Everytime

Album

In the Zone

Label

Jive Records

Genre

-Pop

Media Type

CD

Duration

3:50

Composer(s)

Britney Spears;Annet Artani

Entered Chart

May 22, 2004

Peak Date

Jul 3, 2004

Released

May 10, 2004

Recorded

November 2002

Catalog #

62487

B-Side

Don't Hang Up

This song is about a girl who wants it all to work out - she wants everyone to like her, but realizes the world isn't fair. Not everyone is going to like you, and even though someone might make you mad, he could be the true one to you. It's more then she can handle, she is so sorry for everything she might put the guy through and she is "sorry if her weakness caused pain." >> Britney wrote this about her ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake. She said she wrote it at a hard time in her life. Some of the lyrics are a reply to Justin's "Cry Me A River": I may have made it rain Please forgive me My weakness caused you pain And this song is my sorry She is probably referring to the rain that's pouring in his video. The weakness is men. >> "Everytime" was co-written by Britney Spears and her backup singer, the Greek singer-songwriter Annette Artani. Actor Stephen Dorff plays the man in the video, which was set in Las Vegas but filmed in Los Angeles. It was directed by David LaChapelle and portrays Spears as a star hounded by photographers, eventually killing herself by taking prescription drugs and drowning in a bathtub. "It was a little weird. [Director David LaChapelle] just told me to diss her and just kind of ignore her so I was just playing like a boyfriend in a fight," Dorff recalled to MTV News of his opening limo scene with Spears, in which the two were surrounded by paparazzi. "This is our take on paparazzos too. They put prosthetic noses on all of them, which is funny. You see how they all look kind of weird. You see all the noses." When it came to the pivotal part of the clip where Dorff comes to a drowning Britney's aid, he told MTV News he was responsible for most of the scene. "That was my idea. I knew I had to save her in the bathtub, but it was my idea to go in with the shoes and the jeans and just kind of find her," he said. "First they had me change into my boxers. I was like, 'I don't think he has time. She's dying.' So I just go in." Britney Spears has never actually said that "Everytime" is about Timberlake, but her co-writer and friend Annet Artani has. She explained to Muumuse that the song was a response to of "Cry Me A River" as well as various Timberlake radio interviews, including a particularly raunchy moment on Hot 97. "He was getting personal," she recalled. "Here, she had a different type of image, and he was really exposing some stuff that she probably didn't want out there, and in front of her little sister. I remember that Jamie Lynn was shocked, as well as Britney. I'm sure that this hurt her very much." David LaChapelle, the video's director, is also the photographer behind Britney's notorious 1999 Rolling Stone cover, which captured the 17-year-old singer lounging in her bra and panties with a Teletubbie doll. The provocative photo helped the "...Baby One More Time" hitmaker shed her good-girl image, which is exactly what she wanted. But she had to go behind her manager's back to do it. In a 2016 Rolling Stone feature, LaChapelle remembered being in the midst of late-night shoot when Britney's manager walked in and demanded to know what was going on. "She went, 'Yeah, I don't feel comfortable,'" he recalled Spears saying. "At first I felt betrayed. But as soon as he walked out, Britney said, 'Lock the door' and unbuttoned her shirt wide open." Helping good girls go bad is somewhat of a specialty for LaChapelle, who did the same for Christina Aguilera with "Dirrty" and Mariah Carey with "Loverboy." He and Spears reunited for 2016's "Make Me " - a racy video featuring the caged singer in little more than sparkly body paint - but LaChapelle's effort was scrapped for a tamer version by a different director. According to MTV News, the video's use of "saturated, but low and naturalistic lighting" was inspired by the 1995 Nicolas Cage film Leaving Las Vegas, which cast Cage as an alcoholic screenwriter who goes to Vegas to drink himself to death. In Britney Spears' 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, she pulled back the curtain on a secret chapter of her life. While dating Justin Timberlake, she fell pregnant and aborted the baby because he wasn't ready for fatherhood. The revelation sparked speculation over whether "Everytime" was a window into her terminated pregnancy. The "Everytime" video hints this may be the case. In the clip, Britney walks through a hospital scene where life and death intersect, sporting a conspicuous pink baby bag. As the video unfolds, she sheds the bag. The video ends with a mother giving birth to a baby girl.

Notice me
Take my hand
Why are we
Strangers when
Our love is strong?
Why carry on without me?

And every time I try to fly I fall without my wings
I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And every time I see you in my dreams
I see your face
It's haunting me
I guess I need you baby

I make-believe
That you are here
It's the only way
That I see clear
What have I done?
You seem to move on easy

And every time I try to fly I fall without my wings

I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And every time I see you in my dreams
I see your face
You're haunting me
I guess I need you baby

I may have made it rain
Please forgive me
My weakness caused you pain
And this song's my sorry

At night I pray
That soon your face will fade away

And every time I try to fly I fall without my wings
I feel so small
I guess I need you baby
And every time I see you in my dreams
I see your face
You're haunting me
I guess I need you baby