By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
February 23, 1999
Forget about the Spice Girls. Britney Spears has real girl power.
After debuting at No. 1 last month with her album ” . . . Baby One More Time,” the teenager has sold more than 800,000 copies.
Surprisingly enough, the album has sold more copies each week that it has been out. Fans snapped up 230,000 copies of Spears’ debut album the week ending Feb. 14 – 50,000 more than the previous week.
“Everything has been overwhelming,” said Spears, 17, phoning from a Los Angeles hotel room last week.; “Seriously. I just completely freaked when I heard that my album and single (of the same name) both were No. 1 at the same time.
“It was the best feeling in the world. There are so many artists out there who are really huge, and their albums don’t always do that well. So I feel really grateful.”
Geoff Mayfield, Billboard’s director of charts, said, “There have been other new artists who have been able to reach a larger audience each week. What’s unusual about her is that she managed to debut at No. 1 and had increases each successive week. It’s difficult to start that high and continue to grow.
“But her label was smart, too. They’ve been building awareness on this artist for a while now (setting up a Web page and a toll-free number with music samples last summer). The album was supposed to come out in December, when there would’ve been more competition (from new discs by superstars Garth Brooks, Celine Dion and Jewel). If it had come out then, it wouldn’t have been as conspicuous.”
Spears had to postpone a “Tonight Show” appearance last week after she injured her leg during rehearsals.
“The doctors told me I have to have about two weeks of physical therapy and then I should be fine,” she said. “I just dislocated it, but I’m OK.”
Before heading back home to Kentwood, La., the next day, Spears cheered herself up by hitting the shopping mall.
And she knows her way around a mall. Last August, Spears went on a tour of shopping centers across the country to sing her pop songs, including her bubbly single.
Asked if she was inspired to do this by Tiffany – the ’80s pop star who launched her career in a similar fashion – Spears said, “I’ve heard of Tiffany, but I didn’t know she did the mall thing.”
And why should she? Spears was in kindergarten when Tiffany, then 15, sang her hit single “I Think We’re Alone Now” at a shopping center near you. But her label, Jive Records, obviously understood that this was a viable way of promoting the pretty blond singer to fans her age.
Show business isn’t new to Spears. At 9, she auditioned for – and was rejected by – the Disney Channel’s revival of “The Mickey Mouse Club.” They thought she was too young. She tried again at 11. This time, she landed a role alongside Keri Russell – now the star of “Felicity” – and future ‘N Sync members Justin Timberlake and J.C. Chasez.
“When I was opening for ‘N Sync, some of their fans were a little jealous of me because I got to hang out with the guys,” Spears said. “But you get that everywhere. In Germany, people think that I’m going out with (the Backstreet Boys’) Nick Carter, who I’ve never even really met. I guess people think that because me and Justin and J.C. worked together, we must hang out.”
Well, there was the matter of her smoochfest with Timberlake.
“That was five years ago!” she said, laughing. “Actually, Justin was my first kiss. He was very sweet.”
Currently unattached, the 11th-grader is enrolled in a home schooling program and said she is too busy to worry about getting a boyfriend. She just finished an ad campaign for Tommy Hilfiger and, after her leg heals, will head to Europe for a tour.
She is expected to embark on her first headlining tour of America this July.
So how does she plan to top all this?
“Well, everything that goes up is going to come down,” Spears said. “But that’s the only bad thing about all of this.”
