The pop icon of the year 2000 was, hands down, Britney Spears. She was able to embark on an exciting musical career that made her become a household name and instant celebrity with her catchy songs along with other controversies that came with her fame as a singer.

She is a Grammy Award-winning American pop singer, dancer, actress, as well as an author and songwriter. She is best known for several of her best selling studio albums, entertaining music videos as well as songs such as “Baby One More Time”, “Oops!...I Did It Again”, “I'm a Slave 4 U”, and “Toxic” just to name a few.

Britney Spears has been able to sell over 31 million albums in the U.S. alone. This achievement have ranked Britney as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history. She was also able to sell over seventy-six million records worldwide.

Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981 in McComb, Mississippi. Her first taste of the limelight was as a member of the Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990's. After that she took a five-year break from entertainment and came back at the forefront of the pop music scene in late 1998. this time, she released a debut single with the hit song “Baby One More Time”.

It's music video became a fixture on MTV and made the song an international success, going number two on the UK charts as well as topping the music charts on many countries. The single earned platinum sales and catapulted Britney Spears into instant fame. The subsequent album of the same title released on the same year also topped the charts in many countries as well as in the US and was a certified 14x platinum.

Britney also did a successful run on a live concert tour that became sold out dates. In a span of just a year, Britney became one of pop music's biggest stars. She was able to take home as well as nominated for a number of awards from several prestigious award giving bodies including the Grammy's. The following year, she released her second album, “Oops! I Did It Again” which further brought her worldwide acclaim.

The album debuted at number one in the U.S. and the song of the same title was able to break a record for the most radio station adds in a single day. “Oops! I Did It Again” quickly became a top ten hit in the U.S. and was the number one single in other countries in the following weeks after it was released. The album was able to sell over 1.3 million units during its first week, establishing a record for the biggest first-week sales of an album made by a female artist.

In the early 2000's, Spears' success as a singer and her eventual fame led to other lucrative opportunities including high-profile advertising deals as well as easy entry into other forms of entertainment media, including film and reality television. Along with her success and fame, she also became a focus of a number of controversies that became a part of her musical career. It was somewhat inevitable considering the media attention that she was getting because of her new found fame in the music industry.

Controversies in Britney's life began when she graced the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in a sexually suggestive pose while still a young 17 year old. Other controversies also came up over her romantic relationships especially with then boyfriend Justin Timberlake of N Sync. Her live concerts were also criticized because they were becoming more sexually-charged performances despite having an audience of underage fans.

Other controversies involving Britney included her sudden marriage to a childhood friend and the subsequent divorce filed the very next day. Even her marriage with Kevin Federline that ended in divorce were not without its share of controversies. But despite all the controversies, Britney Spears became one of the pop icons to emerge in the 21st Century. She became a notable trend setter, inspiring a number of fashion fads at the height of her fame aside from her numerous best selling albums.

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