Britney Spears’ self-titled third album comes back Friday, Nov. 6, as a 23-track “Britney (25th Anniversary Edition)” from RCA Records, Apple Music’s pre-release listing shows. Five songs on it are getting their first official release, the Press Association reported, and her official Facebook page has teased that “more surprises are coming every week.”
What’s on the ‘Britney’ 25th Anniversary Edition Tracklist
Besides “She’ll Never Be Me,” Spears is putting out “Am I a Sinner,” “When I Say So,” a studio recording of “Right Now (Taste the Victory),” a song from her 2002 Pepsi commercial, PA reported, and “My Big Secret,” the closing track on Apple Music’s listing.
How ‘She’ll Never Be Me’ Got Shelved in 2001
“She’ll Never Be Me” arrived early, on Oct. 9, the Express Tribune reported, and PA said Spears wrote it with three others, Timberlake among them.
“Sometimes people don’t hear Justin’s voice until I tell them. I said, ‘You don’t hear that Justin’s in the back?'” producer Alex Greggs said on The Original Doll podcast in 2022, Rolling Stone reported.
Timberlake sings background vocals, the magazine said, on a track written and recorded for “Britney” in 2001 and then cut. “The song didn’t go on the album not because the label didn’t like it. There was just way better stuff to go with,” Greggs said.
(Her songs haven’t left the dance floor, either. DJ John Summit gave 2011’s “I Wanna Go” a house remix in October 2025, and Elton John praised her vocals on their 2022 duet, “Hold Me Closer.”)
Banana the Python and the 2001 VMAs Performance
Spears was 19 when she performed “I’m a Slave 4 U” at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House during the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, CNN reported in September. “The reason this performance has such a legacy is because there’s never been an artist as famous as Britney since Britney,” writer and culture critic Amber Horsburgh told CNN. (No notes.)
The act opened with Spears inside a gilded cage, a white tiger at her back, and it ended with Banana, a 7-foot albino Burmese python, draped over her shoulders. “I was very worried about the welds of the cage being strong enough to contain the tiger,” said Ray Winkler, whose firm, STUFISH Entertainment Architects, designed the set.
Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller designed her outfit, crystals and all. “We even had Swarovski tattoo body jewelry applied to her skin,” Swanson told CNN.
Then there was the tiger. “It kind of boiled down to staying out of the animal’s sight lines and that there couldn’t be anything to distract it,” Swanson said.
“Britney was basically a shiny life-sized cat toy for one giant cat!” Mueller said.
Spears’ album itself reached U.S. stores on Nov. 6, 2001, according to AllMusic and Albumism’s 20th-anniversary retrospective, and “I’m a Slave 4 U,” its lead single, peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100, PA reported.
What Britney Spears Has Said About Her LGBTQ Fans
When GLAAD named Spears its 2018 Vanguard Award honoree, she posted about it on Instagram. “The LGBTQ community means the absolute world to me and inspires me every day,” she wrote, SBS reported.
“I am proud to be an ally and I will continue to support equality and acceptance for all!” Spears added in the same post.
Ricky Martin presented the award on April 12, 2018, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, introducing her as “an artist, a fighter and a friend,” iHeartRadio Canada reported. “I feel like our society has always put such an emphasis on what’s ‘normal.’ To be different is unusual or seen as strange,” she said in her speech.
“But to be accepted unconditionally and to be able to express yourself as an individual through art is such a blessing,” Spears said.
