Hit it, baby, a billion times. One of Britney Spears‘ most iconic music videos — “…Baby One More Time” — has joined YouTube’s billion views club, making it the pop star’s second to reach the milestone after “Scream & Shout” with Will.i.am.
First uploaded to the site in October 2009 — more than 10 years after Spears first released the Max Martin-produced single — the “…Baby One More Time” video opens with the then-16-year-old star in braided pigtails and a revealing schoolgirl outfit, tapping her foot and pencil with boredom in class. After the bell rings, she embarks on one of pop music’s most legendary dance sequences in the school hallways, later performing choreography outdoors in a sports bra and sweatpants and serenading her love interest in a gymnasium.
“My loneliness is killin’ me/ I must confess, I still believe,” she sings on the smash. “When I’m not with you, I lose my mind/ Give me a sign/ Hit me, baby, one more time.”
“…Baby One More Time” served as the Princess of Pop’s debut single, spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999. It was also the title track of her first-ever LP, which topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks.
Though slightly scandalous for its time, Spears revealed in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, that the video’s concept was her idea. “The mock-up I saw had me looking like a Power Ranger,” she wrote. “That image didn’t resonate with me, and I had a feeling my audience wouldn’t relate to it, either. I told the executives at the label that I thought people would want to see my friends and me sitting at school, bored, and then, as soon as the bell rang, boom — we’d start dancing.”
“I thought we should wear school uniforms to make it seem more exciting when we started dancing outside in our casual clothes,” she added. “Making that video was the most fun part of doing that first album.”
Watch Spears’ billion-times-viewed “…Baby One More Time” music video above.
