This is a recent article from the TORONTO STAR
Her candy-coated Brit-pop has turned her into the world's most sought-after teenager.
She's Britney Spears - the 17-year-old Louisiana cutie with a top-charting album in the United States and Canada.
Released Jan. 12, her debut disc . . . Baby One More Time (titled after her hit single) entered Billboard's Top 200 at No. 1. In Canada, she's outpaced Mariah Carey, U2, Lauryn Hill and Shania Twain as the number-one spot holder for two weeks running.
The Britney invasion of Toronto that began yesterday with interviews continues today into the heart of teenland.
There's a three-song performance at the Markville Mall in Markham, where she will sign autographs, and, not one, but TWO appearances on MuchMusic (1 p.m., again on Electric Circus at 9:30 p.m.) - the station that spins Spears' video . . . Baby One More Time many, many times.
That's the video of Spears daydreaming in class of swapping her belly-revealing school uniform for belly-revealing Spice sweats and leading a choreographed dance squad in a lunch-hour gymnasium takeover. (Yup, that's her, a trained gymnast, performing her own back flips.)
Little of that tan, buff bod was on display yesterday. She arrived at her record label BMG Canada bundled in a winter jacket, bell-bottoms and a baby blue scarf wrapped around her neck. Her hair was piled atop her head and shimmering eye makeup lit up her brown eyes.
There was no sign of an entourage, no pesky makeup artists hovering for touch-ups. Just a family friend who serves as chaperone.
She seems a regular teenager, in other words, except one in the throes of runaway success - the newest addition to a long line of adolescent pop stars, from Frankie Avalon, Bay City Rollers and Bobby Sherman to the late '90s bumper crop of Hanson, Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls.
And now Spears, a native of Kentwood, La., population 1,200.
Spears got the bug to perform really young. ``Since I was a baby,'' she says, later ``driving her mom crazy singing into the TV all the time with the hairspray bottle.''
At 8, she travelled to Atlanta and auditioned for the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club TV series.
``But the casting director was like: `You know, I think you're too young. I think it's a good idea for you to go to New York and experience some stuff there.'''
To Manhattan she went. By 10, she was performing in TV commercials and off-Broadway plays. By 11, she was old enough for Mickey.
``That's when I realized I had a major love for music - when I was on the Mickey Mouse Club - because you get to sing, dance and act.'' She remained for two years until the show was cancelled.
Spears returned to Kentwood and ``got to experience being just like a teenager and going to prom and homecoming. Those are, like, the functions you do,'' she explains.
``But I got really, really bored so I went back up to New York and my entertainment lawyer was like: `Pop music is coming back. It would really make sense for you to try and get a solo deal.'''
Doubtful at first, she gave it a shot and landed with Jive Records. ``They signed me and I'm here today,'' she says, giving herself a little squeeze.
She was 15.
Her producers, whose credits include Robyn and the Backstreet Boys, wanted her input into song selection.
Before her album came out, Spears went on a mall-to-mall tour
``They would ask me: `Can you relate to this?' Really, 'cause they're these 27-year-olds . . . writing songs for a 17-year-old.''
But possessed with a voice that's remarkably confident as it coos about ``loneliness killing me.'' The refrain, ``hit me baby one more time,'' was deemed potentially controversial and dropped from the title even though it seems unlikely she'd be accused of spreading violent messages.
``Basically, it's just about a girl who has a boyfriend and they break up and she regrets it . . . It's just a fun song.''
Before the album came out, Spears embarked on a tour of shopping malls, following in the footsteps of '80s teen idol Tiffany, who trekked city-to-city singing to backing tapes.
``I remember Tiffany,'' says Spears. ``I remember going to kindergarten and her song being on the radio.''
Such comparisons don't faze her. ``You're always going to be compared to somebody, but we sing pop music and we're two totally different people and our sound is totally different, in my opinion.''
Late last year, she hit the road as the opening act for all-boy popsters 'N Sync. They now share a manager, Johnny Wright, who used to steer the careers of New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys.
``He really knows what he's doing,' says Spears, who is continuing her schooling by correspondence.
Which doesn't leave much time for romance.
``It would be so not right to have a relationship right now,'' she says seriously. ``I'd never see the person.''