Everytime

This article is about the song by Britney Spears. For other uses, see Every Time.

"Everytime"
Image of Britney Spears. She is sitting in a giant purple flower wearing a dress in the same style. In the middle of the image, the words "Britney Spears" are written in green capital and small letters. Below them, the word "Everytime" is written in purple italics.
Single by Britney Spears
from the album In the Zone
B-side"Don't Hang Up"
ReleasedMay 10, 2004 (2004-05-10)
RecordedNovember 2002
StudioConway (Hollywood, California)
GenrePop
Length3:50
LabelJive
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Guy Sigsworth
Britney Spears singles chronology
"Toxic"
(2004) 		"Everytime"
(2004) 		"Outrageous"
(2004)
Music video
"Everytime" on YouTube

"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, 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 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.