The Artist Roadmap Series: Britney’s Story to Stardom
Britney Jean Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi on December 2, 1981.
At just three years old, she started dancing lessons and at age 5, she made her local stage debut singing at her kindergarten graduation.
The best tend to always start young right?
From there on, she took voice lessons, attended gymnastics classes and won many state-level competitions and talent shows.
When It All Really Started
When she was 8 years old, she auditioned for the 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. The casting director felt she was too young but introduced her to a talent agent who suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School.
After Spears moved to New York with her mother, she was cast in commercials and tv shows, most notably The Mickey Mouse Club in 1992. The show was canceled in 1996, which led to her moving back to Mississippi.
In 1997, Spears recorded a professional demo using an unused Toni Braxton song and traveled to New York to meet with representatives from 4 labels.
She was 16 around this time.
Three of the labels rejected her but Clive Calder (founder of Jive Records) saw that she could “deliver emotional content and commercial appeal.” He even went as far as saying that “he had found the next Madonna” and signed her to his label. She then went on to work with music producer Eric Foster White to shape her voice into something that was distinctly her own.
Her Career Finally Took Off
After working on her first debut studio album with hit-maker Max Martin…Baby One More Time was released on January 12, 1999. It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and Baby One More Time became the biggest-selling album ever by a teenage artist, selling over 10 million copies in a year.
Her second studio album, Oops!… I Did It Again was released in May 2000 and debuted at number one in the US, selling over 20 million copies worldwide.
Her next studio album, Britney, was released in November 2001 and again, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. She then began to assume more creative control on her fourth studio album In the Zone by writing and co-producing most of the songs.
It debuted at the top of the charts, making Spears the first female artist to have her first four studio albums consecutively debut at number one.
The Unfortunate Downward Spiral
Britney was the biggest star of the 2000s…this, unfortunately, comes with a cost. The amount of fame, especially at her age, and further personal difficulties lead to a series of unfortunate events in her career.
In July 2004, Spears was engaged to dancer Kevin Federline and married him in September of that year. Almost exactly a year later, their first child, Sean, was born. Then in September 2006, she gave birth to Jayden, their second son. Three months later, Spears decided to file for divorce from Federline. “Irreconcilable differences” being the main reason. The divorce was finalized in July 2007 with the couple agreeing to share joint custody of their children.
In February 2007, Spears stayed in a drug rehabilitation facility for less than a day and she shaved her head at a hair salon. In the following weeks, she admitted herself to other treatment facilities. In October 2007, Spears lost physical custody of her children to Federline and released her fifth studio album, Blackout, which debuted at the top of the charts worldwide.
In January 2008, Spears was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after she appeared to be under the influence of an unidentified substance by police. Federline was given sole physical and legal custody of the children and she was committed to the psychiatric ward of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and placed on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold. The court placed her under temporary, and then permanent, conservatorship of her father James Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet. She was released after five days.
At the end of 2008, Britney: For the Record, a 60-minute documentary chronicling Spears’s return to the industry was broadcast on MTV. In December 2008, she released her sixth studio album Circus. She became the youngest female artist to have five albums debut at number one, earning her a place in the Guinness World Records.
Today, Britney is a pop culture icon. She holds 7 Guinness World Records, has a Grammy Award, 6 MTV Video Music Awards, 7 Billboard Music Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is estimated to have sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
As someone who virtually grew up in the entertainment industry and was subjected to intense public scrutiny, Britney’s story illustrates the potential toxicity of the recording industry.
Her story is unique, but many artists who have succeeded in the industry have also overcome the overwhelming rejections and obstacles placed in front of them. Take a look at the stories of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, or Bruno Mars in our Artist Roadmap Series.
Article written by Alina Yen for Black One Entertainment
