Femme Fatale

Femme Fatale is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears, first released on March 25, 2011, by Jive Records. Spears began working on the album during the second leg of The Circus Starring Britney Spears, while also working on her second compilation. Spears worked with record producer and long-time collaborator Max Martin. Along with Dr. Luke, Martin wrote several tracks, including "Hold It Against Me", a track that was originally planned for Katy Perry, but they later decided that "it definitely wasn't a Katy Perry record." Musically, Femme Fatale is a dance-oriented album that incorporates elements of various genres, such as dubstep, techno and trance.
Spears explained that she "wanted to make a fierce dance record where each song makes you want to get up and move your body in a different way." She wanted to stray away sonically from her previous material, and worked with different producers over the course of two years, such as William Orbit, Fraser T. Smith, Rodney Jerkins, will.i.am and StarGate. Several collaborations were made with high-profile artists for the album's promotion such as Kesha, Nicki Minaj, Travis Barker, and Rihanna. Spears stated that Femme Fatale is her best album so far, and also a "fresh-sounding" record for clubs. It was also Spears's final album with Jive following the label's closure in October 2011.
Upon its release, Femme Fatale received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and dance-pop style. However, some criticized it for Spears' supposed lack of involvement and heavily-processed vocals, while stating that the singer was no longer the center of the album and found a trade-off to be real personality. Singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder defended Spears, saying that Frank Sinatra and Garth Brooks were huge artists who didn't write most of their songs. Commercially, Femme Fatale has become successful, debuting atop of the charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and peaking inside the top ten in twenty-four countries. In the United States, she earned her sixth number one album and has sold over 755,000 copies.
Four singles were released from the album: "Hold It Against Me", "Till the World Ends", and "I Wanna Go" became worldwide hits, and reached top ten positions in the United States, making it Spears' first album to have three top ten hits in the country. The fourth single "Criminal" turned out as a moderate hit, peaking inside the top twenty in five countries. However, it reached number one in Brazil. To promote Femme Fatale, Spears performed the songs in a number of television appearances and also embarked on the Femme Fatale Tour in 2011. Joe Jonas, Nicki Minaj and Nervo served as the opening acts for most shows of the tour.