Britney Spears shuts down reports of a music comeback: ‘I will never return’

Britney Spears has shut down widespread reports of a potential music comeback, swearing to fans that she will “never return to the music industry.”

It’s a devastating revelation for fans who had their hopes up after publications like Page Six and the US Sun claimed that Spears had recruited songwriters like Charli XCX and Julia Michaels to help her write new music.

But, just as fans started to get their hopes up about new hits from the pop legend eight years after her last record, Spears took to social media to shut them down,

In a post to Instagram, she wrote: “Just so we’re clear most of the news is trash! They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album. I will never return to the music industry!!!”

The “Radar” singer 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!!!”

It didn’t seem unusual when Charli XCX and Julia Michaels were named as possible collaborators of Britney’s.

While Charli XCX has previously spoken about writing for Spears, Michaels is named as a writer on a number of Britney tracks, including “Do You Wanna Come Over”, “Just Like Me”, “Just Luv Me”, and “Slumber Party.”

All of those tracks appeared on Spears’ last album Glory, which, according to her memoir The Woman In Me, was a dream to make.

On working with songwriters Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter for the album, Spears wrote: “We’d sit and write everything together. I had a passion about it. It was the one thing in the 13 years of the conservatorship that I really put my heart into. 

“I worked hard on those songs, which gave me confidence. You know when you’re good at something and you can feel it? You start doing something and think, I got this? Writing that album gave me my confidence back.”

But, it looks like Spears will be keeping her songwriting skills on the down low, now that she has broken the news that there is no new Britney music in the works.

Despite her love of the craft, Spears wrote in her memoir that she has no interest in returning to music, still partially traumatised from the last few years of her career before she officially announced her hiatus in 2019.

Before her hiatus, Spears was in the midst of a Las Vegas residency – and a strict conservatorship controlled by her father Jamie Spears.

Reflecting on the last few years of her career, Spears says in the bestseller: “I realise how much of myself I withheld on stage, how much by trying to punish the people who held me captive I punished everyone else, too – including my loyal fans, including myself. 

“But now I know why I’ve been sleepwalking through so much of the past 13 years. I was traumatised.”

Elsewhere in the memoir, she explained that she is more interested in spending time alone and working on herself than she is in returning to her music career.

“Right now it’s time to get my spiritual life in order, to pay attention to the little things, to slow down,” the book reads. 

“Being an entertainer was great, but over the last 5 years, my passion to entertain in front of a live audience has lessened. I do it for myself now. I feel God more when I’m alone.”

Reacting to Britney’s official confirmation that she really isn’t making a comeback, fans showed the singer lots of love on social media.

“It’s a huge loss for pop music but whatever makes her happy in life,” one person tweeted in response to the news.

A second posted: “Honestly good for her, I always suspected she was going to retire from music/performing like we know her for and lead a quieter life. After what she’s been through she deserves it.”

And a third commented: “If that’s what she thinks is best for her, we owe her nothing less than our full support.”

We’ve always got your back, Britney!