Britney Spears’ Team Is ‘Trying to Get Her Excited’ About Music as She Says She’ll ‘Never Return’

RUMORS HAVE BEEN swirling about a musical comeback from Britney Spears in recent days, but in a new Instagram post Wednesday, the singer shut them down saying she’ll “never return to the industry.”

Minutes before her post, however, a source close to the Spears project-in-the-works tells Rolling Stone that the singer’s team was preparing new music to get the singer to return to the studio, but that she had not yet been “actively in recording.”

“Right now, management and A&R are trying to get her excited for the music,” the source says. “As of right now, she’s not actively in recording but they’re getting [songs] done to present to her.”

“Nothing is cemented or in stone,” they add.

Spears’ team had tapped Julia Michaels and Charli XCX as writers, producer Cirkut, and several of the collaborators from Glory, including Jason Evigan, to make songs to present to the singer, the source says. Evigan worked on “Man on the Moon” and “Liar” from her 2016 LP, while Cirkut produced all of Ava Max’s Diamonds and Dancefloors last year, along with Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy.”

”The hype around this is that everyone wants her to make music again, but I don’t know if she’s there yet,” the source says, adding that both pop ballads and uptempo songs had been prepared to present to the singer.

In a fiery Instagram post Wednesday, the singer said that much of the news surrounding new music “is trash,” and added that she had “written over 20 songs for other people” in the last two years, opting instead to ghostwrite.

“They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry !!!” she wrote. “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.”

Spears’ new post aligns with what she wrote in her memoir The Woman in Me. “Pushing forward in my music career is not my focus at the moment,” she said. “It’s time for me not to be someone who other people want; it’s time to actually find myself.”

Spears last released “Mind Your Business” with Will.i.am earlier this year, though her vocals were recorded years prior. The track marked her first musical release since “Hold Me Closer,” her song with Elton John, which reimagined several of his hits back in August 2022. That single served as her official comeback following the end of her 13-year conservatorship.

Though many Spears stans have shared their excitement about the prospect of new music in recent days, some told Rolling Stone last year that they will respect whatever the singer chooses to do next.

“Any time there’s no clear-cut answer as to what’s going on with Britney, there’s a level of speculation,” said Jordan Miller, who runs fansite BreatheHeavy.com, in August following her divorce from Sam Asghari. “There’s an element of the unknown that makes Britney mysterious to everyone.”

From Rolling Stone US.