#FreeBritney

 

Music tends to bring about positive thoughts, either by lifting people’s spirits outright, or by inspiring them — or both. However, once in a while, it can also come with heartache, tragedy, especially when you take a look behind the scenes: such is turning out to be the story of Britney Spears. Not that anyone would or could have forgotten, Spears is arguably the biggest pop star of the past 25 years, at the very least the biggest teen pop star. And a few of her songs, “…Baby One More Time”, “Oops!… I Did It Again” or “Toxic” have become so iconic that they essentially come with any depiction of the era they were released in. That phenomenon could even be compared to how Michael Jackson reigned over early 1980’s culture — if you don’t mind us making such a daring comparison!

In any event, we’ve known for a while that, despite this incredible success the young Spears was met with, her personal life was not exactly smooth, simple or even nice. Beyond her tumultuous and highly mediatized relationships, which made all the more noise given her original “sweet girl next door” persona, her mental health issues have been common knowledge for years. At least since she famously shaved her head, went to rehab and had her father take over as conservator back in 2008. Which he still functions as today, although the young lady has shown no signs of any properly abnormal activity in years.

Much has been said about Britney Spears’ breakdown, including deeply felt comments by the likes of then-talk show host Craig Ferguson supporting the singer as she navigated an absolutely surreal situation: very few people ever gain the level of fame she did, let alone while still in their teens… This scenario could be compared to the media frenzy that once surrounded a Marilyn Monroe or, more recently, Lindsay Lohan. The latter case makes for a near direct comparison as both trajectories are quite similar, only a few years apart. That being said, and despite father Michael Lohan seemingly aiming for that level of control over his offspring, Miss Lohan stands in 2021 as a young woman free to make the life choices she wants.

Which brings us to the latest news: after publicly stating for years that everything was fine with her somewhat restrictive life (she does not have outright control over her finances for one), Britney Spears recently spoke in court against the conservatorship, accusing her father and entourage of controlling her and her actions to a disturbing degree. This came as a shock, even to those who feared the singer was not being treated fairly: everyone from Justin Timberlake to Cher to Mariah Carey swiftly showed their support. While the case is still open and her father readily disputes anything she said, the incredibly personal nature of some remarks makes it hard to imagine that she would make any of it up. And there is hope that this troubling situation will eventually be resolved and that Spears will (finally) get her personal freedoms back.

In a way, she has already won: her testimony created such a stir that it is unlikely people will forget. In the post Me Too era, such situations where women’s liberties are being infringed upon are luckily and irrevocably condemned. Some politicians are already discussing changing the laws to prevent such a case from ever happening again. And we hope that Britney gets to do what she wants, and that it will include new music…