Britney Spears is not dead, despite a really lame attempt by hackers to spread a rumor that she is. The hack, which targeted entertainment firm Sony Music and musician Bob Dylan, first tweeted from the Sony Music Global twitter account that Spears was dead, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It's since been deleted, but initially it read:
"RIP @britneyspears
#RIPbritney
1981 - 2016"
Then, seven minutes later they followed up with a tweet revealing "more information."
"britney spears is dead by accident!
we will tell you more soon
#RIPbritney :'("
The first red flag is that the tweets were a pretty big departure from the tone and style of Sony Music Global's account, which typically posts about the birthdays of musicians on the label or new songs being released, and uses proper punctuation and capitalization. Not to mention, Britney Spears is not even signed to Sony Music; her latest album was made with RCA. Was it our hackers first day on the job?
Their next choice, and my personal favorite touch to the whole story, is that the next account they targeted to help corroborate the death hoax, was Bob Dylan's. You don't even have to listen to music to know that Bob Dylan would maybe be the last person on earth to tweet about Britney Spears' death. The guy barely acknowledged that he won the Nobel Prize after days of silence. Then, he didn't attend the ceremony to accept his award. I don't think he has anything personal against Britney Spears but he clearly prefers to remain out of the public eye and doesn't post much on the internet. His tweet read, "Rest in peace @britneyspears :'(" which is funny because I simply cannot imagine Bob Dylan using an emoji ever.
The thing about trying to hack Britney Spears is that she is pretty un-hackable. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the early aughts, the pop icon has recreated herself as a force still to be reckoned with following a period of mental instability. If Spears can come back from a shaved head and put out fresh bangers while raising two sons, then there's no way this lame attempt at a death hoax could ruffle her feathers. Indeed she was so untroubled by the hacking attempt that she didn't even bother to directly make a statement on it. Instead, the way that Spears confirmed she was alive was by tweeting a series of photos of herself as all three of Charlie's Angels:
Not only is she not dead, she's Charlie's freaking Angels. Yes, Britney. Yes.