Britney Spears has released She’ll Never Be Me, a song she wrote and recorded in 2001 with Justin Timberlake as a co-writer. The track was made for her third album, Britney, but was left unfinished and dropped from the final tracklist. It now leads the extra material on a 25th anniversary edition of the record. It is the first new release from Spears in some time and gives fans a glimpse of a session from one of the busiest periods of her career.
Timberlake also sings backing vocals on the song. It was one of several tracks that did not survive the album’s final edit as other songs took priority. Producer Alex Greggs, who works as part of the duo Riprock ‘n’ Alex G, explained on a podcast in 2022 that it missed the cut because the team had stronger options. The song therefore sat unheard in the archive for a quarter of a century before this week’s release.
The anniversary edition of Britney is due on 6 November and will include five previously unreleased songs, of which She’ll Never Be Me is the first to be shared. The original album came out in November 2001 and arrived as Spears was at the height of her early fame, promoting it heavily on MTV’s TRL. The reissue marks the record’s 25th anniversary and arrives on the same date the original was promoted on MTV’s TRL in 2001.
The release is notable because Spears has said in the past that she would never return to the music industry. She has since sold her music catalogue to Primary Wave. Her career was shaped for 14 years by a conservatorship that controlled her personal and financial affairs until it ended in 2021,. Against that background, the decision to open the vaults for the anniversary of Britney has drawn attention from fans who had expected no further releases.
For fans, the reissue offers a rare look at songs from the period that was left in the archive. It has not been said whether Spears was involved in choosing the bonus material or whether any further unreleased recordings from her early years will follow. The remaining four tracks on the anniversary edition have not yet been named, and details are expected closer to the November release.
