'''Britney Jean Spears''' (born December 2, 1981) is an American pop singer, dancer, and occasional actress, author, and songwriter. She is best known for her studio albums, music videos, and pop songs such as "...Baby One More Time", "Oops!...I Did It Again" and "Toxic".
Spears has sold over seventy-six million records worldwide according to ''
TIME'' magazine.
Having thirty-one million RIAA-certified albums sold in the U.S., Spears ranks as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history.
Spears first came to fame as a member of the ''New Mickey Mouse Club'' in the early 1990s, after which she took a five-year break from entertainment. She subsequently emerged at the forefront of the pop music scene in late 1998, thanks to her chart-topping debut album, ''...Baby One More Time'', which was crafted by producer-songwriter Max Martin. Her second album, ''Oops!...I Did It Again'', which was released the following year, was a similarly huge hit.
In the early 2000s, Spears' success as a singer led her way to high-profile advertising deals, most notably for Pepsi, as well as forays into other forms of media, including film and reality television. Along with her highly-publicized relationship with 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake, her third and fourth albums were released during this era and included more artistic input from Spears, but yielded lower sales. In 2004, she married dancer and aspiring rap artist Kevin Federline and the following year she gave birth to their son, Sean Preston. The couple are currently expecting their second child.
Biography
Childhood and discovery
Spears was born and raised Southern Baptist in Kentwood, Louisiana. Her parents are James Parnell Spears, a building contractor, and Lynne Irene Bridges (born 1956), a former grade school teacher. Spears's brother, Bryan (born 1977), is one of her managers, and her sister, Jamie-Lynn (born 1991), is an actress and singer. Her maternal grandmother, Lillian Woolmoore (1924–1993), was an English war-bride, who met Spears's maternal grandfather, Barnett O'Field Bridges (1919–1978), in England during WWII, and subsequently moved with him to the United States. Her paternal grandparents were June Austin Spears (born 1930) and Emma Jean Forbes (1934–1966); Spears claims to have some Native American heritage.
[Indian Country Tomorrow (April 1, 2001). http://indianz.com/ict/showarchive.asp?id=spears Britney Spears Proclaims Indian Heritage, accessed September 9, 2006. ]Spears was an accomplished gymnast, attending gymnastics classes until age nine and competing in state-level competitions. She performed in local dance revues and her local Baptist church choirs, and was auditioning for the Disney Channel's ''New Mickey Mouse Club'' by the time she was eight. Although she was considered too young to join the series
