Greatest Hits: My Prerogative

She's the global superstar who is only rivalled by Madonna in levels of fame, she has gone from slightly saucy school girl pop to full blown raunch'n'roll in the space of a few years and she has had her fair share of scandals in her private life. She is Britney Spears – pop star, icon and all round licence to print money.

It's hard to imagine that Britney's short career has yielded so many hits. Her peers (Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson) have barely had a handful between them, yet Britney seems to turn everything she touches to pure gold. One listen to her ‘Greatest Hits' and you are in no doubt that you are listening to one of the key pop singers of the last ten years. With a batch of songs that constantly strive to push the boundaries of the genre Britney has managed to consistently stay ahead of the game, reinventing and re-imagining pop at every turn.

From the seaside postcard sauciness of ‘Baby One More Time' through to the filth fests of ‘I'm A Slave 4 U' and ‘Outrageous', Britney has grown from a girl to a woman in the full glare of public scrutiny. Her current single (a cover of Bobby Brown's ‘My Prerogative') features a lyric that feels like the most personal Britney has ever sung, detailing, as it does, the stresses and strains her very public upbringing has forced upon her private life. Whether this will close a chapter on her life that she would best forget whilst she attempts another genre-warping change is anyone's guess. One thing's for sure though, Britney will be around for fair few years yet…it's her prerogative.