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Spears
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Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American pop music singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author. Spears has sold over 83 million records worldwide according to Zomba Label Group,[1] and has sold over 75 million albums worldwide.[2] The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) ranks her as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history, having sold 31 million albums in the U.S.[3]
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There's no denying that these recent chapters of Spears' tale have been riveting in their own way. Her story is so rich that it might serve as a text on which to base a master's thesis about the projections of sexuality on a female body. (Lips on her arm? Bubble-gum cross on her hip? A shorn head and sweats on a girl who used to writhe onstage clad only in a nude body stocking and an albino snake?
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In May 2004 Spears had a Hebrew tattoo (מהש) inked into the nape of her neck. She was under the impression that it meant 'new era', while a more scholarly reading would be 'protection'. A source said, 'She's taken Kabbalah pretty seriously and this was a big deal for her.' Ironically, in getting a tattoo, Spears has committed one of the worst Jewish taboos. This echoes a similar incident in 2003 when Spears was informed by her friend, actress Taryn Manning, that her hip tattoo (the Japanese Kanji character 奇) read 'strange' rather than 'mysterious'.
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Two names Britney Spears has already probably heard enough of by now: " Tiffany" and "Debbie Gibson." At a mere 17 years old, it's more than likely that Spears has never even heard a tune by the two late-'80s teen-queen rivals. Actually, it's really only Spears's youthfulness and her gender that she holds in common with Tif and Deb. MORE
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In March, Spears embarked on her fourth world tour, 'The Onyx Hotel Tour', which grossed over $34 million dollars and was seen by over 600,000 fans in North America and Europe. Meanwhile, the album's third single, 'Everytime', was starting to receive radio play. While the song only reached No. 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, it was a No. 1 hit overseas in such countries as the UK and Australia. In June, she cancelled the remaining dates of her tour after injuring her knee during the filming of a video for her fourth single, 'Outrageous'. Shortly after returning from hospital, Spears, 22, announced her engagement to dancer Kevin Federline, 26. Federline was formerly linked with actress Shar Jackson, with whom he has two children.
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By 2003-04, the media saturation of Spears and her fellow teeny-bopper idols (including Aguilera, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC) resulted in the beginnings of the inevitable backlash, with the singer making news more for her personal escapades than professional activities. In a move many saw as desperate for all parties involved, Spears made headlines when, during an appearance on the 2003 “MTV Music Video Awards,†she opened the show in a musical sequence opposite her idol Madonna and her reported rival Aguilera, in which she shared a lip-lock with the Material Girl. That was followed by the release of her fourth album, In the Zone, in which the singer further pushed provocative boundaries in an obvious attempt to establish herself as a grown-up artist and to capitalize on her always buzzed-about sexpot charms. The album received a critical drubbing in most quarters and did not entirely live up to commercial expectations. The disc still provided hit singles, including the ubiquitous dance floor favorite "Toxic" and its controversial, overtly sexy music video, which was briefly relegated to late-night-only airings on MTV. Oddly, during the promotional period for the album, Spears appeared in many increasingly provocative, skin-baring photographs, including a recreation of a 1960s-era Angie Dickinson shot with her bare bottom peaking out of a strategically stretched sweater for the cover of Esquire, yet she claimed in interviews she did not approve the shots, still trying to project – albeit, unconvincingly at this point – an innocent, girl-next-door persona.
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