… And comes in at number 5!

5. Blackout – Britney Spears (SonyBMG, 2007)

The title was pertinent enough — Spears had shaved her head and was in and out of rehab when this vocally scrunched, harshly metallic album appeared. No one expected it to be this good.

Check out the full list here.

It might seem rather odd that this new collection features fewer tracks than 2004’s greatest hits collection, My Prerogative. But though trimmer, this set represents the best disc yet from arguably the biggest pop artist of the past decade, packing more hits (and bigger sales figures) into the equation than any other festive-period best-of. Put simply, this is the definitive Britney album.

Because, after all, who needs one of her ‘proper’ albums – sets featuring the singer’s three or four hits of the campaign in question padded out with a smorgasbord of filler material. They’re out there because the industry model demanded it, though with release strategies and marketing budgets evolving and fluctuating respectively, it’d be no surprise if artists of Spears’ ilk ultimately stopped producing long-players altogether. If Ash can do it, then…

While her career hit the skids in the middle of the decade – no need to elaborate on that here – Britney’s comeback with 2007’s Gimme More and Piece of Me, and the following year’s Womanizer, was phenomenal. With the singer assumed lost to a life of perennial befuddlement, expectations for her post-wilderness material were low. So when Gimme More proved to be every bit as repeat-play friendly as peak-period hits I’m a Slave 4 U, Boys and the Grammy winning Toxic, all predictions for what might follow went out the window.

Seven of these 18 tracks are from Spears’ 2007-‘til-now phase, and the excitable energy of If U Seek Amy, Circus, Radar and recent stateside chart-topper 3 comes filtered through admirable nods to electro artists and production houses of utmost respect. While her songs might have matured lyrically, often lacking the comparative innocence of her breakthrough hits and swapping innuendo for outright smuttiness, compositionally they’re astonishingly fresh. Even Girls Aloud were too squeaky clean to do justice to Womanizer when they covered it, such is Spears’ unashamed directness (though Sugababes could probably pull it off these days).

Spears’ revival in the last two years is evidence that even the most easily pigeonholed artist can eschew expectation. After all, when you’re seen as having nothing left to lose, anything with a little bite is going to leave an impression. And these songs don’t just make a mark, lingering in the memory – they are essential pieces of the past ten years of pop history, and deserve better than dismissal by so-called discerning listeners.

Source: BBC

As I promised, here’s a preview clip of one of the remixes off the “Circus” promo remixes CD. Hopefully they will add these mixes to iTunes in a couple of weeks to boost sales.

Click play to listen:

Britney was spotted at the International Dance Academy in Hollywood yesterday (looking HOT!) and was there to audition dancers for her upcoming music video, according to X17:

Britney was at International Dance Academy in Hollywood Tuesday afternoon. Apparently, she and her managers were looking for dancers. Hopefully she spotted some fresh talent.

Britney went BACK to the International Dance Academy after taking some time off between auditioning dancers. After returning to the dance academy from The Mondrian Hotel, she looked at a few more dancers, some of whom we spoke with as they were leaving. Also, Brit’s bodyguard’s car mysteriously got a ding, and was also the source of one man’s rage for blocking the alley.

From an article from MTV News:

Just over a year ago, Britney Spears made headlines around the world when she experienced an embarrassing meltdown at an OK! photo shoot, ruining thousands of dollars of designer clothing and doing further damage to a once brilliant career that had already been tarnished by late-night pantyless parties with Paris Hilton, multiple trips to rehab and the infamous public head-shaving incident.

Now, in an exclusive interview with OK!, the pop superstar is finally going on the record to talk openly about her kids, her parents and her career.

In addition to the exclusive photos and interview with Britney, her father Jamie Spears, who has been helping to guide his daughter back to a normal life, speaks openly to OK! about his relationship with Britney and his feelings about her ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Check back with OKmagazine.com on Wednesday morning for your first, revealing look at OK!’s interview with Hollywood’s most controversial superstar.

Source: OK! Magazine

OMG !!!!! It’s finally happening!

Britney’s “Piece Of Me” video is already nominated for Best Pop Video and Best Female Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, and how you can vote for her to be nominated in the Best Dancing In A Video category.

This is actually one award I don’t want Britney to win, the dancing in the video wasn’t spectacular so I’d find it a bit strange if she won this, after not winning in the past for masterpieces like “Toxic”.

If you want Britney to be nominated, you can vote here.

MTV, who have the exclusive of the new Pussycat Dolls video, “When I Grow Up,” are reporting that Britney’s appearance has been edited out of the final cut. “A spokesperson for the Dolls could not be reached for comment on why Spears was not included in the video. The group’s members did not elaborate on the edit during the taping of “FNMTV” Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Spears was filmed last week driving in a car for her cameo, though an unnamed set source told US Magazine she did not interact with the group or dance while on set. “They all wave at each other as they are passing in traffic — that is it. Of course, Britney looks hot and blonde. It is a very short sequence, but [Britney] had a lot of fun with it. Britney really likes the Dolls’ music and when she saw them on the MTV [Movie Awards], she was totally down to do the video,” the source told the magazine.

Neither Spears’ nor the Dolls’ spokespeople would comment on the shoot at the time and attempts to reach Spears’ representatives on Thursday (June 12) about the now-shelved cameo were unsuccessful.”

I have wanted to do this for a while but never had the time, so I’m going to attempt to do it now!

I’m a Spanish student so it will give me some writing practice if I update the site in Spanish too. I don’t have time to update it all the time but I was thinking of just including official and important news.

What do you think of the idea? You can check out the temporary Spanish page here.

Thanks to our affiliate Britney.cl for the pic!

Here’s the new layout, I hope you all like it!  There hasn’t been much Britney news lately but it’s nice to give the site a bit of an update once in a while.

Thanks (again) to Marius for making it, I’m really pleased with how it turned out!  Leave a comment to say what you think…

Britney’s 16 year old sister, Jamie Lynn, has just revealed that she’s pregnant (!!!!!!)

Come back in a few minutes for more info…

The producers of Britney’s latest perfume “Believe” are holding a charity auction on eBay.  Included in the auction is an iPod signed by Britney!

Check it out here.