Aside from a few one-off singles, Britney Spears has not released any new music since she was famously freed of the 13-year conservatorship that allowed her little control over her own personal life and career. According a few recent reports, that could change in the near-future, with Charli XCX and Julia Michaels among the still-in-development project’s songwriting collaborators. (Update: Spears herself has responded to these reports on Instagram, calling them "trash" and claiming she will "never return to the music industry.")
Spears' last studio album was 2016's 'Glory.'
Per an anonymous source quoted in The Sun, British star Charli XCX “went into the studio earlier in the year to make some songs using Britney’s guidance of what she is after. She came up with a really strong track that is expected to make it on to the album, which Britney’s team hope will be out in 2024.”
Charli XCX, of course, has settled into a career as one of pop music’s most consistently experimental figures: her 2019 album Charli and 2020’s lockdown-themed How I’m Feeling Now made her a critic’s darling, while her most recent record, 2022’s Crash, became her first UK chart-topper. She’s always had an unerring ear for a hook, with her own single “Boom Clap” reaching the top 10 of the US chart, and collaboration “Fancy” (with Iggy Azalea) hitting the top spot. As a behind-the-scenes songwriter, Charli has written for Will.I.Am, Blondie and Madison Beer, and contributed to Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello’s No. 1 single “Señorita.” Last year, she co-wrote the score to Emma Seligman’s teen comedy Bottoms, and contributed a song to the Barbie soundtrack.
An anonymous source claimed that Charli XCX is one of the songwriters at work on Spears' new album.
According to the New York Post, Michaels is also one of the songwriters enlisted to pen the star’s comeback effort.
Michaels had one solo single, “Issues,” reach No. 11 on the US singles chart, though she’s had considerable success as a songwriter. Janelle Monáe’s “Make Me Feel,” Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and Ed Sheeran’s “Dive” are among her more notable compositions. She’s had a number of successful collaborations with Selena Gomez, the most memorable being the 2019 chart-topper “Lose You to Love Me,” and wrote several tunes for Spears’ last album, 2016’s Glory, most notably “Slumber Party” and “Do You Wanna Come Over.” In her 2023 memoir, Spears called her songwriting sessions with Michaels “the one thing in the 13 years of the conservatorship that I really put my heart into.”
Pro-Britney protestors outside a Los Angeles courthouse in 2021.
Since earning a release from her conservatorship in 2021, Spears has only appeared on two songs: a 2022 duet with Elton John, “Hold Me Closer,” and a 2023 collaboration with Will.I.Am, “Mind Your Business.” She nonetheless made plenty of headlines with her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, which sold 2.4 million copies worldwide in its first week of release. Spears’ struggles to end her controversial conservatorship — in which her father, Jamie Spears, maintained tight control of her life and career — made international headlines in 2021 following the release of the New York Times documentary, Framing Britney Spears.
This month marks the quarter-century anniversary of Spears’ debut album, …Baby One More Time, which has since been certified 14x platinum by the RIAA.
