The Legendary Miss Britney Spears

I cried. I don't know why but tears just swelled up in my eyes when I saw Britney Spears crying in her interview. Generally I don't have much sympathy for artists. 99% of them portray a positive, attractive but fake public image, there's no reason for me to believe what they say they feel. With Britney, the case is slightly different. Yes she is a typical "pop art", or even "product" manufactured by the music industry, and yes she did drugs and drank alcohol and slept with possibly more than a few guys. I'm not saying that I approve of all the things she did, I just think her life is a real tragedy and if I were her, I would have gone crazy and broken into pieces long long ago. Britney is probably the only artist that I truly feel bad for, that I sincerely hope she can be strong enough to live her tough life.

This girl used to laugh during interviews, smile at the camera after every performance. She used to be such a cheerful and sweet girl, until the media and the industry started to ruin her life. Britney is an artist who gets hurt from her own fame. What could be more tragic than that, when it's every artist's dream to be famous, to be on the front pages of newspapers and magazines, and to be recognized by people everywhere they go? Britney has been famous since she was only 18, when she debuted her top hits Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again. Since then, she quickly earned her place in the music industry and became an international pop icon within the first few years of her career. Before she turned 20 in 2001, she had already sold over 32 million albums worldwide. Some people criticize Britney for lip-syncing during her performances, but to all Brit's fans, watching her show is not about appreciating her vocal abilities, but about enjoying the sight, the scene, the mood, and the atmosphere she creates. Energy and passion simply radiates from her when she's on stage. I've never seen any other female artist reaches Britney's fever energy level live on stage. She didn't earn her "Pop Princess" title for nothing.

When she got more and more famous, paparazzi started to invade and exploit her life, to a degree that no other artist has experienced before. Britney appears on the front pages of tabloids for shopping in a grocery store, buying a new piece of cloth, or swimming in a beach during her vacation. A group of paparazzi follow her everywhere she goes, hoping that she would somehow get into some kind of trouble so that they can snap photos of her, create an epic story about the pop star's messed up personal life and get money from it. Everything in her life, including her career, her personal affairs, her relationships with guys, or even her motherhood, is put under a magnifying glass. It's easy for us to judge her when everything she does is reported and blown out of proportion by the media. For Britney, it's a nightmare. She can't even go shopping with her sons without a lifeguard around. She is just a money-generator in the eyes of the media and her record company. Her life is totally controlled by the ferociously competitive entertainment industry. Who cares anything about her except the amount of money she can generate?

Watching and comparing her old interviews with "For the Record"(2009), I can see her changes. She's gone through so much in the past ten years. She has gained maturity but lost a lot of happiness. How could you be happy when your life isn't even yours? How could you be optimistic about your life when the paparazzi are all waiting for you to make a big mistake for them to write on? I know celebrities are public images and they should expect these before setting foot in the industry, but Britney's situation is just beyond normal cases. I truly admire her strength to live through the dark period of her life. I don't think I can ever live a life like hers even when I'm 28 years old. It's just heart-breaking to see her suffer and cry in front of the interviewer. If you only knew what she's been through in the past three years, you'd understand her tears. Though she's changed a lot, I believe the cheerful girl is still there, deep inside her. I hope Britney can break free from all the shackles in her life and embrace a joyful future. A girl like her deserves to be happy.