Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Britney's popularity ensures records will always chart high.

We saw on an earlier post on here that the global and US sales of Britney Spears’ albums have gradually decreased over time from her ...Baby One More Time debut in 1999 to her eighth release, Britney Jean, in November 2013.

100 million sales worldwide make Britney one of the biggest selling artists of all time; competing with and outselling the likes of Guns & Roses, Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart; all of whom were releasing charting records more than ten and, in some cases, thirty years before Britney appeared on the music scene.

But do the sales represent the positions her singles & albums peak at in the charts?

If there’s evidence of a slow decline in the number of album sales, both worldwide and in the USA, then surely we’d expect the chart positions of her singles & albums to suffer a similar fate.

Let’s take a look –

Firstly here’s the graph of the worldwide & US sales of her first seven studio albums:


Compare that with the following two graphs:



One thing that immediately stands out between these graphs is that, on average, Britney’s singles appear to have had much more success in the UK than in the USA, whereas Britney’s albums have had better chart success in the USA than in the UK.

In The Zone is currently the second lowest charting of Britney's eight albums in the UK at 13, yet, in the same country, the average chart position of singles from that album is her highest at one. Source

It’s interesting because, with the exception of Britney Jean in the UK and maybe, at a push, In The Zone as well, there’s clear evidence that her albums always peak at extremely high positions in the UK & US charts. Six of Britney’s eight albums have peaked at top spot in the US chart and all have peaked within the top five; also true for five of her albums in the UK.
There is nothing from the falling worldwide & USA sales of Britney's albums that affects their high chart positions, or the average positions of singles released from each album. She is firmly established and this popularity ensures she will always be capable of high-charting records.

Overall, this goes against our expectations that with falling sales figures comes lowly chart positions; Britney may not be selling anywhere near as many records as she did when she first set out almost 15 years ago, but with every single and album release, she still usually manages to find herself lingering around the top positions in the charts.

The role of American album success is a main factor here, but is it also true for the other two female singers Celebrity Shockers have looked at in more detail?


As we saw with Britney, there isn't an album of Miley's so far that has peaked higher in the UK than it did in the USA. Of course being the main star of the American TV show Hannah Montana means the USA has been far more exposed to Miley than the UK, and for a longer period of time, also explaining the high chart positions of the five Hannah Montana soundtrack albums Miley has also done; two peaking at top spot and all five peaking higher in the USA than in the UK.

Some recent shocking antics by Miley has put her popularity in the UK through the roof and this perhaps explains her sudden leap to top spot when her Bangerz album was released in October 2013.

Miley's Bangerz album is her first to peak at top spot in the USA and the UK. Source.

Whitney Houston is one of the few artists to have more overall record sales than Britney, but again there's some resemblance between where their albums have had more success.



Three of Whitney's six studio albums have peaked at number one in the USA, whereas only her second release, Whitney, has managed this feat in the UK. Unlike Britney and Miley though, Whitney has had one album that peaked higher in the UK than it did it the USA: My Love Is Your Love.

It should be pointed out here that for the benefits of the graph layout, Just Whitney... was given a peak of 20. This album in fact only peaked at 76 in the UK but representing this on this graph would make it difficult to clearly distinguish between the chart positions of her other albums so the 20 is just intended to show that this album was actually a lot lower in the charts than her others.

Whitney's 1998 release My Love Is Your Love is her only album to peak higher in the UK than it did in the USA. Source.

So there's evidence that the country you're from plays a key role in your ability to get your records charting high up there, especially in a country as big and as populated as America.

Two of the most successful female artists of recent times, Britney Spears and Whitney Houston, have both found their albums to have more success in the country of their birth, the USA, than in the UK, with only one studio album of their combined 14 to have peaked higher in the UK than it did in the USA: Whitney's My Love Is Your Love.

Miley, on the other hand, may have started off with her albums playing catch-up in the UK to the consistent top positions they'd achieved in the USA, but her latest release, Bangerz, along with some media-gold-dust behaviour, finally gave her her first UK number one album in October 2013.

Success is always difficult to measure but where an artist's album charts is always a good indication of how successful they are and can continue to be. Each album, regardless of how high or low it charts, always gives a platform on which to build, but at the end of the day popularity comes into it and it just depends how shocking a singer/celebrity wants to be if it means they're more popular than they were before. We're not looking in your direction, Miley.

Whitney Houston: Pop Sensation & Ultimate Tragedy

Whitney Houston is a worldwide superstar.  She reigned for a long time as the Queen of pop and 
RnB, with a voice the likes of which we’ll never see again.  Beautiful and inspiring, her performances were always breath-taking, so much so that she sold multimillions of records.  After 2 decades in the music industry, Whitney was still as strong as ever and her presence and influence will never be eclipsed again.


What the world didn’t expect was her untimely death in 2012, after dealing with years of an abusive marriage and cocaine use.   She was 48.  

But what exactly caused Whitney’s death?  What was shocking enough to bring her to this fatal ending?  
  • Whitney was born in 1963 in Newark, USA.  She was the daughter of Cissy Houston, a gospel and pop singer who had backed up Aretha Franklin and the cousin of Dionne Warwick.
  • In 1977, aged 14, she began to sing backing vocals on chart singles.  A young age to be thrown into the music industry.  She worked with acts including Chaka Khan and the Neville Brothers.
  • She was signed after performing in a night club and in 1985 aged 22, her debut single and solo album were released.  We were provided with polished, catchy songs such as ‘How Will I Know’ and ‘The Greatest Love of All’.  People began to remember her voice. 


  • Over the next decade her popularity soared. In 1987, her second album ‘Whitney’ became the first album by a woman to enter the Billboard charts at No. 1 and it included four No. 1 singles.
  • In 1992 aged 29, Whitney married RnB singer Bobby Brown.  Also in this year, she made her film debut in The Bodyguard.  The soundtrack to this film went onto sell 17 million copies in the United States.
  • Whitney and her husband gave birth to Bobbi Kristina in 1993 when Whitney was 30.  
  • In 1994 aged 31, she became the first major musician to visit the newly unified and apartheid free South Africa following Nelson Mandela’s winning election.

  • Marijuana was discovered in Whitney and Bobby’s luggage by security at an airport in Hawaii in 2000 when she was 37.  The charges were dropped later.  
  • In 2001 aged 38, she signed the biggest record deal in music history with Arista/BMG.
  • Aged 39 in 2002, things took a turn for the worse when she admitted to using cocaine on a prime time television interview.
  • After what had been described as a passionate and turbulent marriage Whitney filed for divorce from her husband in 2006, when she was 43.  They divorced in 2007.
  • In 2009 when Whitney was 46, she admitted on a TV interview that in the late 1990’s, doing drugs was an everyday thing and that she wasn’t happy.
  • Aged 47 in 2010, she embarked on her first world tour in 10 years.  But she was met with much criticism and some shows were cancelled due to illness.
  • In 2011, aged 48, she enrolled in a rehabilitation centre citing drug and alcohol problem.
  • Then in 2012, aged 48 she died in a Californian hotel after drowning in a bath.  This was ruled partly as an accident and the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.  
  • The cocaine found in her body revealed it had been used shortly before her death and toxicology results revealed additional drugs in her system, including marijuana.
Whether it was the drugs, alcohol, family issues or fame, there isn’t one single moment you can say lead to the death of this superstar.  But Whitney Houston is living proof of how shocking some moments in celebrities’ lives can be.  And it isn’t the last tragedy we will see in the world of superstardom.


What do you think caused Whitney Houston’s death?



Tweet us @CelebShockers


Monday, 30 December 2013

From Sabrina to GTAIV - the soundtracks where Britney has found herself.

Melissa Joan Hart won't be the only actress to have been involved in a show containing a Britney Spears song on its soundtrack, in fact she's far from it. From Hart's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in 1999 to Rockstar's GTAIV in 2013, Britney has appeared on over 100 soundtracks for films, TV shows & other forms of entertainment.
Her popularity & evidence of record sales means it's always a possibility that Britney will be working on a song for a film or TV episode, or a director, producer or manager will somehow find a way to embed one of her existing songs in their production.

Here's a pie chart-themed video, & piano accompaniment, to take you through 14 years of soundtracks containing at least one of Britney's songs -




Some notable, & perhaps nostalgic, films & TV shows with Britney listed on their soundtracks are listed below -

2001 - The Sopranos, The Office, Jimmy Netron: Boy Genius.

2002 - Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Simpsons.

2004 - White Chicks.

2005 - Doctor Who.

2006 - Life on Mars.

2007 - CSI: NY, Knocked Up.

2008 - Gossip Girl, Skins.

2009 - The Hills, Friday Night Lights.

2011 - Bridesmaids, CSI: Miami.

2012 - Glee.

2013 - 90210, New Girl.

What does 2014 have in store? One of Britney's songs is sure to sneak into something somewhere. Keep your ears open.



Long Live the King

As we approach the 8 January 2014, fans across the globe will be celebrating what would have been Elvis Presley’s 79th Birthday.

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians of his time, and of the 20th century. But towards the end of his short life, Elvis was in the headlines for more than just his music. Affected by his divorce to Priscilla Presley and reliant on prescription drugs, his health and his career were suffering. Exhausted from a gruelling tour schedule, Elvis’s performances disappointed fans – he could barely stand up or sing. In August 1977, at the age of 42, Elvis Presley passed away at his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.

As one of the most high profile musicians ever, his life (and death) were intimately documented. There are even certain conspiracies that claim Elvis faked his own death to escape the pressures of constantly being in the spotlight, and under scrutiny.

Take a look at the timeline below to see the shocking truth about Elvis - his life and death.

Source


1935: Elvis is born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

1945: Elvis received his first guitar as a present on his 10th birthday.

“I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it.”

1948: Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

1953: Elvis recorded his first two-sided disc at Sun Record Studios. The tracks were called My
Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.

1955: Signed a record deal with RCA at the age of 20 for $40,000, an unprecedented sum of
money at the time.

1956: Elvis’s first album, Elvis Presley was released in March. Included the song Blue Suede Shoes. Appeared in his first film Love Me Tender. The film was panned by critics but achieved commercial success.

1957: Scored three number one singles with Too Much, All Shook Up and (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear.
Embarked on three brief tours each met with crazed audience responses.


“The trouble with going to see Elvis Presley is that you're liable to 
get killed.”

1958: Elvis was inducted into the US Army.

“The Army can do anything it wants with me.”

Elvis’s mother died in the August at the age of 46. Elvis was extremely close to his mother and badly affected by her death.
Began taking amphetamines with colleagues in the army.
Met 14 year old Priscilla Beaulieu, the woman he would eventually marry.

Source
1960: Elvis was granted honourable discharge from the army.
He began focusing on his movie career as well as releasing more albums including Elvis is Back! and G.I. Blues. He went on to make 27 movies in the 1960s, almost all were commercial successes.

1968: The birth of Elvis and Priscilla’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley.
He released eight singles in this year, only two made it into the top 40. He began to convince himself that his musical career might be over.
In an attempt to recapture his music fame, Elvis recorded the TV programme ’68 Comeback Special, his first performance in front of an audience since 1961. The show captured 42% of the total viewing audience.

“There are several unbelievable things about Elvis, but the most incredible is his staying power in a world where meteoric careers fade like shooting stars.”

Source
1970: Embarked on his first tour since 1958.
In December, Elvis met with U.S. president Richard Nixon and was reported to have expressed his dislike for the ‘hippie drug culture.’ Richard Nixon was reported to have described the meeting as “uncomfortable”.

1971: Elvis’s marriage began in break down. He had an affair with Joyce Bova. It was later discovered that Priscilla was having an affair with karate instructor Mike Stone.

1973: Elvis performed the show Aloha From Hawaii. During one of the performances he was attacked on stage – later discovered to be over-excited fans. However Elvis became paranoid - convinced the Mike Stone was trying to kill him.
He began taking prescription drugs to control his rages.

“There's too much pain in me ... Stone must die”

His divorce was finalised and affected him badly. He overdosed twice in this year on prescription drugs.

1974: Despite his ill health, Elvis undertook a gruelling tour schedule. It was reported by band mates that he could barely stand at the microphone.

“He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was 

obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions.”

1975: Attempted to return to the recording studio to record some new material but was in no fit state to work.


1977: On August 16 1977, Elvis was due to embark on another tour. That afternoon he was found dead on his bathroom floor by then girlfriend Ginger Alden. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. Drug use was heavily implicated in the cause of death.

Sunday, 29 December 2013

Bieber announces retirement from Music- is this the shortest music career ever?

Justin Bieber has never been to far away from the media spotlight. We take a look at the highs and the lows of his short but eventful career so far...

1994

Justin Bieber was born on March 1st 1994.
His mother was just 17 years old when she gave birth to Baby Bieber.
His parents never married but they maintained a close friendship to focus on giving Justin a future in music.

2006/2007

His manager Scooter Braun spotted him on YouTube six years ago and tracked down Justin’s mum- Pattie to ask about signing him to his record label co-founded with global superstar Usher.

Bieber took YouTube by storm that even Justin Timberlake tried to snap up the baby-faced singer for his own record label but lost out to Usher and also a few quid.

One of Justin Bieber's early videos.




2008

Justin released his debut album My World which immediately went platinum so Bieber's career got off to a fairy-tale start. Bieber fever began and took the world by storm!

In December, just a year after he became a signed artist, Justin performed at the White House. Yes, its safe to say Bieber had 'made it'!




He performed for President Obama twice in one year

2010

He released his first full-length studio album My World 2.0 and soon after he accounted for 3% of the traffic on Twitter.

He was also tipped as more influential than Barack Obama and The Dalai Lama by digital website Klout.




2011

Justin, 16 at the time, began dating Disney star Selena Gomez, who was 18. Bieber's first celebrity romance!



 The young couple's first public kiss.

Justin celebrated his 17th birthday with girlfriend Selena and felt the snappers were harassing him. So Justin hit back with a middle finger and a few choice words. It was a new side to Justin we began to see. 
2012

The fame was beginning to get too much for the Canadian singer as his love hate relationship with the paparazzi continued. This time a water bottle was thrown at the snappers desperate for a peek of Justin.




Justin throws a water bottle at photographers when shopping in Miami
May

In the same month he outrageously confessed to "having a beer" despite being well under the legal drinking age on 21.

Justin continued to battle with the snappers, this time he got caught up in a altercation whilst leaving the cinema with his girlfriend Selena Gomez. The pap apparently blocked Justin's car and he clearly wasn't impressed.





Bieber does not look happy!






Justin Bieber is stopped by the Los Angeles Police Department while driving his custom Cadillac 'Batmobile' down Ventura Boulevard
Bieber talks to a police officer while driving his custom Cadillac 

July 

Shock! Another rift between Justin and the paparazzi. Bieber was accused of driving 80mph during an incident where he called the cops to complain about paparazzi chasing him.

It's rumoured Justin was charged with another driving offence when his speed peaked at 100mph.




He's used to selling tickets - not being given one for speeding

October

Justin was sick on stage in front of thousands of fans after drinking loads of milk. Not the greatest warm-up idea Justin!

November

The YouTube phenomenon lost his title of the Most Viewed on YouTube to that annoying dancing song Gangnam Style! Ouch that must have hurt Biebs!

January 2013

The year began with some bad news. A combination of Justin's fame and the paparazzi obsession with him- led to the death of a cameraman while chasing his famous car. Justin was not in the car at the time and it was reported one of his friends was driving it at the time the photographer was struck by an on coming vehicle in LA.





Justin and his white Ferrari outside Selena's house- FameFlynet.uk.com
The star continued to make the headlines in January after being snapped smoking a suspicious looking roll-up cigarette.

February 

So it appeared JB's relationship with Selena Gomez was over (again). This came after reports he had cheated on his long-term girlfriend but this time the relationship seemed to be over for good.

But is this where it all went wrong?




Adriana Lima, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Miranda Kerr, Alessandra Ambrosio
 Justin partied with Victoria's Secret models

March

He was ironically burning the birthday candles at both ends on 19th birthday. It was reported that the swanky London club he hosted the party - Cirque du Soir - refused his mates Jaden Smith (son of Will Smith) and his latest rumoured lover Ella-Paige Roberts Clark for being under-age.




Ella-Paige Roberts
Aspiring singer 17-year-old Ella-Paige Roberts who Justin was rumoured to be dating.

Beliebers turned on their star after he turned up two hours late on stage at a gig in London. The thousands of fans (or should I say mums of the fans) were left angry that the star was late on a school night meaning many of Justin's young fans had to leave before the show.


Justin later tweeted his apology and blamed technical issues. Very suspect!



I think it is safe to say Bieber hasn't handled the fame and everything that comes with it very well.  But has the young star let the fame, spotlight and money get to him?

Is he on a downward spiral? Or is retirement the break he needs?

We would love to know what you think!

Follow us on Twitter @CelebShockers

Child Stars: Too much, too young?


Justin Bieber, Amanda Bynes, Britney Spears, even Macaulay Culkin (remember him?!) have all got one thing in common. Well, actually two. They are all child stars. And they’ve all gone off the rails. Exposed to fame, money, thousands of fans stalking their every move, and the press making sure we all get to see plenty of unflattering photographs of them, it seems that it can all get a bit much.


Macaulay Culkin began his acting career at the age of four, and is most famous for his role in Home Alone, a part he was cast at the age of ten. He has spent his early twenties battling drug addiction after being arrested in 2004 for possession of marijuana. It was also widely reported that as a child, Culkin had a close friendship with a much older Michael Jackson, ironically also a child star, but has rubbished claims made by the media that Jackson ever sexually abused him.

Macaulay Culkin: Before... [Source]

And after ... [Source]


Even the seemingly squeaky clean Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe hasn’t escaped the curse of the child star. He was cast as the lead role in the popular films in 2000 at the age of 11. Just ten years later he was admitting to being an alcoholic at the age of just 21 years old.

Daniel Radcliffe in his debut role as Harry Potter. [Source]


And it hasn’t stopped there. Amanda Bynes had a high profile breakdown this year over Twitter, which ended in her being admitted to rehab, despite having defiantly protesting that she had absolutely nothing wrong with her mental health at all. Born in 1986, Amanda began her career at the early age of 13 years old, even hosting her own sketch comedy show The Amanda Show from 1999 – 2002.

Amanda Bynes had a high profile breakdown this year. [Source]


Miley Cyrus is the latest child star to hit the headlines for bad behaviour. It was at the age of 11 when Miley was cast in her first significant role in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. Since then she has hit the headlines for a number of other less positive reasons including, mostly famously, her ‘twerking’ performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTVVideo Music Awards.



Tia Mowry, former child star who featured on the American ABC sitcom Sister, said "These kids need a lot of support and they need to be kids. They need to be able to realize that this job is cool, but you're still a kid."

Clinical psychologist Eileen Kennedy-Moore said: "Childhood is about finding out who you are and being able to relate to others, and those things are harder to learn when you're famous. That amount of public scrutiny makes it hard on kids to do that. They can't mess up. So they have to adopt a very self-assured, precocious identity very quickly."

But not every child star has fallen into the trap. Justin Timberlake, famous from the age of 11 for his appearances in Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club is now a singer, actor, dancer and businessman who is celebrating 2013 as the man who created the best-selling record of the year with his album The 20/20 Experience.

Justin Timberlake has escaped the curse of the child star. [Source]


Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster have also emerged from child stardom into successful and respected actresses in their own right.

So there’s a glimmer of hope for the next generation of child stars!


Friday, 27 December 2013

Half your life in the spotlight is not all plain-sailing for Britney.

Britney Spears burst onto radios and TV screens worldwide as a 16 year old in 1998 after signing a major record deal the previous year. Since then the now 32-year-old has gone on to become one of the best selling female artists of all time and has spent over half of her life in the eye of the media and, consequently, the world. But, as we've seen so frequently with those thrown into the entertainment industry in their mid-teenage years, with fame comes pain; the more famous you are the more publicised your problems are going to be to a global audience containing those who live for constant showbiz drama.

We were all exposed to many of Britney's problems through the media and, in some cases, we probably knew more about her own life than she did. But how do you identify what affected Britney the most and what actually caused these shocking moments?

Source
Below is a timeline guiding you through the majority of significant events in Britney's life, with her age at the time of each given in brackets. Most show how she interlinks with the other Celebrity Shockers' main chosen celebrities: Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, and some, as we'll see later on, are just scratching at the surface of what was a difficult and troubled few years for the singer.


- 1981 born in McComb, Mississippi: the same state & just over 250 miles from where ELVIS was born 46 years earlier.


Celebrity Shockers 5 case studies involve celebrities spanning 4 states of the USA & Canada & are all in the East of the continent.


- 1989 (7) rejected after an audition for The Mickey Mouse Club: a show that WHITNEY made a guest appearance on two years later in 1991.

- 1997 (15) Britney's mother submitted tape of her daughter singing WHITNEY when in talks over joining pop group Innosense.


- 1997 (15) signed to her first record label, Jive, after again performing a WHITNEY song in front of executives.


- 1998 (16) released debut single ...Baby One More Time that went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide: the song was written by Max Martin who co-wrote the JUSTIN's song Beauty and a Beat.



The ...Baby One More Time music video is considered one of the most iconic of all time. Source


- 1999 (17) released debut album of the same name that went on to sell 10 million copies in a year &, as of today, 30 million worldwide: 3 times as many as the debut albums by MILEY & JUSTIN combined (both approx. 5 million).

- 2000 (18) released second album, Oops!... I Did It Again, which debuted at number 1 in the USA.


- 2001 (19) released third album in as many years: Britney, which contained 6 singles: the most of any of her albums.


- 2002 (20) made film debut in Crossroads: at the box office the film has made half ($61m) of what MILEY's debut film Big Fish has made ($122m).


- 2003 (21) released fourth studio album, In The Zone: currently her longest album at 49 minutes & 52 seconds.

- 2004, Jan (22) married childhood friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas, a marriage that lasted just over 2 days: ELVIS married Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas in 1967.




Britney & Jason were married for only 56 hours. Source


- 2004, June (22) injured left knee whilst filming video for Outrageous & cancelled tour: JUSTIN injured his knee whilst performing on stage in Cleveland in late 2010 but finished his set.

- 2004 , Oct (22) married Kevin Federline in L.A, in a marriage that lasted until July 2007: LA is home to the studios where MILEY's TV show Hannah Montana was filmed between 2006 & 2011, & where WHITNEY died in 2012.



Britney & Kevin were married after knowing each other for 5 months. Source


- 2005 (23) gave birth to first child, Sean Preston.


- 2006 (24) gave birth to second child, Jayden James.


- 2007 (25) released fifth album Blackout during a year of publicised personal struggles.


- 2008 (26) released sixth album Circus 10 months after leaving psychiatric hospital.


- 2011, March (29) released 7th studio album, Femme Fatale, which has currently sold just under 10% of what her debut album managed 12 years earlier.



There has been a gradual decline in Britney's album sales both worldwide & in the USA since the success of her debut.


- 2011, Dec (30) engaged to long-term boyfriend & former agent Jason Trawick which was called off in January 2013; Trawick was also removed as her co-conservator, leaving Britney's father in sole control of her assets.


- 2012 (30) became a judge on the second series of the American X Factor with a reported salary of $15m.



Britney mentored the eventual X Factor runner-up but did not return for the third season. Source


- 2013 (31) featured in MILEY's song SMS (Bangerz).


- 2013 (32) released 8th studio album Britney-Jean after working on it for a year.



So what were the most significant years of Britney's life that shocked us all?
A 19-month period from January 2007 to July 2008 was scattered with moments that would have affected Britney in some way and caused her to act the way she did. Some were highly publicised and others not so much. A further timeline below takes us through these in a bit more detail.


- 2007, Jan (25) lost her aunt who had been very influential in her life growing up & who she was still very close with.


- 2007, Feb (25) stayed in an Antiguan drug rehab centre for less than a day.

- 2007, Feb (25) shaved her head in Tarzana, L.A.

Source


- 2007, March (25) re-entered rehab & completed a month long stay.

- 2007, May (25) posted on her website that she 'hit rock bottom' whilst in rehab.

- 2007, July (25) finalised divorce & settled on an agreement to share joint custody of children.

- 2007, Oct (25) lost physical custody of children to Kevin Federline; she had to comply with a court order for random weekly drug testing.

- 2007, Oct (25) regained temporary visitation rights: 3 monitored visits a week.


- 2008, Jan (26) hospitalised after police were called to her home over a dispute over her sons & suspected her of being under the influence of drugs.

- 2008, Jan (26) had visitation rights suspended, Federline was given sole & legal custody of their children.

- 2008, Jan (26) committed to psychiatric ward & placed under involuntary hold.

- 2008, Jan (26) father & attorney given complete legal control of her assets.

- 2008, Jan (26) released from hospital.

- 2008, July (26) regained some visitation rights.


Since her release from hospital, Britney has slowly got her life back on track. She has released a further 3 albums and, with will.i.am, has managed her first UK number one single, Scream & Shout, since Everytime in 2004: making it her sixth overall. Her appearance on the American X Factor established her once again in the public eye and she's now very much the mother of her 2 sons.


Britney's sons, Sean Preston (right) and Jayden James (left), are now 8 & 7. Source


So whether it was too much too young, the loss of family or the breakdown of relationships, there isn't a moment that you can pinpoint that lead to the much-publicised struggles of Britney's mid-twenties years. The shaved head may be a while in the past now, but it's a perfect example and reminder of how spontaneous a shocking celebrity moment can be, and, that as long as there are celebrities, we will never be short of moments like this.

What happened to the Justin Bieber that first broke onto the music scene?

The pop playground is littered with young one hit wonders who break into the music scene but no sooner do they arrive, they are soon forgotten. But then you have the likes of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus who all found fame at an early age but have since stuck around to sell millions of records and this boy is no different.



We all remember the young innocent Canadian boy that broke into the charts after releasing home videos showing off his talent. They soon hit hundreds of views, then thousands, hundreds of thousands and before he knew it his videos had reached 80 million views and record labels battled it out to sign this Youtube phenomenon.

Yes the break through for Justin Bieber's career was nothing short of a fairy-tale. The young boy with the high pitch voice and the distinctive haircut was about to be signed by Usher.

Watch Justin Bieber's first Interview on The Ellen Show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0nsCu5jxLk

Since then Justin Bieber has never looked back. He is now a global icon and with over 47million twitter followers he is one of the most recognised figures around the world.

But with Justin's sudden rise to stardom has money, fame and power changed him?

It has become difficult recently to talk about Justin Bieber without mentioning his recent downward spiral he seems to be on these days. The teen heart throb is never to far away from the media spotlight but for the wrong reasons.

Lets have a look back at some Bieber's bizarre confirmed, rumoured and simply bonkers antics.

 
                 
In November 2013 Justin took to Instagram to post this image of him spray painting a wall in Brazil. This image showed Justin committing a crime that could lead to a hefty fine and time behind bars. Oh and the week before he did a similar thing in Columbia.

Back in March it was reported Justin's pet capuchin monkey was confiscated in germany, after the controversial singer attempted to smuggle it into the country without permission.




All this shocking behaviour highlights just how much Bieber has changed since he first broke into the music scene. Is it the fame? The money? Or has he simply just got to big for his boots? Who knows but I have to question his management team on how they have handled his recent shocking behaviour.