Britney Spears: Stronger Than Yesterday

Following a three-year stint in Vegas, Britney Spears has risen back to the top of her game – with a new album to prove it. In her only UK interview, she tells Louise Gannon why trusting her own instincts is paying off

- Louise Gannon

A heatwave may be burning through the City of Angels, slowing the frantic pace of the gym-fit hikers and melting Frappuccinos left, right and centre, but it turns out to be the ideal day to meet Britney Spears. Her new single – Make Me – dropped online hours before our interview. By the time she woke up, the buzz on the track she co-wrote was deafening, and she was the number one downloaded artist on iTunes. ‘Can I scream?’ she asks, excitedly. ‘I mean, you put something out there. You have literally no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I loved it, I took my time on it, I was proud of it, but it could all still blow up in my face. And then I got the best reaction I could possibly imagine. I’m not just happy. I’m like, “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”’

It’s good to see Britney happy. The small-town girl from Kentwood, Louisiana, who got her first break as a Disney Mouseketeer at the age of 11 and went on to be the biggest pop star on the planet when she was still in her teens, has had a life that has sometimes felt like a roller-coaster ride. The first time I interviewed her she was 18 and at the dizzying height of fame. It was 1998, and her debut hit, Baby One More Time – released when she was just 16 – had sold 10 million copies (it remains one of the biggest selling singles to date). ‘I try to act tough but I’m not,’ she said at the time. ‘I do want all of this but it’s not always easy.’

Two years later, when we caught up at her third album launch in New York, she was still trying to navigate the swirling seas of celebrity. ‘Sometimes I feel just completely overwhelmed,’ she admitted. ‘I have lots of incredible in my life, but no normal.’