A remarkable piece of pop history has resurfaced on the Dini Petty Show YouTube channel: Britney Spears performing “Baby One More Time” on February 3, 1999, exactly four days after the song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. She was 17 years old, the album had been out less than a month, the video was in heavy MTV rotation, and here she is on a Toronto soundstage at the precise moment between before and after.
The Dini Petty Show aired on CTV from 1989 to 1999, broadcasting from Toronto and earning multiple Gemini Award nominations for Petty’s warm yet probing interview style, and this performance, followed by a full interview also available on the channel, captures Britney with an unguarded confidence and joy that feels genuinely rare, a 17-year-old four days into the rest of her life.