A simultaneous release in twenty-six countries, a position at the top of pre-orders on online sales sites, a pharaonic implementation in bookstores around the world (100,000 copies in France), a value estimated at 15 million dollars (around 14 million euros), leaks to the press… The Woman in meavailable since Tuesday October 24, is one of the editorial events of the year 2023.
And for good reason, since “the woman” in question, the author of the book, is one of the most famous in the world: Britney Spears. A star who is revealing himself, nothing very new under the sun entertainment, one might say. And yet.
If The Woman in me – written with a pen whose name has not been communicated – is one of the main releases of the year from Simon & Schuster, a juggernaut of Anglo-Saxon publishing, if the American media fought to get the exclusive interview with the singer – the weekly People having won the jackpot – is that Britney Spears is not a star like the others. “There is a real impatience around this workunderlines Véronique Cardi, general director of JC Lattès editions, which publishes the French version, fans, of course, but also all those who see in her an emblem of our time. »
Let’s start again. Britney Spears, daughter of a middle-class family from the South of the United States, has become, over the last twenty-five years, one of the most listened to singers on the planet. She also hit the headlines a lot. For her syrupy words, with sexual innuendo, for her marriages, her bare outfits, a few scandals… She has often shocked traditional America. Britney Spears has, in this respect, followed a path notably traced by Madonna… But the one who grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana, has also contributed to the legal section.
“Envelopes pre-filled with medicines”
In 2008, following suspicions of mental disorders, the singer was placed under guardianship. The management of his daily life, from his finances to his relationships, was in fact in the hands of his father, James Parnell Spears. An armada of lawyers, jurists, accountants and psychologists controlled his actions.
On social networks, his fans, judging the procedure abusive, launched the movement “#FreeBritney” (“Free Britney”). In the fall of 2020, the singer decided to take legal action. At the start of 2021, a documentary produced by the New York Times, Framing Britney Spears, revealed that she was indeed the victim of this guardianship and under the influence of her father and those around him. The trial, widely commented on, resulted in a lifting of guardianship at the end of 2021.
You have 61.82% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.