Britney Spears - Toxic

"Toxic" is a Grammy Award-winning dance-pop song written by Bloodshy & Avant, Cathy Dennis, and Henrik Jonback for Britney Spears' fourth studio album In the Zone (2003). It was released as the album's second single in early 2004 (see 2004 in music). "Toxic" enjoyed critical acclaim and international success, topping many singles charts around the world. In 2005 it won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, Spear's first Grammy ever.[1] Along with "...Baby One More Time" and "Oops!... I Did It Again" it is considered one of Spears' signature songs.

It has been covered by many artists, became one of the most covered songs by Spears. The song's cowriter, Cathy Dennis, recorded the demo for the song.

Chart performance

"Toxic" is Spears' fourth top-ten single in the U.S. reaching #9 on the Hot 100 chart. The single also experienced strong downloads, and became her first number one on the Hot Digital Tracks (it was the 4th most legally downloaded song of 2004); The single ranked at forty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart for 2004.

On Top 40 radio, the song reached number one for four weeks on the Mainstream Top 40 and the top on the Top 40 Tracks. "Toxic" also reached the top ten on the Rhythmic Top 40.

"Toxic" became one of the biggest worldwide hits of 2004, and reached the top three or number one in nearly every country it charted in.

On the ARIA Chart in Australia, it went to number one, knocking Jamelia's "Superstar" off the top and being replaced by "Yeah!" by Usher. It ended up being one of the best-selling singles of the year.

The single also became a huge success in the UK, selling 105,000 copies in its first week of release and debuting at number one,[11] charting ahead of Kylie Minogue's "Red Blooded Woman" which entered the chart at #5. The chart battle between the two divas was highly popularized in the UK.[15] Ironically, the song had originally been offered to Kylie for inclusion on her 9th studio album Body Language, but she turned it down.[16] "Toxic" sold a total of 268,000 copies in the UK and became the 9th best selling single of 2004. In the United States the single sold over 500,000 downloads and 500,000 CD singles. It has been certified Platinum. The single sold 5,355,000 copies worldwide in 2004 alone.[17][11]

In New Zealand, Toxic debuted in the chart on February 11, 2004 at number forty-one, being the second highest entry of that week. The next week it moved up only three places before shifting up a further eight places in its forth week. In its fifth week Toxic entered the top twenty coming in at number nineteen. The song then rocketed up to number three in its sixth week on the chart. The song stayed there for two weeks before it moved up one more place to number two in April where the song peaked and stayed for another 2 weeks, being held off the top spot by Eamon's Fuck It (Don't Want You Back). Toxic was certified Gold in its tenth week and stayed on the chart for twenty-four weeks, eleven of them being in the top ten.[18] Toxic also ended up at number eleven on New Zealands Annual Top 50 Singles Chart for 2004.[19]

The single ended the year as the 26th most played song in Latin America.[20]

Chart (2004)[21]   Peak
position   Argentina Top 40 1 Australian ARIA Singles Chart[22] 1 Austrian Singles Chart[22] 5 Belgian Singles Chart[22] 6 Brazilian Hot 100 4 Canadian Singles Chart 1 Danish Singles Chart[22] 4 Dutch Singles Chart[22] 6 European Billboard Hot 100 Singles[23] 1 Finnish Singles Chart[22] 8 French Singles Chart[22] 3 German Singles Chart[24] 4 Irish Singles Chart[25] 1 Italian FIMI Singles Chart 4 New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart[22] 2 Norwegian Singles Chart[22] 1 Spanish Singles Chart 5 Swedish Singles Chart[22] 2 Swiss Singles Chart[22] 4 'Tokyo Hot 100' 7 UK Singles Chart 1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[26] 9 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[26] 1 U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream[26] 1 United World Chart 1

Year End Charts Country   Position   Austria [27] 25 Australia[28] 38 Germany [29] 30 Latvian Airplay[30] 31 New Zealand [31] 11 Swiss[32] 17 Tokio Hot 100[33] 95 USA [34] 48 United Kingdom [35] 9 United World Chart[36] 5

Certifications Country Certification Sales United World Chart 2x Platinum 5.3 million Australia[37] Platinum 70,000 France[38] Silver 125,000 New Zealand Gold 5,000 Norway Gold 20,000 Sweden Gold 10,000 United Kingdom Silver 268,000 United States Platinum 1,500,000+