Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. 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. During her first decade in the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. 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 third album Britney and played the starring role in the film Crossroads. She assumed creative control of her fourth album In the Zone (2003), which yielded the worldwide success "Toxic".
After the release of two compilation albums, Spears's personal struggles sent her career into hiatus. Her fifth album Blackout (2007) spawned hits "Gimme More" and "Piece of Me". Spears's erratic behavior and hospitalizations caused her to be placed under a conservatorship in 2008. Her sixth album Circus was released later that year, which included global chart-topping lead single "Womanizer". Its supporting tour The Circus Starring Britney Spears was the highest-grossing global concert tour in 2009. Later that October, "3" became Spears's third single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Her seventh album Femme Fatale (2011) became her first to yield three top ten singles in the United States: "Hold It Against Me", "Till the World Ends" and "I Wanna Go". In 2012, Spears was featured on will.i.am's single "Scream & Shout", which topped charts in over 24 countries. She also served as a judge during the second season of the American version of The X Factor.
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