Femme Fatale (Britney Spears album)
Femme Fatale (French for: fatal woman) is the seventh studio album by US singer Britney Spears. It was released in Germany on 25 March 2011.
With Femme Fatale, Spears broke records in the U.S., as she is the first and only artist to ever manage to debut with six albums at number 1 as well as seven albums at least at number 2. Furthermore, she is the artist with the most number 1 albums this millennium.
The album reached the top ten in 28 countries, including #1 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Mexico, Russia and South Korea's international charts, seamlessly following the success of Circus.
The first single Hold It Against Me reached #1 in seven countries, including the US and Canada, where it became her fourth #1 in each country. The song also charted in the top ten in eleven other countries. In the U.S., this marked Spears' debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, something she previously accomplished with 3, and made her only the second artist to have more than one debut at #1. To date, the song has sold 1.2 million copies in America, 411,000 of which were in its debut week alone, reaching platinum status.
The second single Till the World Ends debuted at #20 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and managed to reach #9 the following week. After the release of The Femme fatale remix, which also featured Nicki Minaj and Kesha as guest vocalists, the song rose to #3 on the US charts. The song became her tenth top 10 hit and has sold more than 1.6 million copies to date, which means platinum status. Till the World Ends enjoyed great longevity on the charts, unlike Spears' previous singles. The song has also charted in the top 10 in 15 countries, including #2 in Norway and Russia.
I Wanna Go debuted at #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #60 on the Canadian Hot 100 in the week following the release of Femme Fatale, thanks to strong download sales. On May 13, 2011, it was officially announced that the song would be released as the third single off the album. Following the radio premiere and the release of the music video, the song rose to #7 and #6 in the U.S. and Canada, respectively, and charted in the Top 40 in other countries, including Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, it is Spears' most successful radio hit in the U.S. to date, with a listenership of approximately 100 million.
After the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2011, Spears announced in an MTV interview that Criminal would be released as the fourth single from Femme Fatale. Released as a download on iTunes on September 30, 2011, the song's official U.S. radio premiere was on October 11, 2011.
Combined sales of the album, the three singles released to date, and digital sales of the album songs in the U.S. is 5 million copies.
Title List
standard edition
| # | Title | Author(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
| 1. | Till the World Ends | Alexander Kronlund, Kesha Sebert, Dr. Luke, Max Martin | Dr Luke, Max Martin, Benny Blanco | 3:57 |
| 2. | Hold It Against Me | Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Mathieu Jomphe, Bonnie McKee | Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Billboard | 3:49 |
| 3. | Inside Out | Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Mathieu Jomphe, Bonnie McKee | Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Billboard | 3:38 |
| 4. | I Wanna Go | Max Martin, Savan Kotecha, Shellback | Max Martin, Shellback | 3:30 |
| 5. | How I Roll | Blodshy & Avant, Henrik Jonback, Magnus Lidehäll, Nicole Morier, Bonnie McKee | Bloodshy, Henrik Jonback, Magnus Lidehäll | 3:36 |
| 6. | (Drop Dead) Beautiful (feat. Sabi) | Ester Dean, Jeremy Coleman, Mathieu Jomphe, Benjamin Levin, Joshua Coleman | Benny Blanco, Ammo, JMIKE, Billboard | 3:36 |
| 7. | Seal It with a Kiss | Max Martin, Henry Walter, Dr Luke, Bonnie McKee | Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Dream Machine | 3:26 |
| 8. | Big Fat Bass (feat. will.i.am) | will.i.am | will.i.am | 4:44 |
| 9. | Trouble for Me | Hather Bright, Fraser T. Smith, Livvi Franc | Fraser T. Smith | 3:19 |
| 10. | Trip to Your Heart | Christian Karlsson, Henrik Jonback, Magnus Lidehäll, Pontus Winnberg, Nicole Morier, Sophie Stern | Bloodshy, Henrik Jonback, Mangus Lidehäll | 3:33 |
| 11. | Gasoline | Claude Kelly | Dr Luke, Benny Blanco | 3:08 |
| 12. | Criminal | Tiffany Amber, Max Martin, Shellback | Max Martin, Shellback | 3:45 |
deluxe edition
| # | Title | Author(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
| 13. | Up N' Down | Max Martin, Savan Kotecha, Shellback | Max Martin, Shellback, Oligee | 3:42 |
| 14. | He About to Lose Me | Rodney Jerkins, Ina Wroldsen... | Darkchild | 3:48 |
| 15. | Selfish | Mikkel Eriksen, Tor Hermansen, Sandy Wilhelm, Ester Dean, Traci Hale | Stargate, Sandy Vee | 3:43 |
| 16. | Don't Keep Me Waiting | Rodney Jerkins, Thomas Lumpkins, Michaela Shiloh | Darkchild | 3:21 |
Japanese Deluxe Edition
| # | Title | Author(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
| 17. | Scary | Fraser T. Smith, Kasia Livingston, Britney Spears | Fraser T. Smith | 3:39 |
Commercial success
On 31 March 2011, Femme Fatale debuted at #4 in Ireland, marking the first international placement for the album. A day later, it rose to #5 in Sweden, as well as #7 in the Netherlands on April 2. This was followed by #8 in each of the Belgian regions of Flanders and Wallonia. On April 3, Femme Fatale also reached #1 on the Australian album chart instantly, making it Spears' first #1 album there. Selling 35,000 copies in its first week, the album went straight gold. Femme Fatale also went straight to #1 in Brazil. In the UK, however, the album only entered the charts at #8, significantly worse than expected. In Germany, Femme Fatale reached #10 in its first week on the chart, making it their seventh consecutive top 10 album, although the album plummeted to #32 in its second week on the chart and dropped out of the charts after only six weeks. On April 4, the album debuted at #3 in New Zealand, where it is their highest chart entry, tied with their first two albums. In the U.S., the album will debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 279,000 copies sold, making it Spears' sixth number-one album. It sold a lot less than Circus, which sold 505,000 units in its first week, though it should be noted that Circus was released during the Christmas season. In Switzerland, the album debuted at #2, while in Portugal, the album reached #4 in its first week, making it the most successful placement in that country. In Canada, the album debuted at #1 with 22,000 copies sold, also becoming the sixth number one album there. In Japan, the album reached number 9 in its first week. In addition, it was announced that the album entered Russia at number 1 and has already reached gold status.
On April 29, Spears' official website announced that her sixth studio album has gone platinum. This is her seventh album to go platinum. This brings Spears' total to 33 platinum awards, giving her 33 million certified album sales. The album also went platinum in Canada, as well as gold in Brazil, Mexico, France, Korea, Singapore, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
On July 6, the semi-annual Soundscan charts were released in the US, featuring Britney twice. Among the best-selling albums, she ranks 12th with 590,000 units sold of the album Femme Fatale and 18th among the best-selling digital singles with 1,989,000 units sold of the second single Till the World Ends.
On December 23, the year-end charts were released by Billboard magazine. In it, Spears ranks 9th with 10,000,000 million singles sold in the United States.
