Britney Spears posted an a capella rendition of her 1998 hit song, “Baby One More Time,” writing that she hadn’t “shared my voice in an extremely long time … maybe too long.”
Days after a judge ordered her father and former conservator Jamie Spears to sit for a deposition and surrender surveillance documents, the singer treated fans to “a different version” she said her team blocked her from recording.
“Well I have asked for what I wanted for 14 years,” she wrote of the time she spent under her conservatorship. “A different version of ‘Baby’ but have the producers actually work for me and put it together … a start…” However, “the TEAM said NO.”
In the clip, Spears sings in a lower register than the original, showcasing her vocal range. The new version, which she says she recorded the day before posting, also throws in an expletive: “Give me a f–ing sign.”
Spears explained that she shared the video “because I am aware of my love and passion to sing … and my own family made a fool of me.”
“I’m not going to be a victim,” she added.
Since her decade-long fight to end her conservatorship exploded into public view last year, Spears has been vocal on social media about her family’s complicity, while celebrating her newfound freedom. Nearly a year after the legal arrangement was suspended in September 2021 and lifted two months later, Spears and her father’s lawyers are still battling in court over allegations of financial abuse and the botched handling of the singer’s estate.
Spears’ fans rejoiced in the comments, with some encouraging her to re-record her hits à la Taylor Swift, who is remaking the albums owned by her estranged former label. Fans praised Spears’ “natural voice” and begged for more covers of her hits under similar arrangements.
Watch the full video above or here.
