Jive Releases Statement Regarding Billboard Ranking

Britney Spears is making history withher new single, "Womanizer." This week, "Womanizer" makes an unprecedentedleap from No. 96* to claim the No. 1* spot on Billboard's "Hot 100 Singles"chart. This is the first time a song has ever made a leap of this magnitudeon the singles chart. Further attesting to the multi-platinum singer'sworldwide appeal, "Womanizer" is the No. 1 song on iTunes charts in Canada,France, Spain and Sweden.

The song's astonishing climb up the charts comes despite a major glitchthat occurred yesterday when the "Womanizer" digital track wasinadvertently removed and unavailable for sale at iTunes in the U.S. and inother countries for over a twelve hour period. The track first becameavailable on iTunes on October 7th, and prior to the technical error, thedigital track ranked No.1 there, selling over 275K units within the firstsix days of its release. However, the brief lapse did not slow down themomentum of the super-star's project; currently the digital track is backup on iTunes and digital sales are expected to quickly recover.

Rounding out a record-setting week, Spears debuted her "Womanizer"video on ABC's 20/20 news program this past Friday night; this is the firsttime a music video in its entirety has ever premiered during primetime onABC. Additionally, the news program won the ratings race during its timeslot, coming in No.1 in the coveted 18-35 demographic. The captivatingvideo was directed by Joseph Kahn, who also directed Spears' riveting"Toxic" video.

"Womanizer" is the first single from her forthcoming album, Circus andwas produced by the up-and-coming Atlanta production team The Outsyders.For her latest album, Britney has enlisted a stellar group of establishedproducers/writers that include Dr. Luke (who wrote and produced the album'stitle track, "Circus"), Danja, Max Martin, Bloodshy & Avant and GuySigsworth (Madonna, Alanis Morissette, Bjork). Her sixth studio album,Circus, is set for release December 2nd, which coincides with Spears' 27thbirthday.

Britney Spears is one of the top-selling artists of the last decade andto date; she has sold in excess of 62 million albums worldwide, thatinclude "...Baby One More Time"(1999), "Oops!...I Did It Again" (2000),"Britney" (2001), "In The Zone" (2003), and "Blackout" (2007), nine #1 worldwide singles and four consecutive #1 albums.

Source: Jive Records