Britney Spears

American singer, dancer, and actress, a fabulous success by age 19. Britney was already a pro at the age of 11 when she joined Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club show. She has performed since early childhood in local dance reviews and church choirs. From age 8 to 11, she trained at New York's Off-Broadway Dance Center and the Professional Performing Arts School. During that time, she began doing commercials and stage appearances, already showing the talent and drive to go all the way to the top. Britney took part of some off-Broadway productions including "Ruthless" in 1991, based on the 1956 thriller "The Bad Seed." She says she enjoyed playing an evil child...that it was a lot of fun! According to her mom, Lynne, Britney started talking early and loved music from the time she was a sweet toddler, learning to dance as soon as she was on her feet. She was soon enrolled in tumbling class, tap and gymnastics. Full of energy, she excelled in gymnastics where she practiced up to the time she was nine. After two years with Disney, she had one normal year of high school at 14. The beautiful teen-ager never did have a conventional life-style, and by 17 she was plunged into the show-biz world of tours, photo-shoots and adoring fans. Her magic began to spread. Even before her first album came out, legions of people were becoming her fans on the strength of her performances at local malls and her sensational turn as the opening act for the popular group 'Nsync. In early 1999, she signed to Jive Records and issued her first LP, "Baby One More Time." The record was a massive hit, topping the charts and reeling off a series of radio smash singles. It became the best-selling album ever released by a teenage girl. During 1999, Britney was nominated for two Grammys (including the coveted Best New Artist), swept the 1999 MTV Europe Awards (where she nabbed Best Female, Best Pop, Best Breakthrough Artist and Best song), brought her explosive live show around the globe and appeared on every major televised award show both here and in Europe. Her trim teen-age figure and scant costumes were seen on every magazine cover. "Oops! I Did It Again," followed in the spring of 2000, sexy, sassy and solidly in control. Her showmanship is maturing along with her musical sophistication. She attributes her wonderful success to her family and her faith in God. Her mom says Britney's focus and determination have also helped her achieve all that she has. As she comes of age, expect even more great things from this girl who has already wowed the entire world! Britney and her mother have written a book entitled "Heart To Heart." She has also created the Britney Spears Foundation in conjunction with the Giving Back Fund with a first endowment of the formation of a performing arts summer camp for underprivileged kids in Massachusetts. "I’m so happy to be able to give kids the opportunity to learn about the amazing world of dance and music that I’ve have been lucky enough to have in my own life." Married and separated in the same weekend, Spears and hubby Jason Allen Alexander (not of Seinfeld fame), apparently a childhood friend, filed for an annulment, which was effective on January 5, 2004. The wedding took place in Las Vegas on an impulse early in the morning of January 3, 2004. The bride wore a baseball cap and jeans and was accompanied down the aisle of the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas by a hotel bellman. The groom was back in his Louisiana hometown on Sunday, the 4th. Apparently the whole wedding was staged as a "joke that went too far." On June 16, 2004, the star announced that her plans for a national summer tour have been cancelled because of a knee injury sustained while filming a music video on June 8, 2004 in Queens, NY. She underwent arthroscopic surgery on June 9 in New York to correct her damaged knee cartilage. Her web site reports that "Ms. Spears will be immobile for 6 weeks, with her knee in a hard brace. This will be followed by a minimum of 8-12 weeks of rehabilitation." Cancellation of the tour will cost the singer millions of dollars in revenue and will put about 100 staffers out of work for the summer. The pop diva has reportedly said "yes" to a proposal of marriage from beau Kevin Federline, whom she began dating after her hasty marriage to a school chum in January 2004, a marriage that was annulled soon after. Spears married Kevin Federline on September 18, 2004 in Studio City, CA in a ceremony scheduled for 8:00 PM. They had originally set the date for October 16 but amidst the hype and hoopla, decided to marry quickly in the presence of 27 friends and family members. Because of the speeded-up wedding, the couple had not yet filed for their marriage license, giving rise to reports that they were not legally wed. The couple pooh-poohed such claims, emphasizing that their marriage was a spiritual connection. The singer gave birth to a boy on September 14, 2005, just before 1:00 PM in Santa Monica, CA according to a news report. The child was born via Caesarean section. If a name had been chosen prior to the baby’s birth, it was not immediately announced. Baby boy Federline is the first child for Spears and the third child for her husband, Kevin Federline. He was later named Sean Preston Federline. Spears gave birth to her second child, a son named Sutton Pierce Federline, on September 12, 2006 in Los Angeles. According to an Associated Press report citing an Us Weekly online article, the child was born “around 2 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. After only two years of marriage, she filed for divorce from Kevin Federline on November 7, 2006 in Los Angeles. She was often in the news for increasingly bizarre and often self-destructive behavior. On February 16, 2007, she walked into a just-closed beauty salon demanding to have her head shorn. A few days later she admitted herself to a rehabilitation center, left for one day and then re-entered. She had reportedly suffered a breakdown that was attributed to post-partum depression, alcohol, and/or drugs. The Spears-Federline divorce became final on July 30 2007. Twice in early 2008 she seemed to suffer from severe episodes of mental illness. Whether alcohol or drug use has contributed is unknown. On January 4, 2008 she refused to relinquish her children to their dad who has custody.. After arguing with police who suspected she had taken an unknown substance, she was admitted to a hospital shortly after midnight on January 4, 2008. Later that day, a judge revoked her child visitation rights. She was released on January 5th, but reports of strange behavior continued. On January 31st, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Spears's sixth studio album, Circus (2008), included global chart-topping lead single "Womanizer". Its supporting tour The Circus Starring Britney Spears was one of the highest-grossing global concert tours in 2009. Later that October, "3" became Spears's third single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Her seventh studio 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". She also served as a judge during the second season of the American version of The X Factor, leaving after that season. Spears's eponymous eighth studio album Britney Jean was released in 2013. Later that year, Spears began the four-year residency show Britney: Piece of Me at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. She became engaged to Jason Trawick in December 2011, though the couple split soon after. Link to Wikipedia biography Link to Astrodienst discussion forum