Whilst she is currently in and out of the studio and enjoying downtime, Britney has commented on her Twitter account about the one-year anniversary of her tour, The Circus Starring Britney Spears, saying, "The first date of my Circus tour was one year ago today. Thanks again for an amazing year filled with amazing memories!"

Britney, who has dyed her hair back to blonde, is currently recording a new album, with Britney.com, her official label site, posting, "Y’all have been bombarding me with questions about Britney’s mysterious seventh studio album… but I don’t really blame you. I CAN’T WAIT EITHER! Rest assured that an album IS in the process of being recorded, and it’s going to be sick. But a release date has not been confirmed or officially announced. As I always say, if it’s not on Britney.com or BritneySpears.com, take it with a grain of salt. Eye-wink I’ll give you new music details as soon as I can. For now… I’m dying to hear your thoughts. What would you like to see/hear on B’s next album? xx♥"

Billboard has announced the top 40 moneymakers in music for 2009, "from 4th January 2009) through to the last tracking week of the calendar year, ended 3rd January 2010," with statistics "based on the artist's share of revenue as opposed to total dollars generated by each artist in the ranking. Our figures do not include revenue from merchandise sales, sponsorships, synchronization deals and songwriter performance royalties." Included in the tally for money cashed in, Billboard took into account concert grosses, all album and single sales, tethered downloads, streams and ringtone sales. Britney ranked at #5, with $38,885,267, with them saying, "It seemed unlikely that Britney Spears could ever recover professionally from a series of bizarre events that led up to her 2008 "Circus" CD. But the album bowed atop the Billboard Top 200 in December 2008, and the pop star's success continued into 2009 with an arena tour that earned her $36.4 million and album sales that totalled 763,000 copies in 2009 alone. Digitally, Spears sold 7.5 million downloads; the largest seller was the racy Max Martin-produced single, "3," which moved 1.6 million downloads. U2 ranked at #1, Madonna at #3, P!nk at #6 and Beyonce, who was reportedly the overall biggest earner, at only #13.

The RIAA, the recording industry body for America, recently released a tally of the decade's highest Gold and Platinum award achievements, with Britney ranking #1 on the decade-end honours, as the female solo artist with the most album certifications (23 in total) during 2000-2009. "We've seen a decade of major music milestones and extraordinary artist achievements as part of our historic Gold and Platinum program," says Mitch Bainwol, CEO of RIAA. Britney ranked six Gold awards and 18x Platinum awards for her albums released through the decade, meaning her debut wasn't included!

 
Britney Spears and her current boyfriend, Jason Trawick, attended the 52nd Grammy Awards last night, wearing a stunning sheer black bodice with lace tights, unfortunately she didn't win the award for Best Dance Recording, for which "Womanizer," was nominated, with the award going to Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" instead.

Marcella Araica AKA Ms. Lago, who wrote with Danja on tracks for Britney's "Blackout" album in 2007, has posted on her Twitter account about the new Britney album, responding to the question about when the Britney 'storm is coming', saying, "Soon! And when it's coming... Be sure to hear about it!" Kiis FM has claimed the album will be released in early Summer 2010, with a David Guetta-produced lead single hitting radio stations in March!

Britney attended court yesterday for an update on her conservatorship hearing, and for the court to approve the auction of her silver dress, worn to the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, to raise funds for the Haiti Earthquake disaster charities. Britney attended court with her father, Jamie, and the hearing was sealed due to the private personal and medical files discussed. It was also approved that containers of items containing props from Britney's 2009 tour, The Circus Starring Britney Spears, could be disposed of. Her lawyer, Samuel Ingham, said, "Britney is perfectly satisfied with the disposal of property and she is very enthusiastic" about the Haiti donation." Britney was not present for the hearing postmortem due to a previously arranged commitment with her sons, who were dropped off at Britney's home before the hearing. She is "appreciative of the extra time and energy the court has given" to these proceedings, he added.

Marcella Araica AKA Ms. Lago, who wrote with Danja on tracks for Britney's "Blackout" album in 2007, has posted on her Twitter account about the new Britney album, responding to the question about when the Britney 'storm is coming', saying, "Soon! And when it's coming... Be sure to hear about it!" Kiis FM has claimed the album will be released in early Summer 2010, with a David Guetta-produced lead single hitting radio stations in March!

Rodney Jerkins AKA Darkchild, has announced on his Twitter that he is writing and producing tracks for submission for Britney's new studio album, due in the Summer of 2010. Darkchild submitted tracks for "Circus," including a co-write with Lady Gaga, entitled "Telephone," which was rejected and is now being released as a single with Lady Gaga duetting with Beyonce, following Britney's management's denial for her to be featured as a featuring artist. Darkchild posted, "In the studio writing a sick song with Michaela Shiloh to present to Britney, hope she likes it, it feels like a BIG SMASH!"

Billboard have announced their end-of-decade sales lists, placing Britney Spears as the biggest selling female artist of the decade in the USA, and the 2nd biggest seller overall, behind Eminem, and way ahead of acts such as Madonna, Destiny's Child, Beyonce, Alicia Keys and P!nk. Britney also ranks as the #21 biggest touring artist of the decade, having sold out 158/255 shows and grossed $216,229,560, playing to nearly 3.8million people since 2000!

Britney's second compilation album, the follow-up to her million-selling 2004 set, "The Singles Collection" has debuted at #38 in the official UK Top 75 Albums chart, based on sales of the CD and CD+DVD set this week!

 
"The Singles Collection" is out now in the UK, available on three different physical formats - the standard CD, featuring 17 of her biggest hits, including all 5 of her UK #1 singles, and her latest top ten smash, "3"; a CD+DVD set, featuring the standard CD and a 16-track DVD, and a 30-disc deluxe box set, featuring all 29 of her worldwide singles on special 2-track CDs, and a DVD featuring 26 music videos. There are also digital versions, including a 23-track deluxe digital download, featuring 22 hit singles and "3," and the opportunity to download the deluxe box set tracks as 'Digital 45's' or as a set - visit the discography for the full range of releases worldwide, and here to see the versions of "3"!

"The Singles Collection," which is available in the USA on a single-disc, featuring 16 of Britney's biggest hits and her latest #1 single, "3," has debuted at #22 in the US Billboard Top 200 albums, selling over 26,000 copies this week.

Britney's 29th single, "3," her 26th hit to be released in the UK, becomes her 25th song to chart in the official UK top 20 singles chart, and her 20th single to debut within the top 10, as it charts this week at #7, selling 42,000+ copies.

"3" is now available for purchase in the UK on iTunes here, and Amazon MP3 here - it appears the physical CD release, which was due out tomorrow, has been cancelled. A digital EP will be released on 15th November, featuring remixes by Manhattan Clique, Groove Police and Wolfgang, and the instrumental, which was due to appear on the CD.