Circus is the sixth studio album by American singer Britney Spears. It was released to coincide with her 27th birthday on December 2, 2008, by Jive Records. Transitioning from the "darker and more urban" themes of her fifth studio album Blackout (2007), Spears wanted to make her next project "a little bit lighter". She recorded the album between March and September 2008, after being involuntarily placed under a conservatorship earlier that year, following her highly-publicized personal struggles in 2007.
