BRITNEY SPEARS

Born:Dec. 2, 1981
Kentwood, La.

Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American pop singer. Spears has sold over 85 million albums worldwide. She released her debut album ...Baby One More Time in 1999, resulting in an international success.It spawned the Billboard magazine-topping single "…Baby One More Time".She released her second studio album Oops!... I Did It Again in 2000 with continued success.A third album, Britney, was released in 2001, followed by the release of her fourth album, In the Zone, in 2003. The album's single "Toxic" won Spears her first Grammy Award.After the release of a greatest hits collection, EP, and a remix album, she released her fifth album Blackout in 2007 which gave her her biggest U.S. hit since ...Baby One More Time, Gimme and more..

Spears's personal life began to gain more media attention after her marriage to Kevin Federline in 2004. Their marriage ended just two years later resulting in an ongoing custody battle. She gave birth to her first child in 2005 and to her second child in 2006

Childhood and discovery

Britney Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana as a Southern Baptist. Her parents are Lynne Irene (née Bridges), a former elementary school teacher, and Jamie Parnell Spears, a building contractor. Spears's brother Bryan works as a manager for the Spears family interests and her sister Jamie Lynn is an actress and singer. Her maternal grandmother Lillian Woolmore was an English war-bride, born in Tottenham, London who met Spears's grandfather Barnett O'Field Bridges in England during World War II. Her paternal grandparents were June Austin Spears and Emma Jean Forbes.
Spears was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions. She performed in local dance revues and sang in her local Baptist church choir. At age eight she auditioned for the Disney Channel series The New Mickey Mouse Club. Although she was considered too young to join the series at the time, a producer on the show introduced her to a New York City agent. Spears subsequently spent three summers at NYC's Professional Performing Arts School and also appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions, including 1991's Ruthless!. In 1992, she landed a spot on the popular television show Star Search. She won the first round of competition, but ultimately lost. At age eleven, Spears returned to the Disney Channel for a spot on the The New Mickey Mouse Club in Lakeland, Florida. She was featured on the show from 1993 to 1994, until she was 13. After the show ended, Spears returned to Kentwood and attended high school for a year.
In 1997, Spears briefly joined the all-female pop group Innosense. Later that same year, she recorded a demo solo and was signed by Jive Records. She began a U.S. concert tour sponsored by American teen magazines, and eventually became an opening act for 'N Sync and the Backstreet Boys.