Britney masters the art of the comeback
It was another year and another attempted comeback for Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. After her disastrous performance of Gimme More at the ceremony last year, the former pop tart has made perhaps the biggest rehabilitation in music history, over a 12-month rollercoaster ride that has seen her paparazzi value drop considerably.
And as she begins what Russell Brand says is a "resurrection" of her career by winning three VMAs, we look back at Britney's last 12 months.
September 2007: Those who saw Britney's performance at last year's VMAs – now dubbed Britney's comeback 1.0 by critics – certainly weren't saying Gimme More, the name of the song she performed. She bombed in spectacular fashion at last year's festivities in Las Vegas, delivering one of the worst performances in VMA history, stumbling her way through the song looking dishevelled and disinterested.
The performance was widely panned, with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton saying: "She blew it. Everybody knows Britney lip-synchs, but that's because she dances so much. She barely even danced in this. It was so bad. It was painful. It was embarrassing. And I loved it!"
Producer and singer Akon added: "It definitely could have been a lot better.
"She seemed nervous... you could tell by the expression on her face."
The appearance would herald the start of a mostly traumatic year for the singer. In the same month, the mother of two was told by a court she would need to undergo random drug and alcohol tests and have parent counselling. At the time she shared custody with ex-husband Kevin Federline.
October 2007: Britney lost physical custody of sons Jayden-James and Sean Preston shortly after she was charged with what US reports call a hit-and-run, the singer scraped another vehicle in a car park and drove off without leaving her details.
However Britney's album Blackout, her fifth studio effort, was released at the end of the month, debuting at No 2 in the US Billboard charts. It had sold 887,000 copies in the United States up to August 2008 and there have been 3.1 million digital downloads of songs and remixes from the album.
Though it didn't sell tremendously well in the UK, it was generally very well received by critics.
January 2008: The year began disastrously for Britney as police were called to her residence when she refused to hand over her children to Kevin's representatives. The singer had allegedly not slept for four days, and was taken to hospital after she "appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance", though blood tests apparently proved it was nothing illegal. She was kept in hospital for two days for observation.
Her visitation rights of her two children were suspended indefinitely.
Britney's father James Spears was later given complete control of her assets along with his lawyer, and after an order from a psychiatrist she was sent back to a hospital for an "involuntary psychiatric hold".
February 2008: A restraining order was issued against Sam Lutfi, who claimed to be her manager. A few days later she was released from the medical centre and at the end of the month she saw her children for the first time since the incident at the beginning of January after she regained some of her visitation rights.
March 2008: Britney made a guest appearance on US sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and received positive reviews for her performance as a receptionist.
May 2008: News broke this month that Britney reportedly spent $61 million (Dh223m) – or the equivalent of the GDP of the Falkland islands – between legal fees, rehab, wig refurbishments, private jets, three ocelots and more. She reportedly still had $40m left in the bank.
July 2008: Britney and Kevin agreed he would continue to have custody of the two children, but Britney would keep her visitation rights.
September 2008: Having avoided any calamities in recent months, the tabloid target seems to have put her life back together.
She swept the board at Sunday's VMAs in LA, winning the first three Moonman statuettes of her career, though she did not perform at the ceremony.
She is now working on a new album and also seems to be returning to her famously svelte shape.