Britney Spears plans comeback at MTV Awards
Thu Sep 6, 2007 3:38PM EDT
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears will open the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday in what promoters are calling the fallen pop princess' long-awaited comeback.
MTV said on Thursday that Spears, 25, who has been a frequent tabloid fixture due to a tumultuous divorce and erratic behavior, will be performing her new song "Gimme More" at the awards show in Las Vegas.
Spears released "Gimme More," her first new song in years, on the Web last week. The song is a clubby dance track produced by Danja, a protege of hit-maker Timbaland, and opens with the line "It's Britney, bitch!" MTV said it was a track from an album due to be released on November 13.
Rumors have persisted that Spears, who is trying to resurrect a career that made her the world's highest profile pop star just a few years ago, would perform at the show.
"After weeks of mind-blowing media speculation, MTV confirms today that Britney Spears will be opening the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards," MTV said in a statement that billed the performance as her "long awaited comeback."
The singer put her performing career on hold for marriage in 2004 and two children in swift succession.
But her personal life careened downhill after she filed for divorce from husband Kevin Federline in November 2006 and was frequently spotted partying at Hollywood nightspots.
In the past 12 months, she has been photographed without panties under her miniskirts, shaved her head bald, attacked a car with an umbrella, and entered rehab in Malibu.
In May, she performed under a pseudonym in a handful of Southern California nightclubs but was accused of lip-syncing songs.
Her divorce from Federline was finalized in July but the pair remain embroiled in a custody battle.
Back in the early 2000s, Spears was a top-selling artist, and in 2002 she was ranked as the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes magazine.
Spears' first album was 1999's "... Baby One More Time," which featured hit songs like "Sometimes." Her most recent album of original music was 2003's "In the Zone."
