Britney Spears says she'll never return to the music industry
Pop star Britney Spears said she will “never return” to the music industry, shutting down claims that she’s working on a new studio album with other artists.
“Just so we’re clear most of the news is trash!!!” Spears said in an Instagram post on Jan. 4, as she shared a photo of Italian painter Guido Reni’s “Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist.”
“They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry !!!”
The 42-year-old noted that she’s a ghostwriter, who had written over 20 songs for other people over the past two years.
“When I write, I write for fun or I write for other people !!!” she said.
She also talked about her autobiography The Woman in Me, dismissing claims that it was released without her approval.
“[T]hat’s far from the truth,” she said. “[H]ave you read the news these days ??? I’m so LOVED and blessed !!!”
Spears found early fame in the children’s show The Mickey Mouse Club alongside future stars Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera.
At 16, she became one of the most famous women on the planet with 1998's iconic song, Baby One More Time, which sold 10 million copies and became one of the biggest hits of all time.
Eight more albums followed, often selling in the millions, including Oops!... I Did It Again and In the Zone, combined with spectacular world tours.
Growing up in the media glare, relentlessly sexualized by her marketing from a young age, Spears lost her footing in 2007.
She had a highly public breakdown in which she shaved her head and was filmed attacking a paparazzi's car. In 2008, she was placed under conservatorship by her father Jamie Spears following the incident.
Conservatorship is an arrangement in which a court orders an individual to manage another individual’s financial and personal affairs amid physical or mental limitations.
Spears' conservatorship ended on Nov. 12, 2021, or after 14 years.
In October 2023, Spears released The Woman in Me, which chronicles her journey through "fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope," according to its website.