The date was Dec 2 1981, McComb Mississippi. A baby girl named Britney Jean Spears was brought into this world. 17 years later, she would become the youngest female artist in recorded history to receive the Diamond RIAA status for selling over 10 million copies of her debut album. This is the story, of a talented girl from the bayous of Louisiana who had a dream...and accomplished it to its fullest extent. Britney was a very active girl all the way from the start. She loved being the center of attention, she would dance, sing, kick and scream all over the 3 bedroom cottage style house in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana. The Spears Family have always had a strong bond with the Covington family. The Covington family consists of Lynne's (Britney's Mom) syster Sandra and Britney's best friend and cousin Laura Lynne. Britney and Laura Lynne practically grew up together, they would play everyday, sing together, and even attend local talent competitions. Britney was 4 years old, and she was already showing the world the hidden talent she in a couple of years was going to unleash.look
One sunny day coming back from riding the go-carts, Britney would start singing to the radio, she would do this over and over again, until her mom one day told her, "Britney, you really can sing!". Lynne decided to do something about Britney's talent, and took her to sing in Church, where she was loved and cherished by everyone. Performing on stage, was just Britney's thing. It was all about her world and the world that was watching her. Years went by, and Britney's talent grew....she had her family a little bit sick and tired of all the singing. Lynne once said : "Britney would sing non-stop every single day to the point where it became annoying, and I had to tell her to stop". Britney began to show interest for gymnastics and as every mother in this world who wants the best for their little daughter, Lynne would drive Britney to the gym-clases which were one hour away from home. One day, Britney just felt that Gymnastics weren't her thing anymore, and it got momma Lynne worried. Later she realized that the reason why Britney couldn't do it anymore, was because she felt that she couldn't keep up with the rest, and when you start feeling that something just isn't your thing.....you stop. You decide what you want to do, Lynne said, and Britney reassured her that she didn't want to go back to gymnastics anymore.
Taking a step further in our time-line Lynne was already aware of Britney's talent, and she would take her to local talent and beauty competitions, where Britney won in some and lost in others. Lynne says that Britney got so sad after not winning a competition, which later just prooved that Britney would grow up to be a perfectionist...and there she is today. One afternoon Lynne was reading the newspaper and saw an ad that said they were making castings for the Mickey Mouse Club (MMC), a kids show that aired on the Disney Channel. Lynne decided to taker her there to audition, and that's what she did. Out of over 1000 kids that auditioned, Britney ranked in the top 6 finalists. Unfortunately, she was rejected, not because of the lack in talent, but because of her young age, 9. One of the agents there saw that Britney wasn't just an ordinary girl, and decided to hook her up with an entairtainment lawyer in New York City, Larry Rudolph. The Spears family decided they were gonna do whatever it took to take Britney to that entairtainment lawyer and that meant taking their 9 year old girl away from the small town of Kentwood (pop. 1200) and take her to the big city. The Spears did not have enough money to take the plane to New York, so they had to take the Amtrak (the name of the national railroad company in the US) and it took them over 2 days to get there. Once in New York Britney attended a performing arts academy where she learned how to sing, dance and act. When Britney turned 10, she got a role in the Off-Broadway play "Ruthless" where she played an evil little girl with a cute face. After spending a couple of summers in New York, Britney got homesick and returned back to Kentwood where she resumed her life as a normal girl. But now she was 11 years old, and Lynne decided to take her to audition for the MMC again, this time, she was accepted. Britney would become the youngest member joining Keri Russell , Justin Timberlake and J.C Chavez among others. At the MMC Britney got the opportunity to do the thing she loved the most....perform.
Unfortunately the MMC was taken down after 2 years and Britney returned to Kentwood once again where she attended one normal year of highschool, had a boyfriend and was the Prom Queen. But Britney got bored, and wanted to go back to the spotlight once again, therefore she contacted that entairtainment lawyer again and she flew up to New York and auditioned for a girl group called "Innonsense". After giving it a second thought, Britney decided to go solo, and she auditioned for a set of executives at Jive Records, they loved her and signed her up immediately. Britney was sent to the Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden to record her debut album with Max Martin (Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi) and Rami and later back to the U.S to work with Eric Foster White.
Jan 12 1999, Britney's debut album "Baby one more time" is released. The world is introduced to a new singing sensation who topped all the charts with her sexy catholic outfit video and single "Hit me baby one more time". Britney hit it big and started selling albums and remained on the Billboard charts for over a year and her album hit number 1 only a couple of weeks after it was released. Now Britney Spears had become a house hold name with over 30 million albums sold worlwide, and boy....she's here to stay.
The date is now May 16th, 2000. Britney Spears has established herself as one of the most influencial teenage artists in this world. She releases her second album "Oops!...I Did It Again" featuring hit singles such as OIDIA, Lucky, Stronger and DLMBTLTK. She goes on a World Tour that covers America, Europe, Japan and Rio de Janeiro. Her strong will and determination, her amazing music, personality and image that has set her apart from the rest together with some kick ass promotional strategies from her record label Jive and Zomba made "Oops!...I Did It Again" sell over 9 million copies, rising the amazing number to over 30 million albums sold worldwide, appearing in the Guiness World Book of Records and logged in as one of the most succesful artists in Soundscan history.
Britney releases yet another homevideo "Live and More", writes another book with her mother titled "A Mother's Gift" as well as appears in the popular US prime time show "Saturday Night Live". This was a milestone in her career since she proved that she could not only sing, but also act. For the first time in SNL history, the featured artist both performed, acted and hosted the show. Britney said she was nervous for not being nervous at all.
After winning over 45 worldwide acclaimed awards in different categories, Britney took most of the year 2001 off to record her third album and star in her full length debut movie "CrossRoads" which will hit the cinemas on February 15th 2001. After signing a 97 million dollar deal with Pepsi Britney became the spokeswoman for the famous soda and has become an brand and a household name all over the world.
It was the end of the summer 2001 and Britney was getting ready to start the promotion for her soon to be released third album entitled "Britney" which would come out in stores on Nov. 6th, 2001. She appeared in several important MTV shows such as MTV Diary and MTV Total Britney Live. Appeared in several magazine covers including Vogue, Rolling Stone, Seventeen and YM Magazine.
"Britney" is released on Nov. 6th and debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 album charts selling over 745,000 copies in its first week, having the second biggest debut of the year, behind NSync's Celebrity which sold 1.9 million copies in its first week. Britney became 2001's most succesful debut by a female artist or a female group. She also easily bounced Michael Jackson's Invincible from number one on Billboard's album charts, according to SoundScan data. That gives Britney a perfect track record, with all three of her albums opening in the top slot. She became the first female solo artist to accomplish this.
It is important to point out how far she has managed to outdistance artists such as Christina Aguilera, whose eponymous 1999 debut has sold some 7.81 million copies, according to SoundScan. And with over 30 million in career sales to date, Britney has already sold more LPs in just three years than Madonna has done in the last 10.
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