page_title: Femme Fatale (Britney Spears album)
section_title: Recording and production
hierarchical_section_title: Femme Fatale (Britney Spears album) / Recording and production
caption_attribution_description: English: Spears
context_page_description: Femme Fatale is the seventh studio album by American singer Britney Spears. It was released on March 25, 2011, by Jive Records and was her last album with the label before they shutdown later that year as she was moved to RCA Records. Musically, Spears wanted to make a "fresh-sounding" and "fierce dance album", thus incorporating dance-pop, EDM and synthpop styles with elements of dubstep, techno and electro in its sound. Spears began working on the album during the second leg of her tour The Circus Starring Britney Spears, while also contributing to her second greatest hits album The Singles Collection. Spears collaborated with various producers including Max Martin, Dr. Luke, William Orbit, Fraser T Smith, Rodney Jerkins, Bloodshy & Avant, will.i.am and Stargate.
  Upon its release, the album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented its production and dance-pop style. The album debuted atop the charts in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and peaking inside the top-ten in 24 countries.
context_section_description: In July 2009, Spears announced that she had begun recording new material with longtime collaborator Max Martin. Spears stated her desire to make the album "fresh-sounding [...] for the clubs or something that you play in your car when you're going out at night that gets you excited, but I wanted it to sound different from everything else out right now." Spears also stated that she wanted to make sure Femme Fatale was completely different from her previous studio album Circus (2008). After "Hold It Against Me" was written, originally, Luke and Martin wanted to give the track to Katy Perry, but they later decided that it wasn't the right fit for her. They continued to work on the song with Billboard, and Luke commented that before giving the song to Spears he wanted to make sure it sounded different from his previous recordings. Darkchild stated that while working with him, Spears was very "hands-on" and "had a lot of ideas for [him]." He later commented he had produced two songs for the album, with one of them featuring Travis Barker. Darkchild added that the song "[has] this rock feel which is out of the box, out of my norm, and I think it's out of her norm as well."
  Dr. Luke revealed in February 2011 that a final track listing had not yet been chosen. Later that month, Spears worked with will.i.am. Spears later commented that she is a fan of The Black Eyed Peas, and would love to work with will.i.am again the future. She also said that she discovered Sabi through a friend recommendation, and had always wanted to feature a new artist in one of her albums, hence they recorded "(Drop Dead) Beautiful". British producer Fraser T Smith worked with Spears on three tracks and complimented her work ethic, saying that her voice was powerful and that she focused on the music. William Orbit confirmed he had co-written a track for Spears with Klas Åhlund, but it was left off the final track listing. Orbit stated that he was displeased with the decision, and commented, "[T]he Britney thing. Look, I went to a writing camp at Teresa's. Had lovely time. Word got out. Assumptions were made. Dr Luke is exec[utive] prod[ucer] and he locks in locks out whoever he likes. And (do [I] hear [you] ask) where B's at in all this? I surely don't know. [D]id a song [with] Klas Ahlund, who wrote 'Piece of Me'. And is killa. But not on [Femme Fatale] apparently. But a good song is a good song regardless."
caption: Spears performing "He About to Lose Me" during the Femme Fatale Tour, 2011.
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