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Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981 in Kentwood, Louisiana. At a young age she showed an interest in singing and dancing. At the age of eight, Spears auditioned for the television show The New Mickey Mouse Club, presented on the Disney channel. The producers found that she was rather young, but saw her potential. They introduced her to an agent in New York. Spears spent the next three years studying at the Professional Performing Arts School. She also made a few appearances on television shows.

At the age of 11, Spears went back to the The New Mickey Mouse Club show for a second audition. She was selected, and starred on the show alongside Justin Timberlake, JC Chavez, Christina Aguilera and Keri Russell. The show was taken off the air after Spears’ second season on it. However, it was long enough to make Spears know that she wanted to pursue singing.

At the age of 15 Spears recorded another album with the label Jive Records. This label offered her the opportunity to work with the best producers and authors in the industry. At the end of 1998, Jive Records released Spears’ first single…Baby One More Time. The song along with a hit music video showing the pop star in a sexy school uniform went to number one on the Billboard. The debut album Baby One More Time, was released in January 1999 and the album stayed at number one for 6 weeks. In less than one year, the rising star’s album had sold 10 million copies. To date 13 million copies have been sold around the world. Spears had become a successful singer very rapidly. She was among divas such as Christina Aguilera, Pink, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore.

In the spring 2000, Spears released her second album Oops!... I Did It Again. The lead single Oops!... I Did it Again was a huge hit. The album went to number one, and sold more than one million copies in the first week. In less than one year more than nine 9 million copies were sold. Around the same period, the public learned that Spears was dating Justin Timberlake, one of the members of *NSYNC. There was a media frenzy over Spears’ career and personal life.

 

When Spears began working on her third album, she decided she wanted to project a more mature artist. In 2001, the self-titled album Britney was released, and reflected that the little girl had grown up. It followed the lead of the first two albums in assuming a number one position on the billboards. However, the album’s singles did not have quite as much success. There were other stars emerging at that time, such as Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne, that were stealing the spotlight.

Spears decided to try out her luck on the big screen. She played in the movie Crossroads. It was not hugely successful at the box-office, and was very poorly received by the critics. During this time, Spears was dealing with her break-up with Justin Timberlake. She then had a small part in the movie Austin Powers: Goldmember starring Mike Myers.

The singer took some time off, and made a comeback in 2003 with a sexier look, on her album, Get In The Zone. Spears then worked with one of her idols Madonna, on a song Me Against the Music. The two women share many similarities. They shock fans when they engaged in a provocative kiss in front of millions of viewers at the MTV Music Awards.

Spears decided to continue with her new provocative manner. At the beginning of 2004, fans were stunned to learn that the star was married to a childhood friend, Jason Alexander. It was a marriage that lasted only 55 hours. The nuptials happened on a night that the couple had had too much to drink at a party.

In 2004, Spears had an accident during the shooting of a video. She needed to have surgery and cancelled her North American tour.

In September of the same year, Spears announced a second marriage in less than a year. This time, it seemed more serious. She married one of her dancers, Kevin Federline. In November, the star released another album titled, Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. It featured a Bobby Brown remake.

In 2005 Spears announced that she and Federline were expecting their first child. She gave birth in September 2005 to a boy named Sean Preston. In 2006, the singer was pregnant once again and gave birth in September 2006 to Sean Preston. The couple had signed for a second season of the reality show Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, but things were not so rosy for the couple. They started having marital difficulties, and in November Spears filed for divorce.