Posted December 30, 200915 yr Billboard; Britney #7 for artist of 09 and more -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.billboard.com/#/features/...04052641.story After a few tumultuous years that found Spears in the tabloids more often than the charts, Britney redeemed herself with a pair of mega-hit singles -- "Womanizer" and "Circus" -- from her 2008 comeback album. A successful world tour brought her back to center stage, but the real proof of her rejuvenation was the one-off single "3," which debuted atop the Hot 100 chart in October. Spears was the first artist to enter the chart at No. 1 in more than three years. and she was #8 in moments in music for shaving her hair Not since Sinead O'Connor has a crew cut on a woman spark such controversy. But when Britney took out the clippers, it wasn't so much a political statement as it was a signal that she had simply gone bats**t crazy. Visits to rehab centers, a disastrous VMA performance and the custody loss of her two sons followed, all of which accelerated the rapid and very public decline of the once untouchable pop star. For a while, her antics threatened to eclispse her hits, but a late-decade resurgence in the form of a chart-topping album, a successful world tour and record-breaking single has put Britney back on top one more time.
