Britney Spears’ first solo performance came at age four, when she sang What Child Is This? to her church congregation. By age eight, her stage skills were savvy enough that she tried out for Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club. Too young for the show, one of the producers nevertheless lined up an agent for the youngster, and her accommodating family moved from Kentwood, Louisiana to opportunity-filled New York. Spears was enrolled in intensive dance classes and at the Professional Performing Arts School. At age 10, Spears was understudy for the lead in an off-Broadway production of Ruthless. The next year she tried out again for MMC and this time was hired.

She spent 1993 and 1994 with the show, then returned to regular high school for a close-to-normal adolescence. At 15, the ambitious teen cut the demo tape that got her signed to a record development deal. She left behind high school halls for home (or road) schooling as her travel schedule came to include Sweden and a heavy promotional tour to a string of U.S. malls.

In January, 1999, Spears opened for the hit band ’N Sync. By the next month, after her debut album Baby One More Time had hit the record stores, radio stations and music video stations, Spears had surpassed ’N Sync and almost everyone else in the pop rock biz. That recording has sold a whopping 17 million copies and garnered the artist four major Billboard Music awards, an unprecedented four MTV Europe Music awards, a Much Music Canada award, and two Grammy nominations. Time-released album singles, From the Bottom of My Broken Heart, Crazy, Sometimes and the title track Baby One More Time, each hit the top of the music charts. A “steamy” spread in Rolling Stone magazine, countless television appearances and media interviews, as well as an extensive touring schedule seen the performer go from unknown to teen superstar in one brief year.

Downsides of the “instant” fame have been the numerous anti-Britney websites sprouting daily on the Internet, and appearance on Mr. Blackwell’s recent Worst Dressed list. Spears, though, has more than enough devoted fans to make up for the slights.

Coming up for the dancer/singer is a break into prime time television. Spears will be cast in three episodes of the hit series Dawson’s Creek, and has inked a deal for a TV series of her own. A new album, on which Spears’ own tune, Dear Diary, is featured, is set for release on May 16, 2000. A 48-city international tour has been arranged, and commercial and movie contracts are being negotiated. The planned MTV film, Alice In Wonderland, is a possibility for the just-turned-18 performer.

Spears leads her fellow dancers in prayer before each performance. This ambitious young woman has the potential to be more than just the flash-in-the-pan her detractors predict.