Britney Spears Says She'll "Never Return to the Music Industry"

In the wake of her memoir, The Woman in Me, and her newly found freedom post-conservatorship, Britney Spears appeared primed to top the Billboard charts again — but she shut down the possibility of new music with her latest Instagram post. Yesterday, after Page Six reported that Spears was recruiting names like Charli XCX and Julia Michaels for a new album, the superstar let her followers know that it simply wasn't true.

“Just so we’re clear most of the news is trash!!! They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry!!!” Spears wrote beside a painting of Salome carrying John the Baptist’s head on a tray by Italian master Guido Reni. She went on to say that she is writing songs for other people, however: “I’m a ghostwriter and I honestly enjoy it that way!!!”

The Cut notes that the last time Spears performed live was back in 2018. After that, she went on an "indefinite work hiatus" to care for her father, Jamie. Later, in 2021, she shared on Instagram that her decision to stop making music — whether that meant performing or releasing new material — was a “way of saying fuck you” to her family. She went into detail about the decision in The Woman in Me, where she wrote that her drive to perform was waning and that she was “struggling” internally with the idea of taking to the stage again after being forced to for so long.

Spears's last full-length album was 2016's Glory. After she was released from her conservatorship, she released two tracks: one with Elton John, "Hold Me Closer," which was a remix of his classic "Tiny Dancer;" and "Mind Your Business," a song with frequent collaborator Will.I.Am. 

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