RIAA Decade's G&P Achievements

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released a tally of the decade's highest Gold and Platinum award achievements. Included in the RIAA's 2000-2009 count are the artists who received the most Gold and Platinum certifications, the best selling music releases, and a timeline of notable decade dates.

Britney Spears is listed as the female solo artist with most album certifications.

Source: RIAA

20 Feb 2010

Britney Is Sexiest Woman In Music

Billboard asked their readers to vote for the sexiest people in music. Out of hundreds of thousands votes Britney Spears won the sexiest woman in music. View the complete Top 10 here.

Source: Billboard.com

12 Feb 2010

Top Tours Of 2009

Pollstar has compiled its Top 50 Tours of North America for 2009 and Britney Spears takes the No. 1 spot for a female artist.

For all of the financial troubles of 2009, the concert business had an up year. The numbers for the Top 50 tours were better, across the board, than for 2008, be it total gross revenue or tickets sold.

So much for the Great Recession. When it comes to live music, 2009 was worth being around for. Pollstar Top 10 Tours of North America:

01. U2
02. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
03. Elton John / Billy Joel
04. Britney Spears
05. AC/DC
06. Kenny Chesney
07. Jonas Brothers
08. Dave Matthews Band
09. Fleetwood Mac
10. Metallica

Source: Pollstar

31 Dec 2009

Best Of The Decade

As the decade comes to an end Billboard looks back at the decade in music. Britney Spears has made a huge impact on the music scene this decade and appears on many charts. Most of the following numbers are based on Billboard chart positions:

- #8 Artist of the Decade
- #6 Billboard 200 Album of the Decade: Oops!...I Did It Again
- #21 Top Touring Artist of the Decade

For more check out Billboard.com.

30 Dec 2009

Britney Nominated For Grammy Award

Britney Spears received one Grammy nomination. She is nominated with the song "Womanizer" in the category for Best Dance Recording.

The 52nd Annual Grammy Awards will air Sunday, January 31 at 8pm ET on CBS.

02 Dec 2009

The End Of The Circus Tour

The sparks at the end of the "Womanizer" performance fell for the last time tonight in Adelaide, Australia. Tonight's show marked the end of The Circus Starring Britney Spears. The tour started back in March and traveled around the world to many cities. After 97 shows Britney finished her most succesful tour of her career to date.

29 Nov 2009

Classy Britney In "Radar" Video

Britney Spears has been compared to Madonna since she leapt onto the pop scene, dancing around in a schoolgirl uniform. The two did eventually hook up for "Me Against the Music," but Britney's video for "Radar," from her Circus album, really paid tribute to the pop queen and her ultra-glamorous Bedtime Stories period.

In the video, Britney is stuck in a love triangle with two very sexy polo players, who spend a good part of their time trying to woo Spears or riding their horses. Spears hooked up with "Boys" director Dave Meyers for an ode to Madonna's "Take a Bow."

"That was the premise behind 'Radar.' [We were] looking for a way to take her into a contemporary, classy environment," Meyers explained. "I felt empowered by referencing Madonna's video. Britney hasn't done anything like that."

Meyers had a very clear idea of how he wanted the story line to work. "There is a narrative going on, a romantic triangle on a weekend at this polo mansion," he said. "A soap-opera romance."

Britney apparently got nervous around the guy playing her lover (not her official boyfriend) in the clip, but Meyers said that shyness captured the essence of Britney. "She was really shy with this guy. She's really pretty here too," he said. "I think it's the Britney a lot of us know and love. It was nice to bring that out in her."

Despite the song's midtempo dance groove, the video is noticeably choreography-free. "I don't miss the dancing," he said. "When I watch, I feel like all the cuts and the dissolves keep the pace of the song alive."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

25 Nov 2009

Britney Bares It All For "Womanizer"

By the time 2008 rolled around, Britney Spears had once again taken her rightful place as the pre-eminent princess of pop. There was no question about it: Britney was back and "Womanizer" confirmed it. After all, what better way to show everyone you're back than to appear naked in a sauna?

"It was an actual sauna and we built a big tent around it ... and Britney, naked again. I guess I have one of the best jobs in the world," Joseph Kahn, who also shot Britney in the nude for her "Toxic" clip, told MTV News. "I was like, 'You know, if we do this video, and she went through all this work to get a new paint job, I was gonna show off the paint job - she's gonna be naked in this video.' "

The idea, however, like so many videos before, was all Britney's suggestion. "She pitched to me a very detailed idea of what she wanted to do," Kahn explained. "She wanted to dress up in costume, she wanted to follow her man to work, and she eventually wanted to show at the end that she is all three of those women."

He went on to say that this video was the one where he and Britney would prove that she was still at the top of her game. "It was, like, her first video that no one really knew if she could even come on set, you know? It was just a big question as to you know, like, what would that video look like?" he said. "What shape would she be in? Can she really dance? Can she perform? Who is she at this point?

" 'Womanizer,' for me, was a great experience on a personal level, because it completely verified that she was coming back," he continued. "By the time I worked with her on 'Womanizer,' you know, that was the Britney that I knew and it was a fun experience for me."

Kahn had to basically turn the video around overnight, and it was worth all the hard work - the video quickly became a fan favorite. "By the time it got out - and the beautiful thing about the Internet is that you get instant reaction - the reaction seemed to be very positive. I'm going to sound like such a wuss, but I think I cried," he said. "That sounds super lame, but come on, man - that's five days of some serious stress. And I had to end the video on her smiling, for sure. Like, we just need to tell everybody that she's OK."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

24 Nov 2009

You Want A Piece Of Britney?

Britney Spears might not have been at her personal peak when she released Blackout in 2007, but she also wasn't afraid to show the world that she was in on the joke.

On her single "Piece of Me," Britney sings about how every move she makes is reported by the media. And what better place to film a video for the song than in a nightclub with reporters and paparazzi trying to capture Brit's every move?

"On 'Piece of Me,' I really just wanted to put the mirror back onto the whole experience," director Wayne Isham told MTV News about the video's concept, which finds Britney flirting with boys and dancing around the club. "You can see that she had that kind of confidence. And, literally, every take became a more and more confident take, so that she could have fun with what was going on. Not being over-the-top sarcastic, but ... having a laugh at everything that was going on around her, with confidence."

At the time, Britney had become a tabloid staple. And, even when she was trying to get her career back on track, it seems the paparazzi were there to mess with any comeback plans. "She was late," Isham recalled. "People made a big thing about it, [but] how could she not be late, when you have 50, 65, 75 people running down the street chasing her car? That was a long day for the crew. It was literally a 20-hour day for the crew. She was there for the last six hours of it. She got there late, showed up and just kicked ass."

Isham encouraged the pop star to get loose for the video and (literally) let her hair down.

"The very last dance of the piece, she had her hair up, and I go, 'Can you just do one for me with your hair down?' She dropped her hair down," Isham recalled. "You'll see we intercut with her hair up and her hair down. That was the last piece. She just rocked it from her heart. She choreographed that last dance at the very end. She did that on her own and said, 'Let's go for it.' "

The video, which earned the singer three VMAs in 2008, would prove that no matter what was happening in her life, she could bring it. "When she goes for it, she goes for it," Isham said. "You know, it's about the story line, it's about her dance, it's about her appearance," he said. "I just love that she's one of the few that are still left that step up to what music videos are about."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

23 Nov 2009

The Singles Collection Fan Box Is Out

Britney: The Singles Collection: The Ultimate Fan Box Set is now available!!

The Deluxe Box edition includes all of her singles, newly remastered with bonus B-sides, remixes and original art, plus a bonus DVD featuring her iconic videos and a gorgeous 32-page booklet of beloved Britney images. Features the brand new #1 single "3."

See the full tracklisting here.

Buy it now at:
Amazon.com
BarnesAndNoble.com
Target.com
BestBuy.com
A store near you!

Digital and Standard Editions are also available.

Source: BritneySpears.com

23 Nov 2009

Britney Gets "Toxic" in Diamonds

When Britney Spears shot the video for "Toxic" in 2003, she had already started to play with her image and was emerging as a pop vixen. When the clip for "Toxic," the second single from In the Zone, was released, fans saw Spears as a spy out to seek revenge on her lover.

"It's basically about a girl addicted to a guy," Spears told MTV in 2003. "I really like 'Toxic.' It's an upbeat song. It's really different, that's why I like it so much. This villain girl, she'll do anything to get what she wants. She goes through different obstacles."

For the video, Britney seems to be a flight attendant, but she's actually a secret agent in disguise. "The plot is pretty nonsensical," director Joseph Kahn told MTV News. "It's just fun. [It's like] James Bond flicks and sex."

That combination only got better when Britney appeared in a suit made of nude material covered in diamonds. "Britney said she wanted to shoot a scene wearing diamonds and nothing else, and I'm like, 'How do I make this work?' " Kahn said. "She said she wanted to dance. I didn't like the bikini she was wearing."

Instead, the pair opted to leave very little to the imagination. "Joseph's very ambitious. He's a professional," Britney said. "I came up with the concept and threw it out there. ... There are jewels all over my body. There's nothing actually underneath."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

23 Nov 2009

The Pop Divas Collaborate

It was the changing of the guard - or at least the meeting of two of the most influential pop divas of all time - when Britney Spears and Madonna hooked up for Brit's single "Me Against the Music," from 2003's In the Zone. The superstars tantalize the audience (and each other) throughout the flirty video.

"Madonna is an icon of an earlier generation, and then Britney of the newer generation. She was at her peak at that point," director Paul Hunter told MTV News about the video. "So it was a challenge to kind of bring both of the worlds together. I wanted it to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse sort of game and a little bit of a foreplay between Britney and Madonna and just sort of tease the audience."

A few years back, Britney revealed that the collaboration came together thanks to the 2003 VMAs - you know, the show where Britney and Madonna locked lips. "I was in the middle of rehearsals for the VMAs and I played her the song, and she was like, 'That's your first single, right?' " Britney recalled. "I was like, 'Yeah, hopefully.' She was like, 'I really like it.' I was like, 'Really?' I was like, 'Well, you wanna do it with me?' She said, 'Yeah.' "

Hunter said the video was all about setting Spears and Madonna apart. "I try to play opposites, when you have Britney in dark and Madonna in white," he said. "And then we see them kind of dance around the bed ... and you think they're gonna get on top of each other and do something crazy."

But Spears said nothing crazy was supposed to happen; it was all about teasing people. "I never actually see Madonna or touch her; I just feel her presence there," she said. "[The song is] basically about just going to a club and letting yourself go and battling with whoever is around you and battling against the music as well. This is my first time doing a collaboration, and it's with Miss Madonna herself."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

20 Nov 2009

Britney From Girl To Woman

Britney Spears had been grappling with her budding adulthood when she released her third album, simply titled Britney, in 2001. With songs like "Overprotected" and "Let Me Be," Spears seemed to be letting out her adolescent angst. But on the single "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," which was also featured on the soundtrack for her flick "Crossroads," the singer wanted the world to know that she was ready to be treated like an adult.

For the video, director Wayne Isham just wanted to have Britney out in nature - even if the setting seemed a bit dangerous for a pop star. "I go, 'Let me check it out first,' " Isham told MTV News about having Britney stand on the edge of a cliff. "She understood that if my fat ass was out there and I could stand there, then she could stand there," he laughed.

The singer might have been willing to take the risk, but she still had some trepidation about standing on a cliff. "The wind started picking up a lot and almost dropped me over," Spears recalled. "And I was like, 'OK, gotta go.' "

Nonetheless, Isham loved the way the video looked and said there was no green screen involved. "She went out there and, without a safety cable, just stood there with those cowboy boots on," he said. "She was standing on the edge in her cowboy boots, looking hot. We'd be right on the edge, and she had not a blink of fear."

Spears said in 2001 that the song was actually intended for the "Crossroads" soundtrack before she included it on her album. "The song was written for the movie once we had the decision to make the music part of the movie," she said. "It's an inspirational song, and it's probably one of my favorite songs that I've ever sang."

And the video is one of Isham's favorites too. "I have nothing but positive things to say about my experience with her and what she's doing right now," he said. "She stepped into it with positive energy. She ended up stepping out and kicking ass."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

19 Nov 2009

How "Stronger" Made Britney A Diva

Up until the release of "Stronger," Britney Spears had not yet truly made the leap from teen pop star to femme fatale. Most - if not all - of her videos were glossy, pastel-colored romps about falling in and out of love. It wasn't until she worked with Joseph Kahn on "Stronger," from her 2000 Oops!...I Did It Again LP, that Spears began to emerge as a darker, more dangerous version of sexy.

"For 'Stronger,' she said, 'I would like to dance in a chair and drive in a car and break up with [my] boyfriend,' " Kahn told MTV News. " 'Those are your three elements.' And then, as a director, you go, 'OK, well, how do I make that cool?'

"I think this video is interesting because it's got a very sophisticated, adult look to it," Kahn (who has helmed dozens of music videos, including Brit's "Womanizer" and Chris Brown's "Crawl") continued. "It's definitely a departure from the sort of candy-colored videos she was doing before, so I always thought this was the transition between Britney the teenage pop star and Britney the sort of diva she became."

Kahn ended up taking those elements and creating a semi-futuristic world in which Spears walks into a club, breaks up with her cheating boyfriend and triumphantly walks in the rain, knowing her life is better off without him. But it was the pivotal dance sequences with the metal chair that defined the aesthetic for the video.

"She pitched it to me as an original concept by herself, but the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of the chair sequence, in terms of how it applies to music videos, was Janet Jackson's 'Pleasure Principle' - the iconic chair sequence in that." Kahn recalled.

Like Jackson, Spears wasn't afraid to get sexy in the clip, even if her handlers were a bit nervous that she was going too far. "There's a shot here where I'm tracking with her, and her legs are spread, and Larry [Rudolph], the manager, was like, 'Don't do that.' " Kahn said. "And she was like, 'Yes, definitely do that.' "

Oddly enough, one aspect of the video that Kahn was insistent upon was Spears' eye shadow. "One of the big things I wanted to do here, that I was just obsessed with ... I know it sounds really strange, but I wanted her to have gray eye shadow," he said. "And I think it looks really good. I remember when I was looking at the close-ups, Britney goes, 'You're really obsessed with this gray eye shadow!' and I go, 'Yes, absolutely.' But if you look at it, it just makes her eyes pop like crazy."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

18 Nov 2009

Britney's Red Catsuit For "Oops!"

Britney Spears had everyone buzzing after releasing several sexy videos from her debut album, including the pop-tart clips for " ...Baby One More Time" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy." So when Britney released the first video from her second album for "Oops!...I Did It Again," she decided not to mess with a good thing and once again worked with frequent collaborator Nigel Dick, who this time reinvented Spears as a sexy, otherworldly vixen.

" 'Oops!...I Did It Again' was the first single from her second album, so there's definitely the sense that this is Britney's second album," Dick told MTV News about the expectations surrounding the video's release in 2000.

Like the concepts for her earlier videos, Britney also had a very clear idea of what she wanted for the now iconic "Oops!" clip. "This whole idea was my idea," she told MTV in 2000. "I was like, 'I want to be on Mars, dancing on Mars.' "

But it seems that the pitch she gave Dick at the time was even more specific than just dancing on Mars. " 'I want to be in a red jumpsuit. I want to have a really cute spaceman, but there can't be any rockets,' " Dick said, recalling Spears' request for the now-unforgettable red-latex catsuit. "There was another catsuit, actually, which was fantastic, which I loved, and the night before, I was told that Britney hired this guy that worked with Michael Jackson," the director said. "And so we're going to use that catsuit. So that's the catsuit."

Spears revealed that there was a bit of a freak accident on the set. "There was a camera, and there was an overhead shot, and they were filming me and the camera fell," she said. "And it kind of knocked me out, and there was drama ... but it was fine."

Another key part of the song, when Britney starts talking about "Titanic," posed a bit of a problem for Dick, but it wasn't one Spears felt she needed to deal with. "There's a bit about the Titanic in the middle, and I was like, 'What are we going to do about that?' " he recalled, laughing. "And she says, 'Don't worry. You'll sort it out.' "

In 2000, Spears talked about why the video needed to be effects-heavy. "It's really futuristic. It's going to be the first video that I've done to have a lot of special effects," she said. "I think it's more mature. It's edgier. It's funkier. It's fun."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

17 Nov 2009

Britney To The Next Level For "Crazy"

After Britney Spears established herself as a pop-star Lolita in her video for "...Baby One More Time," the singer slowed things down a bit with her single "Sometimes." But she didn't leave her dancing shoes off for long. In the kitschy "(You Drive Me) Crazy," Britney showed the world that she's not just a sexy schoolgirl; she can be a sexy waitress too!

"Actually, the concept of the video is all my idea," Spears told MTV in 1999, adding that she thought the choreography would be "big." "It would be cool to be in a club, and we're dorky waitresses, and we break out and start dancing."

In an interview in 1998, Spears explained that she thought "Crazy" was an extension of her breakout hit, "...Baby One More Time," which makes sense, since both were written and produced by Max Martin. "It's an uptempo [song]," she said. "Kinda like '...Baby One More Time,' same feel a little. A bit of rock in it."

Nigel Dick, who also directed "...Baby One More Time," said that although it was extremely easy to work with Spears on the video, it wasn't as easy to convince Adrian Grenier to make an appearance in it. Since the song was on the soundtrack to "Drive Me Crazy," Grenier and co-star Melissa Joan Hart were supposed to be featured in the clip as well.

"The big issue is that Adrian Grenier did not want to be in the video," the director told MTV News. "So, I was given instructions to ring him up and make sure he appeared in the video. I said, 'You know what, Adrian, I just think it would be great for your career, and Britney's a great girl and she's fun to work with.' Eventually he came around."

Given that Grenier and Hart mostly just stand around and look cute in the video as Brit and company dance around them, it's unclear how much it did for their careers. But Spears clearly hoped that the large scale and quality of the dance production would give her a boost. "I honestly think this video will hopefully take me to the next level," she said in 1999.

Dick fondly recalled working with the singer on the clip, but added a little-known piece of trivia about the video. "That 'crazy' sign is still there. It was still hiding behind something," he said. "Britney came to the set completely rehearsed. Certainly whenever I worked with her, she had an extraordinary work ethic, which I was always impressed by."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

16 Nov 2009

A Look Back At Britney's First Video

In 1998, Britney Spears sauntered down the halls of high school, dressed in uniform, singing about the boy who broke her heart. "...Baby One More Time" let the world know that a new pop starlet was in town.

"I decided to try this idea that someone had thrown at me and they hated it - they absolutely hated it," the video's director, Nigel Dick, told MTV News. "So I jumped on the phone with Britney and she says, 'Well, I now I think it should be about me in school and there be lots of hot boys around,' and that was pretty much it - oh, and a bunch of dancing. And my response was, 'OK.' "

In a 1998 interview with MTV, Spears revealed that she wanted the video to reflect the lives of her fans, so she wanted to set it in a school. "The first idea we had for the video was so off the wall," she said. "I was like, 'I want something a lot of kids can relate to.' It's just a fun video."

Britney's "Lolita"-esque schoolgirl look may have resonated with kids, but it didn't exactly please their parents. And Dick gives full credit to Spears for that idea. "My idea originally was just jeans and T-shirts, and we were at the wardrobe fitting and Britney holds up the jeans and T-shirts and says, 'Wouldn't I wear a schoolgirl outfit?' " he said. "Every piece of wardrobe in the video came from Kmart, and I was told at the time not one piece of clothing in the video cost more than $17. On that level, it's real. That probably, in retrospect, is a part of its charm."

Later on, in 2000, Britney would sit down with MTV and explain why she decided on the semi-risqué fashions. "Me showing my belly? I'm from the South; you're stupid if you don't wear a sports bra [when you] go to dance class, you're going to be sweating your butt off," she explained. "It was such a wonderful experience. All these people there, working for you. I had my own trailer. It was an amazing experience."

Dick said at the time all his colleagues wondered why he would want to work on a video for a 16-year-old unknown, but he had his reasons. "My response was, 'It's a great song. I don't know anything about Britney. I never watched the "Mickey Mouse Club." She seems like a great kid and she's very enthusiastic,' " he said. "But I just love the song. It's just a great song."

When Britney sat down with MTV in 1998, she echoed the sentiment, noting that as soon as she heard it, she knew she had to record the track. "It's a song every girl can relate to," she said. "She regrets it. She wants him back."

With the release of Britney Spears: The Singles Collection, MTV News is looking back on the pop star's career through interviews with video directors, music-industry insiders and Spears herself, as she reflects on some of her greatest hits.

Source: MTV News

16 Nov 2009

The Singles Collection Out Now

Five versions of Britney Spears' The Singles Collection are now available!

1.) The Singles Collection: Digital Deluxe Version

This edition includes all 58 songs from the Ultimate Fan Box Set, and is now available on iTunes.  (See the full tracklisting.)

2.) The Singles Collection: Standard Version CD

This edition includes 17 of Britney's greatest hits, including her new #1 single, "3", and is available in stores as well as online. (See the full tracklisting.)

Buy it at:
Amazon.com
BarnesAndNoble.com
Target.com
BestBuy.com
Walmart.com
A store near you!

3.) The Singles Collection: Digital Standard Version

The same 17 tracks as the physical CD, but with "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman." Buy it on iTunes now.

4.) International Only CD+DVD

18 of Britney's greatest hits and a DVD of Britney's iconic music videos. This version is not available in the US.

5.) Digital 45s

These two-song combos are available on iTunes, in the same paired groupings as those on the 58-song tracklist.  All 29 different 45s are available on Britney's iTunes page. 

And in just 2 weeks on November 24th, the Ultimate Fan Box Set and DVD will be released!

Source: BritneySpears.com

10 Nov 2009

Download "3" Music Video

The "3" music video is now available for download on iTunes. Click here to download the video.

05 Nov 2009

Click here for previous news.