Britney Spears: Back On Track?

Can Britney Spears do it again? Will she be able to make a comeback?

Ever since her personal struggles began two years ago, there have been endless efforts to bring Britney back.

Last year, she was ridiculed for a disastrous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. She then made another attempt at a comeback with the release of her fifth, but less successful album, "Blackout."

Now, with her personal life seemingly back on track, Spears is busy promoting her new CD, "Circus," which is in stores today. It's also no coincidence that it also just happens to be her 27th birthday.

Britney is back in the spotlight appearing on the covers of this month's Rolling Stone magazine and the January issue of Glamour.

Meanwhile, a documentary about Spears produced by her record company debuted on MTV on Nov. 30.

Spears has had several run-ins with the paparazzi. She has also shown some strange and unusual behavior like shaving her head. She talks about it in the documentary.

"People shave their heads all the time, you know. I was going through a lot, but it was just me kind of feeling a little form of rebellion or feeling freer," she said. "Shedding stuff that you had happened, you know."

Her troubled private life included her marriage to Kevin Federline in 2004. Their marriage ended two years later and the singer lost custody of their two young children. Spears also had to be forcibly hospitalized twice for psychiatric evaluation.

"I just remember I did not want to be at home," she says in her the documentary.

"My babies represented home and that was my home, with them. And every time I went home, I was like 'Oh, God, I can't be here.'"

Joe Levy, editor-in-chief of Blender magazine, has tracked Britney's career.

"I think the refreshing surprise was to see Britney try to address what had happened to her as best she could," he says of the MTV documentary. "She's not really been a very reflective person in interviews before. This had an honesty and an intimacy we hadn't seen. But honestly, the best parts were when she was relaxed and joking around with her friends, her staff and her family. I didn't go to it expecting to get the real the inside story. I don't think she wants to give that up."

So what did she reveal?

"I learned that she was able to talk about herself in a way that I've never seen herself talk about herself before. I learned that she knew that it was a little messed up, what had happened. Beyond that? No. She told us what we already knew. This was difficult for her, it was painful and it was crazy. What really happened? She hasn't told us yet, and she may not."

Levy says just because she lived out her private dramas very much in public, it doesn't give us the right to know every single thing about her. Levy says he is not sure if she's changed, but he does see a "different" Britney from a year ago.

"She has hair - that's a big change right there - and she's blond. She is in her public Britney mode. Her entertainment mode. She's not in retirement mode or her paparazzi chasing mode," he said.

Levy says Britney is very focused. She's workign again and made a good record.

"Let's remember, a little more than a year ago she had a great song and a good album out. Last time she didn't show up for her own comeback.
This time she's actually shown up," he said. "What's going on in the inside? We don't know. What's happening on the outside? That's a big change from a year ago.

Britney is now on tour. Levy says while tours are difficult for many, for Britney, they have been "a little exhausting" in the past.

"This kind of tour is a very difficult, isolating thing. You go from city to city, it's a huge production. It could prove to very difficult for her. We'll see what happens."