A photo posted on social media in late July 2024 authentically showed Britney Spears posing in front of the Eiffel Tower in 2000.
On July 26, 2024, an X account posted a photo allegedly showing Britney Spears posing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, in 2000.
“Britney Spears 24 years ago when she built the city of Paris so they could host the Olympics,” the caption read. The post had amassed more than 2.7 million views as of this writing.
“Today marks 24 years since britney spears built the eiffel tower,” another X account said of the image in January 2024.
Four months later, an Instagram user captioned the picture: “The eiffel tower posing behind britney spears, 2000.”
It was also shared to the /fakehistoryporn subreddit in 2021 in a post that read: “Today marks 21 years since britney spears build the Eiffel Tower.”
The photo was, in fact, authentic and did show Spears posing in front of the Eiffel Tower in 2000. Therefore, we have rated this claim and picture as “True.”
We found numerous similar snaps on Getty Images of Spears wearing the same outfit and posing in front of the Parisian landmark in 2000 (see screenshot below).
(Getty Images)
The descriptions of Getty’s other images said the photographs showed Spears posing for a promotional photoshoot in Paris for the launch of her album, “Oops… I Did It Again,” in May 2000.
The comical nature of the social media posts at the top of the article appeared to reference a popular meme that humorously claimed Spears designed and built the Eiffel Tower. In August 2020, The Sun newspaper reported on the meme, saying many of her fans seemingly believed she helped design and build the tourist attraction. The meme often featured the in-question image.
Snopes has written numerous articles about Britney Spears. In July 2024, we investigated a photo that allegedly showed Taylor Swift attending a summer camp for underprivileged kids founded by Spears.
In February 2021, we debunked a false rumor that the lyric “my loneliness is killing me,” from Spears’ 1998 hit song “… Baby One More Time,” was an English translation of “ma solitude me tue, j’avoue que je continue de croire” in French author Alexandre Dumas’ novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo.”