Britney Spears says she will ‘never’ return to music as she shuts down Charli XCX rumours

Reports had suggested Spears was teaming up with the ‘Speed Driver’ singer, as well as songwriter Julia Michaels, for an unannounced new album

Britney Spears has said that she will “never return to the music industry” as she shut down recent reports that she has been collaborating with well-known artists on new music.

The singer put out her last studio album in 2016, and has only appeared on a handful of musical projects since the end of her conservatorship in 2021.

However, it appeared that a comeback could be on its way, as reports emerged in late December claiming Spears had tapped songwriters including Charli XCX and Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez collaborator Julia Michaels to write on her unannounced 10th studio album.

But on Wednesday (3 January), the “Toxic” singer poured cold water on the reports in an Instagram post branding “most of the news” as “trash”.

“They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry !!!” Spears wrote. “When I write, I write for fun or I write for other people !!!”

However, Spears, 42, revealed that she had kept her passion for music alive by ghostwriting songs for other artists.

“For those of you who have read my book, there’s loads that you don’t know about me,” she wrote. “I’ve written over 20 songs for other people the past two years !!! I’m a ghostwriter and I honestly enjoy it that way !!!”

Spears’s post (Britney Spears/Instagram)

Spears also shut down rumours that her recent memoir The Woman in Me had been released “illegally” without her approval, saying: “That’s far from the truth … have you read the news these days ??? I’m so LOVED and blessed !!!”

Following the end of her controversial involuntary conservatorship, which she was placed under in 2008, in 2021, Spears has largely kept away from the entertainment business.

When the conservatorship came to an end in 2021, Spears shared on Instagram that she was scared of the music business, explaining that not releasing her own music was an act of defiance against her family.

However, she did return for two collaborative singles: “Hold Me Closer” with Elton John in 2022, and “Mind Your Business” with repeated collaborator Will.i.am in 2023.

Writing in The Woman in Me, however, Spears said that she wasn’t a fan of the music she’d made with the Black Eyed Peas musician.

Singer shared that she had ghostwritten more than 20 songs for other artists over the last two years (Getty Images)

“I made one good song with will.i.am – ‘Work B****’,” she wrote. “But I wasn’t making a lot of music that I was proud of, probably because I wasn’t into it.”

While Spears did not explicitly write in her memoir that she was leaving music for good, the singer did say that live performances no longer brought her joy.

“Pushing forward in my music career is not my focus at the moment,” she said. “Right now it’s time for me to try to get my spiritual life in order, to pay attention to little things, to slow down. It’s time for me not to be someone who other people want; it’s time to actually find myself.

“As I’ve gotten older, I like my alone time. Being an entertainer was great, but over the last five 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.”