Britney Spears

Britney Spears Biography

BRITNEY JEAN SPEARS was born Dec. 2, 1981, in Kentwood, a small town in Louisiana. Britney always liked to perform and dance but mostly sing. Although technically her first public performance was at the age of 4 (when she sang "What Child Is This" at her local church). she auditioned for the mickey mouse club in 1991. Unfortunatly Britney was too young to take part. But there was one highlight as the manager and crew noticed Britneys talent and sent her off to a dancing school. In 1993 she went back to the MMC and at the age of 11 became a mickey clubber.

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.

After returning home for a short time to become a "regular" high school student, Spears was signed to the Jive record label, and finished recording her first album as a vocalist in 1998. Released in 1999, ...Baby One More Time was a smash hit, and in conjunction with Spears' stunning good looks, rocketed her to superstardom. She followed up with Oops!...I Did It Again the following year, and then Britney in 2001. In early 2001, Spears struck a US$7-8 million promotional deal with the soft drink giant Pepsi. In September of the same year, she performed at the MTV Video Music Awards.

In February of 2002, Spears released her first major motion picture, Crossroads, bringing her back to her performance roots in acting. She plays a young woman, Lucy, who embarks on an adventurous road trip with three friends. In search of a mother who abandoned her at a young age, Lucy represents the coming-of-age story at the beginning of the new millennium, also reflected in Spears' album Britney. Although perhaps less remarkable in other ways, Crossroads was a treat for undying teenage fans and admirers of Spears' sexual appeal.

Spears returned to the spotlight in August 2003 when she performed at the MTV Video Music Awards with her idol Madonna, pop singer Christina Aguilera and rapper Missy Elliott. Spears and Aguilera performed Madonna's song "Like a Virgin", danced suggestively and each locked lips with Madonna. Spears' kiss with Madonna attracted publicity that lasted several months, while Aguilera's kiss with Madonna attracted less publicity.

On January 3, 2004, Spears married her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at The Little White Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. An annulment was promptly arranged (at the behest of manager Larry Rudolph and her family) and was granted on January 5, ending their fifty-five hour marriage.In July 2004, Spears announced her engagement to dancer Kevin Federline, three months after they met at a club in Hollywood. On the night of September 18, 2004, Spears married Federline before twenty-seven guests in a surprise, non-denominational ceremony at a residence in Studio City, California. The exact sequence of events surrounding the marriage took a further turn for the unusual when it was later revealed by the website The Smoking Gun that the wedding ceremony that occurred on September 18 was a "faux" ceremony, and that the real date of the start of their wedding was October 6, 2004.

Britney Spears gave birth to her birth baby boy Sean Preston Federline on September 14, 2005 in the Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica, California. On September 12, 2006, Spears gave birth to their second son, Jayden James Federline. He was born at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Spears filed for divorce from her husband Kevin Federline in early November 2006, citing irreconcilable differences and asking for both physical and legal custody of their two children, with visitation rights for Federline.

Spears is one of the highest selling modern female artists, with over 76 million albums sold worldwide. In 2002, she was ranked as the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes. Spears was ranked number 20 out of the 200 top pop culture icons of all time by VH1 and People. In 2007 Britney Spears ranked 12th in Forbes The 20 Richest Women In Entertainment. Forbes estimates her net worth at around $100 million.