A simultaneous release in 26 countries, pre-orders topping online sales sites, a monumental presence in bookshops worldwide (100,000 copies in France), with an estimated $15 million in sales (around €14 million), leaks to the press... The Woman in Me, available since Tuesday, October 24, is one of the publishing events of 2023.

And with good reason, since the woman in question, the book's author, is one of the world's most famous stars: Britney Spears. A star revealing herself is nothing new under the entertainment sun, you might say. And yet.

If The Woman in Me – written with an unnamed ghostwriter – is one of the major releases of the year for English publishing giant Simon & Schuster. If the American media fought hard to obtain an exclusive interview with the singer – with the weekly People winning by a wide margin – it's because Spears is not a star like the others. "There's a real sense of expectation around this book," pointed out Véronique Cardi, general manager of JC Lattès Editions, which is publishing the French version, "from fans, of course, but also from all those who see her as an icon of our times."

Let's recap. Spears, the daughter of a middle-class family from the southern United States, has become one of the most listened-to singers on the planet in the space of 25 years. She's also been the talk of the town. For her syrupy lyrics, with their sexual allusions, for her marriages, her revealing outfits, a few scandals... She has often shocked mainstream America. In this respect, Spears has followed a path notably blazed by Madonna. But the woman who grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana, has also fueled the legal chronicle.

In 2008, following suspicions of a mental disorder, the singer was placed under guardianship. The management of her day-to-day life, from finances to relationships, fell into the hands of her father, James Parnell Spears. A fleet of lawyers, accountants and psychologists monitored her every move.

On social media, her fans, judging the case as excessive, launched the #FreeBritney movement. In autumn 2020, the singer decided to seek justice. In early 2021, a documentary produced by the New York Times, Framing Britney Spears, revealed that she was indeed a victim of this guardianship and under the influence of her father and his entourage. The much-discussed trial resulted in the guardianship being lifted at the end of 2021.

This, of course, is the very essence of an autobiography: The Woman in Me revisits key moments in its author's life. "But this word is free, at last!" said Cardi. There are, of course, the descriptions of a childhood spent dreaming of becoming "a star like Madonna, Dolly Parton or Whitney Houston," her debut, at the age of eight, on The Mickey Mouse Club show, and her first concerts in shopping malls.

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