Britney Spears

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer, dancer, and actress. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, she performed acting roles in stage productions and television shows as a child before signing with Jive Records in 1997. Spears's first and second studio albums, ...Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!... I Did It Again (2000), became international successes, with the former becoming the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist. Title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" broke international sales records. In 2001, Spears released her self-titled third studio album, Britney, and played the starring role in the film Crossroads (2002). She assumed creative control of her fourth studio album, In the Zone (2003), which yielded the worldwide success of the single "Toxic".

In 2007, Spears's much-publicized personal issues sent her career into hiatus. Her fifth studio album, Blackout, was released later that year, and spawned singles such as "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me". Her erratic behavior and hospitalizations continued through the following year, at which point she was placed under a still ongoing conservatorship. Spears's sixth studio album, Circus (2008), included the international chart-topping single "Womanizer". Her seventh studio album, Femme Fatale (2011), became her first to yield three top-ten singles in the United States. She released her eighth studio album Britney Jean in 2013. Later that year, Spears began the four-year residency show, Britney: Piece of Me, at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. In 2016, Spears released her ninth studio album, Glory. In 2017, she announced that her residency show would develop into a world tour, Britney: Live in Concert.

Spears is regarded as a pop icon and credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s. She became the best-selling teenage artist of all time and garnered honorific titles including the "Princess of Pop". Her work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, six MTV Video Music Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, seven Billboard Music Awards including the Millennium Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, Billboard ranked her as the 8th overall Artist of the Decade, and also recognized her as the best-selling female artist of the 2000s, as well as the fifth overall. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lists Spears as the eighth top-selling female artist in the United States, with 34 million certified albums. She has sold over 150 million records worldwide making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. According to Billboard Spears has sold about 22.38 million singles in digital downloads in US and is the fourth best-selling female artist since Nielsen SoundScan began.

Rolling Stone recognized her instant success as one of the Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments of all time, while VH1 ranked her eleventh on their "100 Greatest Women in Music" list in 2012, and Billboard named her the sexiest woman in music. Forbes reported that Spears was the highest paid female musician of 2012, with earnings of $58 million, having last topped the list in 2002.