity, and with earnings of over $35 million dollars in 2009, the 2nd-highest earning young musician of the year.
Life and music career
Early life, The Mickey Mouse Club, career debut, and Innosense
Britney Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana as a Southern Baptist.[10] Her parents are Lynne Irene (née Bridges), a former elementary school teacher, and Jamie Parnell Spears, a former building contractor and chef. Spears has two siblings, Bryan and Jamie Lynn. Bryan Spears is married to Jamie-Lynn's manager, Graciella Rivera.[11] Spears was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions.[12] She performed in local dance revues and sang in her local Baptist church choir. Spears entered New York City's Professional Performing Arts School when she was eight. Spears's parents would often argue, and they eventually divorced in 2002.[13]
At age eight, Spears auditioned for the Disney Channel series The New Mickey Mouse Club. Although she was considered too young to join the series at the time, a producer on the show introduced her to a New York City agent.[12] Spears subsequently spent three summers at NYC's Professional Performing Arts School and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions. She was an understudy in the 1991 off-Broadway musical Ruthless!.[12] In 1992, she landed a spot on the popular television show Star Search. She won the first round of competition, but ultimately lost. At age eleven, Spears returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on The New Mickey Mouse Club in Lakeland, Florida.[12] She was featured on the show from 1993 to 1994, until she was 13.[14] After the show ended, Spears returned to Kentwood and attended high school for a year.[15]
In 1997, Spears briefly joined the all-female pop group innosense.[16] Later that same year, she recorded a solo demo and was signed by Jive Records.[12] She began a U.S. concert tour sponsored by American teen magazines, and eventually became an opening act for 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys.[17]
1998-2000: ...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again
Britney Spears performing in 1999. "...Baby One More Time" (1999)
Britney Spears's first major hit single worldwide.
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Spears released her debut single, "...Baby One More Time", in October 1998 which peaked at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1999 and topped the chart for two weeks.[18][19] It opened at number-one in the UK Singles Chart selling over 460,000 copies, a record for a female act at the time,[20] and became the top-selling single of 1999[21] and the 25th most successful song of all time in British chart history with over 1.45 million units sold.[20] Gillian G. Gaar, author of She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll (2002), documented that "eyebrows were raised over the schoolgirl-in-heat persona Spears projected in her [music video for ...Baby One More Time], along with an increasingly revealing series of stage outfits".[22] Spears's debut album ...Baby One More Time peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 in January 1999.[23] Rolling Stone magazine, in a review of the album, wrote: "While several Cherion-crafted kiddie-funk jams serve up beefy hooks, shameless schlock slowies, like [']E-Mail My Heart,['] are pure spam".[24] NME commented "[Spears's debut album and its title-track] are the kind of soullessness that saturates Stateside charts and consists of nothing but over-chewed bubblegum beats and saccharine sensibilities".[25] In contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote: "Like many teen pop albums, ...Baby One More Time has its share of well-crafted filler, but the singles, combined with Britney's burgeoning charisma, make this a pretty great piece of fluff".[26] ...Baby One More Time was later certified fourteen times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting fourteen million units shipped within the United States.[27] Spears posed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in April 1999, shot by photographer David LaChapelle.[28] Geoff Boucher of The Los Angeles Times reported, "there was no mistaking the titillation factor in the recent Spears cover story and accompanying photos in the April 15 issue of Rolling Stone, which sent eyebrows arching throughout the music industry, where several executives half-jokingly called it "child pornography".[29] Gillian G. Gaar reported, "The American Family Association
