Britney Spears Says She ‘Will Never Return To The Music Industry,’ So, No, She Is Not Working On A New Album

It's 2024, and Britney Spears is still shutting down miscellaneous reports and rumors about her. On Wednesday, January 3, Page Six reported that Spears had begun working with Charli XCX and Julia Michaels on an album, which would be her first full-length album since 2016's Glory. Hours later, Spears disputed any such rumor — and more. Much more.

"Just so we're clear most of the news is trash !!!" Spears captioned an Instagram post of a Guido Reni painting. "They keep saying I'm turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry !!!"

Spears continued, "When I write, I write for fun or I write for other people !!! For those of you who have read my book, there's loads that you don't know about me … I've written over 20 songs for other people the past two years !!! I'm a ghostwriter and I honestly enjoy it that way !!! People are also saying MY BOOK WAS RELEASED WITHOUT MY APPROVAL ILLEGALLY and that's far from the truth … have you read the news these days ??? I'm so LOVED and blessed !!!"

Rolling Stone's Tomás Mier kept some hope alive, however, with a report citing "a source close to the Spears project-in-the-works" and noting, "the singer's team was preparing new music to get the singer to return to the studio, but that she had not yet been 'actively in recording.'"

"Right now, management and A&R are trying to get her excited for the music," the unnamed source said. "As of right now, she's not actively in recording but they're getting [songs] done to present to her. […] Nothing is cemented or in stone."

The source added that "everyone wants her to make music again, but I don't know if she's there yet."

For the record, Spears' memoir, The Woman In Me, was released in late October. The book dropped bombshell after bombshell and left Spears similarly distressed over how the media chose to frame coverage about the book. The Woman In Me sold 1.1 million copes in the US in its first week, per The Associated Press.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.