Britney Spears new album

Photo Credit: Drew de F Fawkes / CC by 2.0

In a new Instagram post, Britney Spears squashes rumors that a new album is on the way, asserting she will ‘never return to the music industry.’

Britney Spears took to Instagram on Wednesday, January 3, to address reports that surfaced earlier this week that she was working on an unannounced new album — her first in almost ten years. But the pop star says those rumors are “trash,” declaring she will “never return to the music industry.”

According to rumors, Spears would be working with Charli XCX and writer Julia Michaels on a record, but that no new material had been recorded for the project, as it was “only starting to take shape.”

Spears has worked with Michaels in the past, chiefly on the track “Slumber Party,” on which Michaels is credited as a writer, for Spears’ 2016 album, Glory. But the nature of the pair’s collaborative relationship is unknown, or whether they’ve worked together more recently.

“Just so we’re clear, most of the news is trash! They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album… I will never return to the music industry,” writes Spears in the caption of her Instagram post. “When I write, I write for fun or I write for other people. For those of you who have read my book, there’s loads that you don’t know about me; I’ve written over 20 songs for other people the past two years.”

She also addressed rumors that her book, “The Woman in Me,” was released without her approval, saying “that’s far from the truth.” The book has enjoyed over 1.1 million copies sold in its first week across audiobooks, ebooks, print, and pre-sales, and was a national bestseller.

“Have you read the news these days? I’m so loved and blessed,” Spears concludes.

Notably, this is also a clear tongue-in-cheek jab at claims that the media had “learned (its) lesson” in the way it portrays young female celebrities since the days of turning a young Spears into a topic of scorn and ridicule. Britney would seemingly prefer that any rumors about her be taken with a grain of salt.