Pop
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Britney Spears has been through a lot, from her 13-year conservatorship to her strained relationships with estranged family members. But one of the most difficult times in her life was her breakup with Justin Timberlake, as revealed in her new memoir The Woman In Me.
The pop star and *NSYNC band member dated from 1999 to 2002, until Timberlake allegedly broke things off with Spears via text message. The time immediately after was dark for the “Toxic” singer, who writes in her memoir she “barely left the house” following the couple’s split.
“When Justin began making his first solo album, Justified, he started being very standoffish with me,” Spears recalled in her autobiographical book, released Tuesday (Oct. 24). “I think that was because he decided to use me as ammunition for his record, and so it made it awkward for him to be around me, staring at him with all that affection and devotion.”
“Ultimately, he ended our relationship by text message while I was on the set for the video for the ‘Overprotected’ remix by Darkchild,” she continued. “After seeing the message as I sat in my trailer between takes, I had to go back out and dance.”
Spears added that the breakup left her “devastated.” “When I say, devastated, I mean, I could barely speak for months,” she wrote. “Whenever anyone asked me about him, all I can do is cry. I don’t know if I was clinically in shock, but it felt that way.”
In her long-awaited memoir, the “Sometimes” artist dropped quite a few bombshells about her high-profile romance with her former Mickey Mouse Club castmate, beyond the depression she faced following their split. While they were together, for instance, she said she got an abortion because Timberlake wasn’t ready for fatherhood; she also admitted to having cheated on her then-boyfriend once with choreographer Wade Robson after finding out about the “Cry Me a River” singer’s alleged affairs with other women.
Those struggles didn’t stop Spears from loving Timberlake, though — even after they called it quits. While she was still grieving the relationship, Timberlake brought her a framed handwritten letter that she still keeps under her bed, the Princess of Pop shares in her book. “And at the end it said — it makes me want to cry to think about it — ‘I can’t breathe without you.’ Those are the last words in it,” she writes.
“It almost felt like I was suffocating,” she adds, “like I couldn’t breathe after all that happened. The thing is, though, even after I saw him and read the letter, I didn’t come out of the trance. He did all that, he came there to see me and I still couldn’t talk — to him or to anybody.”
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Taylor Swift has definitely met the parents, and it seems like they are on Team Taylor. After Swift attended her fourth Kansas City Chiefs game in support of reported boyfriend Travis Kelce over the weekend, the tight end’s dad gave the singer said she belongs with them.
Speaking to People magazine, Trav’s dad, Ed Kelce, said that Swift is a “very, very sweet, very charming, down-to-earth young woman.” As the NFL continues to double-down on the unexpected bounty of having a pop superstar in the family suite almost every weekend, the cameras caught Swift chatting with Ed Kelce during the team’s Oct. 12 game, with the family patriarch saying he found her “very genuine” during their first meeting.
In fact, despite having the No. 1 movie at the box office for a second weekend in a row with her Eras Tour film, Ed Kelce said he noticed something “very special” and endearing about the pop princess the first time he met her.
“We’re sitting in the suite, she gets up and in the front room, she gets up to go get a drink or something and she starts picking up empty bottles, cans, plates that are scattered around,” he said. “Because in the suites everybody gets stuff and you empty it down wherever you can.”
The small gesture meant a lot, but it also revealed something else to Ed Kelce about Swift that was even more telling. “I’m just thinking, I don’t think she got the diva memo,” he said of Swift’s impeccable manners. “She didn’t get the spoiled musician. She doesn’t know how to pull that off. And that really to me said a whole lot… She’s very smart. I mean, very. That comes through right away.”
Swift has already met Travis’ mom, Donna, who she sat next to at the team’s Sept. 24 game, followed a week later by a shot of Taylor with her arm around Donna during the Chiefs’-Jets game at MetLife Stadium. On Sunday, she made it to her fourth Chiefs game, where she showed off her secret handshake with Brittany Mahomes, wife of KC QB Patrick Mahomes. More importantly, she was spotted holding hands and dropping a kiss on Kelce’s cheek after KC’s 31-17 roll over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Last weekend, Swift and Kelce basically confirmed their long-rumored romance by holding hands on their way to the Oct. 14 SNL afterparty, just after they each made cameos on the show’s season 49 premiere. The next day, they grabbed dinner at a restaurant in the West Village, hand-in-hand again; to date neither Swift nor Kelce have confirmed their reported romance.
Nikki Glaser had her priorities set on Taylor Swift this summer. The comedian joined The Kelly Clarkson show as a guest on Monday (Oct. 23), where Clarkson immediately asked her if it was true that she spent $25,000 on tickets to Swift’s Eras tour. “I just want to say that it was a conscious decision […]
The Kelly Clarkson show is back, which means the superstar’s popular Kellyoke segment has also returned. On Monday (Oct. 23), Clarkson kicked off the week with a powerful performance of Christina Aguilera’s 2002 hit, “Fighter.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Dressed in a full leather outfit, […]
Taylor Swift notched her 10th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Oct. 28, 2023 with “Cruel Summer,” a longtime fan favorite track from her 2019 album, Lover. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news With “Cruel Summer,” Swift joins an elite club of artists […]
As Britney Spears gears up for the release of her debut memoir The Woman in Me, her breakthrough hit, “…Baby One More Time,” just hit a major milestone. The track turned 25 on Monday (Oct. 23) and was celebrated on Instagram by its producer, Max Martin, who shared how it changed the trajectory of both his and Spears’ career, as well as pop music as a whole.
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“On October 23, 1998, @britneyspears released her debut single ‘…Baby One More Time’ in the U.S.A, the pop classic that became No 1 in every country where it was released, and that launched Britney’s career as an international pop icon,” Martin wrote, captioning a series of images from Spears’ debut era.
He continued, “After exactly 25 years to the day, so much has been said about this masterpiece of a song — the artists who could have recorded it, its controversial lyrics, its iconic music video, the record-breaking sales figures, how much it has changed the landscape of pop music and defined a new era, and so on. So this time, I wanted to celebrate ‘…Baby One More Time’ for what it is, that is a pure piece of art and 3:30 minutes of sonic bliss.”
As evidenced by the song’s two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the Swedish record producer added that “‘Baby’ is one of these songs that you just can’t ignore, whether you are a pop music lover or not,” and proceeded to give an eight-part review of the song as if he listened to it for the first time. In his review, the hitmaker gushed over the song’s sad undertones and delighted over its little moments, like Spears’ vocal runs at 0:27 (“Go oh oh-oOoOh”), and said it was “a reminder so much fun is around the corner even if the lyrics seem sad at first listen.” Of the then-budding star’s “cooing,” Martin called Spears’ inflections “pure pop heaven.”
“…Baby One More Time,” as Martin noted, singlehandedly launched Spears’ career as a pop star. Propelled in part by the success of its single of the same name, the …Baby One More Time album enjoyed six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent nearly two years (103 weeks) on the chart.
See Martin reflect on “…Baby One More Time” and give his review of the track below.
Taylor Swift‘s “Cruel Summer” has turned into a pretty sweet autumn, as her fan-favorite Lover track rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Oct. 28, 2023 — four years after its initial release. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news In a video posted […]
In a different cinematic universe, Britney Spears could have played Allie in The Notebook. The pop superstar’s audition tape for the iconic romance film based on the Nicholas Sparks novel was released by The Daily Mail on Monday (Oct. 23), in which Spears breaks down in tears while reading a particularly emotional scene. While Rachel […]