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In a new eight-part series for 主播大秀 Radio 4, Pandora Sykes traces Britney Spears’ incredible life: from her hardscrabble childhood in rural Louisiana, to her coronation as the inaugural pop princess of the internet, through to a young mother on trial by the paparazzi.

Through Pandora’s painstakingly in-depth research, we’ve discovered some fascinating facts about the most talked about woman in music.

1. Britney was selected from 20,000 hopefuls to become one of 20 Mousketeers on Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club

When she was just nine, her mother, Lynne, drove eight hours to Atlanta, Georgia so that her daughter could audition for the Mickey Mouse Club, a daily variety show for tweens and teens on the Disney Channel. Britney wowed the execs but was so young they told her to come back in a few years’ time. However, it wasn’t a wasted journey. She was spotted and signed by a top children’s talent agency.

Britney’s first ever performance fee was $50 from an arts and crafts show in Vacherie, two hours from Louisiana. Then in December 1992, Britney was selected from 20,000 hopefuls to become one of 20 young Mousketeers.

Lynne, 11-year-old Britney and her infant sister Jamie Lynn relocated to Florida where the show was recorded. They shared an apartment complex with fellow Mousketeers Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, and their families. The young stars spent their downtime together playing computer games or swimming in the communal pool. Their mothers became friends too. Although Britney was paid well, Lynne said the parents never took any of her earnings, so money was tight. She even had to borrow from Justin’s mum in order to fly home for her own mother’s funeral.

2. Natalie Portman replaced Britney as the understudy for the character of Tina Denmark in the Off-Broadway show Ruthless!

Before her big break with Disney, Lynne upped sticks with Britney and her newborn baby sister, Jamie Lynn, and moved into a tiny apartment in New York’s theatre district so that Britney could attend the Professional Performing Arts School. They shuttled between there and Louisiana for the next three summers. It wasn’t always easy for Britney and Lynne, away from their friends and the rest of their family.

Shortly after placing runner up on national TV show Star Search, Britney’s first agent rang Lynne to tell her that the producers of the Off-Broadway show Ruthless! were looking for a child triple threat – someone who can dance, sing and act – to play the understudy of the character Tina Denmark. Britney got the job, but after nights and nights of waiting in the wings, and just one appearance on stage, Britney asked her mum if they could go home. The production replaced her with another young actress: Natalie Portman.

3. Kentwood, Louisiana boasts a world record for the most people twerking simultaneously: 406

Britney grew up in the working-class town of Kentwood, Louisiana, a state in the American deep south. It boasts a world record for the most people twerking simultaneously (406). And it also has an annual frog festival. But what it’s known for now, of course, is producing one of the world’s most successful pop stars. The town sports a hot pink sign welcoming people to the hometown of Britney Spears, and even has its own Britney Spears day, on April 24th.

Steve Dennis, author of Britney biography “Inside the Dream”, describes Kentwood as “the boondocks of America. It’s not a wealthy town by any stretch of the imagination. It is true bible belt.” He says, “When you stand in the middle of Kentwood and you zoom out, you start to understand the scale of the obscurity from which Britney was plucked, to have the life she’s now got.” Britney has great affection and respect for life in Louisiana. She always thought she’d end up living and raising her kids there.

4. One photographer on “the team Britney Beat”, Nick Stern, describes how he lasted only one week before the aggressive tactics of other paparazzi led him to quit

Between 2001 and 2008, Britney was the most searched term on the Yahoo search engine, bar 2004 (when she lost out to Paris Hilton.) She was followed by more paparazzi than any celebrity had ever been. Paps flew over her car in helicopters, drove bumper to bumper behind her, jumped out of bushes, crouched at her feet and even rolled over her car to snatch a snap of the pop star. The money they could earn selling celebrity pictures was greater than it had ever been, and Britney was the golden goose.

Nick Stern lasted only a week on what he calls “the team Britney beat” before the aggressive tactics of his fellow photographers caused him to quit. “I went to an incident once and a photographer returned to their car and one of their tyres had gone down or been slashed,” he recalls. He says fights were commonplace between photographers. “You can understand why when an agency would earn thousands, hundreds of thousands, for an image,” he says.

5. Nigel Dick, the director for “Oops I Did It Again”, thought the video was too provocative

Nigel Dick directed Britney’s first music video, for “Baby One More Time”. Initially, he had reservations about the high school theme: “I was just very nervous that, you know, this was going to be her first video. She’s a sixteen-year-old girl and she wants to be in a school uniform.” But when it was released on MTV in the States, he admits, “the world went manic.” The video cemented Britney as a new pop icon.

Nigel was back to direct the video for “Oops I Did It Again”. Britney wore an iconic red latex catsuit to fit with a sexy, space age theme. And the look, finished off with blue eye shadow and poker straight hair, has since made pop culture history. But Nigel had reservations once again. A controversial Rolling Stone cover had recently hit the stands showing a 17-year-old, underwear-clad Britney, in her childhood bedroom, hugging a Teletubby. There’d been a backlash, and Nigel didn’t want to add to the noise. But Britney’s record label pushed on. “They were just like, ‘She wants to wear that, that's fine.’ And I'm going, ‘Are we sure we want to go down this path?’” Nigel recalls. “I do not have any control over somebody's personal life. I don't want that control. That's not my job. But if I am directing somebody in a piece of film then I want it to be appropriate. And I was a bit concerned that for a young girl, she was going to a hundred and ten when ninety-five was going to be quite adequate.”

This would be the last time that Nigel directed the star. Later, he wondered if voicing his concerns may have been the reason that he was never booked again.

6. Despite being their poster girl, Britney had not won a single VMA in her decade-long career until 2008, when she scooped up three

Britney had a rollercoaster relationship with the MTV Video Music Awards. In 2001 she caused controversy with animal rights activists for performing Slave 4 U on stage next to a caged tiger. In 2003 there was the infamous on-stage kiss with Madonna. And a “lacklustre” performance of “Gimme More” in 2007 was widely criticised – although many argued she should not have been asked to perform when she was clearly so vulnerable.

But, a year after that torn-apart performance, she launched her new album “Blackout”. “Circus”. And when she got back on stage at the VMAs, the result was a standing ovation. Britney was applauded for picking up the pieces of her shattered life and making art out of the shards. Despite being their poster girl, Britney had not won a single VMA in her decade-long career. Now here she was, scooping up three for “Piece of Me”.

7. “Sweet Dreams My LA Ex” was initially written for Britney

“Sweet Dreams My LA Ex” was written for Britney, as an answer song to Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River”. But her record label reportedly rejected it because of the “unwritten rule” against songs about Britney’s personal life. (Ex-S Club 7 member, Rachel Stevens, released it instead).

Conversely, Britney hadn’t actually been the first choice for the song that propelled her on to the world stage – “Baby One More Time”. The Backstreet Boys, TLC and 5ive had all rejected the song by Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin, despite his legendary status in the music industry. (Martin has written hits for Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Usher amongst others. The only people to have had more Top 10 hits are John Lennon and Paul McCartney.) But when the song made its way to the offices of Britney’s label, they were swift to hitch it to their new teenage signing. 20 years later, it’s still one of the biggest selling singles of all time, with over ten million copies sold.

8. In England and Wales, a deputyship is the nearest thing to a conservatorship – but a key difference is that you cannot draw a salary from it

A probate conservatorship protects someone who is deemed unable to fulfil their own personal needs. Britney’s conservatorship covers both her personal and financial affairs. The nearest equivalent we have in England and Wales is known as a “deputyship”: when an individual is deemed to “lack mental capacity” to manage their own finances, a “deputy” is appointed by the Court of Protection on their behalf. A key difference between the two is that you cannot draw a salary from a deputyship, but Britney’s conservators are not only paid a salary, they reportedly also earn a percentage of her income, from her concert residencies. The New York Times reported in June 2021 that Jamie Spears receives around $16,000 a month in his role as conservator, double the monthly allowance Britney claims that she receives from the conservatorship.

Since Britney was placed under her conservatorship in 2008, she has been represented by a court-appointed lawyer. But in a public statement to the court last month, Spears requested the opportunity to choose her own legal team. A Los Angeles judge has recently ruled in her favour: the singer has now appointed her own lawyer in her fight to end the controversial legal arrangement.

Listen to the box-set Pieces of Britney now on 主播大秀 Sounds.