This is a story of the loss of control, imbalances, of addictions. But it is also a story of redemption. 10 years ago Britney sent us postcards from the edge and now we read them like this.
Today, the phrase "if Britney could get through 2007, you can get through anything" is a meme. An advertising slogan, a way of life, a self-pitying mantra. But those of us who witnessed that descent into unprecedented hell that almost had to be built for her, know that it could have been worse. Much worse. When ten years have passed since the most famous skinhead in the history of pop culture, it is worth reviewing that spiral of self-destruction with the same stupor with which we witnessed a decade ago. Because the astonishing thing is not that a 23-year-old woman went through such a via Crucis photographed in real-time. The amazing thing is that she lived to tell about it.
January 1, 2004
During a laugh-out-loud New Year's Eve party, Britney marries her high school friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas. Cold sweats are drenching the singer's team: Britney hasn't signed any kind of prenuptial agreement and the (inevitable) divorce could end with Alexander taking a delicious check. After 55 hours of screaming and people jumping out of windows in a panic [dramatization], the marriage is annulled. Spears' representatives claim that she "lacked understanding of her actions" of her.
September 14, 2004
Britney gives birth to her first child, Sean Preston. The father is Kevin Federline, a dancer affectionately nicknamed "meat mast" by his friends, who also leaves behind a still-pregnant girlfriend. As a tribute to her baby, Spears releases a single with the prophetic title "Someday I Will Understand".
October 6, 2004
Britney marries Kevin Federline. The boyfriend's gang wears white tracksuits with "pimp daddy" (literally, pimp daddy) embedded in the back of it. Britney's bridesmaids, a pink fleece tracksuit with "S- mama."
May 17, 2005
Britney & Kevin: Chaotic (chaotic), a reality documentary about the couple's life, is released. In it, we could see how her favorite hobby is walking on the beach and smoking. The critics destroy the show, questioning the benefit it can bring to Spears's image: she is portrayed as an empty brat unable to subordinate phrases that she is obsessed with herself. The ultimate intention of the show is to launch Federline's career as a rapper, under the name of K-Fed. He passes up the opportunity to trademark the stage name "meat mast".
February 6, 2006
Britney is photographed driving with her baby on her lap. With one hand she grabs the steering wheel, and with the other Sean Preston. The social services associations became angry, and the singer (who sang little at this stage) defended herself by clarifying that she loves her son and that she was only trying to protect him after he began to cry frightened by a horde of paparazzi.
September 12, 2006
Nearly a year after her first delivery, Britney proves she doesn't understand quarantine by giving birth to her second child, Jaden James.
November 24
Spears is (very) photographed partying with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, a picture that makes pop dreams come true that we didn't even know we had. Britney has just divorced Kevin Federline, citing irreconcilable differences. The singer's personal life seems to hit rock bottom, and she finds it impossible to imagine that she still has more pits to fall into. But she still has the ordeal left. She is still in 2007.
February 15, 2007
Britney Spears enters a rehab center. She leaves him after spending less than 24 hours in it. Her ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, is very amused: during a concert he ends the song _What Goes Around (Comes Around) _, dedicated to her breakup with Britney, mockingly singing the chorus of Rehab, by Amy Winehouse.
February 16, 2007
The day after her rehabilitation feint, Britney shaves her head and writes a page (one of the most disturbing) in her collective imagination. The hairdresser says that Spears entered the establishment and asked her to shave him because her extensions were too tight. Faced with the refusal of the beautician, Britney herself took the razor and shaved to zero. His eyes didn't seem to look anywhere in particular. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she began to cry. The singer's hair reaches one million euros on eBay until the website chooses to cancel her bid due to the impossibility of proving that the hair belongs to Spears.
February 23, 2007
Spears gets out of her car and attacks the harassing paparazzi with an umbrella. Days later she apologizes, saying that she was preparing for a role in a movie and got carried away by the character. Britney has not appeared in a movie since 2002. That same year, she refused to record the song Umbrella ("umbrella") to avoid the easy joke. The single was number 1 worldwide and would make Rihanna a star.
September 9, 2007
The singer presents her new single, Gimme More, at the MTV Awards. Staring into space, unable to follow the choreography without looking at the ground, and (both of which could have been avoided) an unflattering sequined bikini and the cheapest hair extensions in all of Los Angeles, Britney Spears stumbles into a zombie parody of the scenic beast she once was. The humiliation takes on shades of crucifixion at the town fair when the film intersperses shots of Rihanna laughing out loud and Justin Timberlake looking at the camera pretending to be Beauty.
October 5, 2007
The video for Gimme More is released, in which Britney circles endlessly around a stripper pole. The only thing she's wearing on her is a mini jacket, panties, torn fishnet stockings, and clearly wrongly prescribed medication. She smiles delightedly.
October 25, 2007
The fifth (and according to many, the best) album of the singer, Blackout ("blackout") is published. Everything indicates that she will break the record of becoming the first person to place five consecutive albums at number 1 on the American charts. However, Billboard (the company that manages these charts) decides to modify a rule to allow The Eagles' album, Long Road Out Of Eden, to unseat Blackout. Britney, therefore, remains without a record. The following week, Billboard returns to leave the rules as they were.
December 17, 2007
Britney learns from some paparazzi that her sister Jamie-Lynn is pregnant. "No, she's not." When the (remember, strangers) photographers confirm that it's true, Spears bursts into tears. The paparazzi jump on top of her from her car to take photos of her, preventing her from moving forward.
January 20, 2008
The firm Louis Vuitton denounces Britney for using an upholstery with the logo of the brand without her consent. Britney probably never found out about this, because it was the least of her problems.
January 31, 2008
After a visit from her children, Britney refuses to let Sean Preston and Jaden James return to her father. When the police arrive, they consider that the singer is under the influence of an illegal substance. Justice rules that she must be hospitalized, and that her regulated visits are suspended indefinitely. Spears is admitted to a psychiatric hospital under code 5140. This procedure dictates that a law enforcement officer can confine a citizen (even against his will) to treatment if he considers that he might have a mental disorder that endangers his own life or that of those around him. The judge also stipulates that Britney will be legally a ward of her father, James, and her lawyer. Both would have full access to the singer's fortune and properties. Months later, justice would decree that this guardianship be permanent.
March 24, 2008
Britney appears in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. It is the most watched of the series. The singer is back with her first manager (and according to her fans, the only person who cares about her), Larry Rudolph. The moment of resurrection has arrived.
September 7, 2008
A year after that decadent performance (which today is still almost impossible to find), Britney returns to the MTV awards. On the way to the event, she is told that the broadcast of the gala will be preceded by her performances in previous years. "Last year too?" Britney asks distraught. No, not that one. This time she won't be performing, but she opens the ceremony with a comedy skit alongside Jonah Hill. The night ends with three victories for her, including the best video of the year. In an interview, Britney is delighted, but she also believes that she has better videos than Piece of me. That was the first time that Britney won an MTV award, despite having given us cultural landmarks like Baby one more time or Toxic. The whole world is relieved to see Britney's life back on track, so much so that we don't care sly bought these three awards are.
