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50 facts you didn't know about Britney Spears.
1. 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.
2. Spears's first and second studio albums, ...Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!... I Did It Again (2000), became international successes, with the former becoming the best-selling album by a teenage solo artist.
3. Title tracks "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" broke international sales records.
4. In 2001, Spears released her self-titled third studio album, Britney, and played the starring role in the film Crossroads (2002).
5. In 2007, Spears's much-publicized personal issues sent her career into hiatus.
6. 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.
7. She also served as a judge during the second season of the American version of The X Factor.
8. Spears was established as a pop icon and credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s.
9. She became the 'best-selling teenaged artist of all time' and garnered honorific titles including the "Princess of Pop".
10. She has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
11. Rolling Stone recognized her instant success as one of the Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments of all time, while VH1 ranked her eleventh on their "100 Greatest Women in Music" list in 2012, and Billboard named her the sexiest woman in music.
12. Forbes reported that Spears was the highest paid female musician of 2012, with earnings of $58 million, having last topped the list in 2002.
13. Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi, the second child of Lynne Irene Bridges and James Parnell Spears.
14. Her maternal grandmother, Lillian Portell, was English (born in London), and one of Spears's maternal great-great-grandfathers was Maltese.
15. Her siblings are Bryan James and Jamie Lynn.
16. At age three, she started attending dance lessons in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, and was selected to perform as a solo artist at the annual recital.
17. During her childhood, she also attended gymnastics and voice lessons, and won many state-level competitions and children's talent shows.
18. Spears made her local stage debut at age five, singing "What Child Is This?" at her kindergarten graduation.
19. At age eight, Spears and her mother Lynne traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for an audition in the 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. Casting director Matt Casella rejected her for being too young to join the series at the time, but introduced her to Nancy Carson, a New York City talent agent. Carson was impressed with Spears's vocals and suggested enrolling her at the Professional Performing Arts School; shortly after, Lynne and her daughters moved to a sublet apartment in New York.
20. Spears was hired for her first professional role as the understudy for the lead role of Tina Denmark in the Off-Broadway musical Ruthless!.
21. She also appeared as a contestant on the popular television show Star Search and was cast in a number of commercials.
22. In December 1992, she was finally cast in The Mickey Mouse Club, but returned to Kentwood after the show was canceled in 1995.
23. In January 2004, Spears married childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander at The Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The marriage was annulled 55 hours later, following a petition to the court that stated that Spears "lacked understanding of her actions".
24. In June 2004, Spears fell and injured her left knee during the music video shoot for "Outrageous". Spears underwent arthroscopic surgery. She was forced to remain six weeks with a thigh brace, followed by eight to twelve weeks of rehabilitation, which caused The Onyx Hotel Tour to be canceled.
25. In July 2004, Spears became engaged to American dancer Kevin Federline, whom she had met three months before. The romance received intense attention from the media, since Federline had recently broken up with actress Shar Jackson, who was still pregnant with their second child at the time.
26. The stages of their relationship were chronicled in Spears's first reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic.
27. They held a wedding ceremony on September 18, 2004, but were not legally married until three weeks later on October 6 due to a delay finalizing the couple's prenuptial agreement.
28. She released her first fragrance with Elizabeth Arden, Curious, which broke the company's first-week gross for a perfume.
29. In October 2004, Spears took a career break to start a family.
30. In September 2005, Spears gave birth to her first child, a son.
31. In September 2006, she gave birth to her second child, a son.
32. In November 2006, Spears filed for divorce from Federline, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce was finalized in July 2007, when the couple reached a global settlement and agreed to share joint custody of their children.
33. In May 2012, Spears was hired to replace Nicole Scherzinger as a judge for the second season of the U.S. version of The X Factor, joining Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and fellow new judge Demi Lovato, who replaced Paula Abdul. With a reported salary of $15 million, she became the highest-paid judge on a singing competition series in television history.
34. On January 8, 2014, Spears won Favorite Pop Artist at the 40th People's Choice Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
35. Spears announced through her Twitter account in August 2014 that she would be releasing an intimate apparel titled "The Intimate Britney Spears". It was available to be purchased on September 9, 2014 in the United States and Canada through Spears's Intimate Collection website.
36. On September 25, 2014, Spears confirmed on Good Morning Britain that she had extended her contract with The AXIS and Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, to continue Britney: Piece Of Me for two additional years.
37. At the 2015 Teen Choice Awards, Spears received the Candie's Style Icon Award, her ninth Teen Choice Award.
38. Spears possesses a soubrette vocal range of three octaves and two notes.
39. Spears has cited her major influences in her career as being Madonna, Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston, her "three favorite artists" as a child whom she would "sing along to [...] day and night in [her] living room"; Houston's "I Have Nothing" was the song she auditioned to that landed her record deal with Jive Records.
40. Throughout her career, Spears has drawn frequent comparisons to Madonna and Jackson in particular, in terms of vocals, choreography and stage presence.
41. She has also named Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Sheryl Crow, Otis Redding, Shania Twain, Beyoncé, Brandy and Natalie Imbruglia as sources of inspiration.
42. In 2000, the singer released a limited edition of glasses titled Shades of Britney.
43. In 2001, Spears signed a deal with shoe company Skechers, and a $7-8 million promotional deal with Pepsi, their biggest entertainment deal at the time.
44. On June 19, 2002, she released her first multi-platform video game, Britney's Dance Beat, which received positive reviews.
45. In March 2009, Spears was announced as the new face of clothing brand Candie's. In 2010, Spears designed a limited edition line for the brand, which was released in stores in July 2010.
46. In 2011, she teamed up with Sony, Make Up For Ever and PlentyofFish to release her music video for "Hold It Against Me", earning her $500,000 for the product placement.
47. In 2010, Spears released her eighth fragrance, Radiance.
48. On October 30, 2001, Spears, alongside Bono and other popular recording artists under the name "Artists Against AIDS Worldwide", released a single titled "What's Going On", with the intention to benefit AIDS programs in Africa and other impoverished regions.
49. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2006, Spears donated $350,000 to Music Rising.
50. Later in 2011, the singer raised $200,000 during An Evening of Southern Style at a private residence in Beverly Hills to benefit the St. Bernard Project, with the help of several celebrities, including Hilary Duff, Selena Gomez, Kelly Osbourne, Kellan Lutz and Kim Kardashian.
Source: Wikipedia.org
