"Everytime" is a song by American singer Britney Spears from her fourth studio album, In the Zone (2003). It was released as the third single from In the Zone on May 10, 2004, by Jive Records. After her relationship with Justin Timberlake ended in 2002, Spears became friends with her background singer Annet Artani. They started writing songs together at Spears' house in Los Angeles, and then traveled to Lombardy, Italy, where they collaborated on "Everytime". Musically, it is a piano-driven pop ballad, which lyrically pleas for forgiveness for inadvertently hurting a former lover. Spears composed the music herself and wrote the lyrics with Artani about a romantic breakup.
"Everytime" received universal acclaim from music critics, who praised its lyrics, composition, and Spears' breathy vocals and songwriting, deeming it amongst the highlights of In the Zone. Commercially, it became a global success, topping the charts in five countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, and reached the top-ten in 16 other markets. In the United States, the single peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Spears did a series of live performances, such as for TV shows Saturday Night Live on NBC and Top of the Pops in the United Kingdom. On her tours, Spears also performed the song on piano in a flower-themed setting at The Onyx Hotel Tour (2004), while suspended on a giant umbrella at The Circus Starring Britney Spears (2009) and in an angel costume at Britney: Piece of Me (2013). The song has been covered by artists like Glen Hansard, Ethel Cain, Kelly Clarkson, Lewis Capaldi, Trisha Paytas, and James Franco in the 2013 film Spring Breakers.
Inspired by the cinematography of the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas, the accompanying music video for "Everytime" was directed by David LaChapelle. It features Spears as a pop star fighting with a male companion (Stephen Dorff) as she is hounded by paparazzi. She starts to drown in her bathtub after bleeding from a head wound. In the hospital, doctors fail to resuscitate her, while simultaneously a child is born in the next room (implying she has been reincarnated). The original concept had Spears kill herself from a drug overdose, but that part of the plot was removed after it received criticism from organizations such as Kidscape, who perceived it as a glamorization of suicide. Critics took note of the video for its religious references to The Passion of the Christ, Kabbalah and stigmata, as well as for foreshadowing Spears' own struggles with fame.
Background and writing
Britney Spears' three-year relationship with singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake ended in 2002 after months of speculation. In November 2002, Timberlake released the song "Cry Me a River" as the second single from his debut solo album Justified. The song's music video featured a Spears lookalike and fueled the rumors that she had been unfaithful to him. "Cry Me a River" is often credited as being the song that propelled Justified onto the charts. In September 2001, Annet Artani accepted an offer to become a backing vocalist for Spears's 2001–02 Dream Within a Dream Tour. Her interactions with Spears during most of the tour were limited to small conversations at the gym and vocal warm ups. Artani had begun a relationship with the show's musical director during 2002; however, it was not working out well by the end of the tour. Before the final date in Mexico City, Spears called her and asked about the relationship. Artani told her they were going to break up, to which Spears responded, "Don't worry about it, you're going to hang out with me." Concluded the tour, Spears and Artani began to forge a friendship. Spears invited Artani to her house in Los Angeles. According to Artani, their relationship grew out of their shared romantic experiences at the time. She explained, "Basically, we commiserated because she, at that time, had broken up with Justin [Timberlake]. Maybe like nine months before, but of course it was really fresh in the media. I was just breaking up with this guy, so we kind of like—I think we kind of needed each other." Artani stayed at Spears' house for a few weeks, in which they started writing songs at the piano. Shortly after, they traveled to Lake Como in Lombardy, Italy. Artani added, "It was me and her, her stylist and Felicia, and we had this humongous house to ourselves, and they had a piano there as well."
According to Artani, "Everytime" was written in large part as a response to "Cry Me a River" as well as various radio interviews. Artani explained, "He was getting personal. Here, she had a different type of image, and he was really exposing some stuff that she probably didn't want out there, and in front of her little sister ... I remember her sister being mortified and her being mortified. I'm sure that that really hurt her." The song was also speculated to be a reply to Timberlake's "Never Again", a ballad which appeared on his debut solo album Justified. "Everytime" was recorded at Conway Studios in Los Angeles and mixed at Frou Frou Central in London, England.In the Zone liner notes. Jive Records (2003) During an interview with Hip Online, Spears commented about the recording sessions, saying, "... Like with 'Everytime' I wrote the whole thing from scratch on the piano. Musically there was no track or anything. I was just at my house and I did the whole thing by myself. And then I went and I played it for [Guy Sigsworth] and I just basically told him exactly how I wanted the song to sound. And he was so amazing because there's a lot of producers you tell them things and they don't get it. And you're like oh, that's not the right way. He got it just right. He was amazing. And so that song specifically, you know, I did everything."
Sigsworth was introduced to Spears by Max Martin, whom Robyn had previously introduced to Sigsworth after they worked together on her 2002 album Don't Stop the Music. Martin liked the songs Sigsworth had produced for Robyn and suggested inviting Spears to the studio. Sigsworth told Consequence, "She just came around to the place where I'd worked on the Frou Frou material, and initially I wasn't quite sure what to do because she's famous for her more dance-y songs, and I'm not. But it all turned out great." He recalled that Spears had become quite accustomed to playing the piano at that point; she played the root chords and he offered suggestions on how to complete them. He said, "We both knew where [the song] needed to go, so I could color it in after she'd sung the main vocal. I love it when I get the vocal very early on, and I'm free to experiment with arrangement ideas while always hearing that final vocal."
"Everytime" was one of the first songs finished for In the Zone, previewed on May 30, 2003, to Quddus Philippe of MTV at Battery Studios in New York City. It was registered with the U.S. Copyright Office on April 26, 2003, under the title of "Everytime I Try" and SRU000530591 registration number with a given recording year of 2002. Spears named it the most personal song on the album along with "Touch of My Hand", explaining, "It's one of the songs that when you hear, it's like the kind of song when you go to heaven. It kind of takes you away. You know, it takes you in to a very cool consciousness I think."
Annet Artani, who co-wrote the song with Spears, was managed at the time by American music manager Andrian Adams. In lieu of a management fee, Artani gave Adams a 7 per cent share of the song's publishing rights. In October 2005, Adams listed the share for auction on eBay, with bidding reported at £15,100 at press time. He subsequently sold the share to a music industry executive for £97,300 (approximately $168,870). Spears' lawyers attempted to stop the auction, but Adams invited them to submit a competing offer, which did not materialise.
Composition
"Everytime" is a pop ballad. It begins with a music box introduction accompanying Spears' breathy vocals, which build from soft to strong through the song. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing Group, "Everytime" is composed in the key of E major, with a tempo of 110 beats per minute. Spears' vocal range spans from the low note of A3 to the high note of E5. "Everytime" lyrics are a plea for forgiveness for inadvertently hurting a former lover. In the song, the singer explains she feels unable to continue in lines such as "Everytime I try to fly I fall / Without my wings I feel so small". Jennifer Vineyard of MTV compared the song lyrically to another ballad from In the Zone, "Shadow", since they both speak "about how reminders of a lover can still linger after he's gone." During an interview with Jennifer Vineyard of MTV, Spears said about "Everytime", "It's about heartbreak, it's about your first love, your first true love. That's something all people can relate to, because you all have that first love that you think you're going to be with the rest of your life." When asked if "Everytime" was about Timberlake during an interview with Diane Sawyer in PrimeTime, she responded "I'll let the song speak for itself." In 2023, in excerpts from Spears' memoir The Woman in Me, Spears revealed that she became pregnant with Timberlake's child in 2000 and had undergone an abortion, leading many to speculate the song was about said abortion. However, the co-writer Annet Artani disputed this claim, stating the song was written mostly about a breakup Artani herself had gone through.
Critical reception "Everytime" received widespread acclaim from music critics, who complimented its lyrical content and Spears' breathy vocals, while others deemed it a standout track on In the Zone. Gavin Mueller of Stylus Magazine considered "Everytime" to be the best track on In the Zone, explaining "it is just a spare piano ballad, simple yet effectively fragile". Ali Fenwick of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter complimented Spears' songwriting and added the song "shows a glimmer of the talent that hides behind the robotic, synthed-out vocals on the rest of the album". Christy Lemire of MSNBC called it "actually a pretty tune" and named it the best ballad in Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. Jason Shawhan of About.com said "Everytime" "screams Single!". For Daniel Megarry from Gay Times, it's "one of the most stunningly heartbreaking songs of all time". Nayer Nissim, from PinkNews, wrote that "despite some limp efforts scattered around her albums, Britney can actually do some utterly compelling and heartbreaking ballads, and this is her very best. Beautiful, disarming, and emotionally raw". Digital Spy's Alim Kheraj praised its "lullaby-like production, wonderfully simple piano riff and confessional lyrics".