Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer, dancer, and actress. 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. Spears's first two studio albums, ...Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!... I Did It Again (2000), were global successes and made her the best-selling teenage artist of all time. Referred to as the "Princess of Pop", Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and the early 2000s.
Spears adopted more mature and provocative themes for her next studio albums, Britney (2001) and In the Zone (2003). She also ventured into acting with the starring role in the 2002 film Crossroads. However, her much-publicized personal issues sent her career into hiatus. Her erratic behavior and hospitalizations made her placed under a still ongoing conservatorship. Despite being released during her personal struggles, Blackout (2007), was considered as her best work.
Spears returned to the top of record charts with her sixth and seventh album, Circus (2008) and Femme Fatale (2011). In 2012, Forbes reported that Spears was the highest paid female musician of the year, with earnings of $58 million, having last topped the list in 2002. During the promotion of her eighth and ninth studio albums Britney Jean (2013) and Glory (2016), Spears embarked on the four-year concert residency, Britney: Piece of Me, at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
Spears has scored ten singles which have reached number one in either the United States or the United Kingdom: "...Baby One More Time", "Born to Make You Happy", "Oops!... I Did It Again", "Toxic", "Everytime", "Womanizer", "3", "Hold It Against Me", "S&M", and "Scream & Shout". Spears has earned numerous awards and accolades, including a Grammy Award, six MTV Video Music Awards including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, seven Billboard Music Awards including the Millennium Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Billboard ranked her as the eight biggest artist of the 2000s decade. One of the world's best-selling music artists of all time, Spears has sold over 100 million records worldwide. In the United States, Spears remains the fourth best-selling female album artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, as well as the best-selling female albums artist of the 2000s.
