FACTBOX: Britney Spears, pop princess

(Reuters) - Britney Spears performed for the first time in more than three years on Tuesday, making a brief, unadvertised appearance at a California nightclub, according to local media reports.

Following are some facts about Spears.

* Spears, 25, is the biggest-selling female artist of the 2000s with more than 70 million records sold. In 2002, she was ranked the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes Magazine. The same year she earned a Razzie Award for worst actress for her movie debut "Crossroads."

* Spears got her start as a child star on the "The Mickey Mouse Club" TV show in the early 1990s, along with Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

* She was catapulted to fame by her first single "Baby One More Time" in 1999 and its music video, in which she was provocatively dressed in a Catholic school girl's uniform.

* As a teenager she famously said she would remain a virgin until she married, but later admitted to having sex with Timberlake, her first boyfriend.

* Spears inspired fashion fads like low-rise jeans and exposed navels, caused outrage by kissing Madonna on TV in 2003 and was blamed for sexualizing preteen girl fans.

* Spears was photographed several times in December 2006 wearing no underwear under her miniskirts. The next month, she posted a message on her Web site acknowledging the negative publicity and writing, "I look forward to coming back this year bigger and better than ever and to reaching out to my fans on a more personal level."

* Spears reached a divorce settlement in March with her husband, former backup dancer Kevin Federline, whom she married in September 2004. They have two children.