Musically, Spears wanted to make a "fresh-sounding" and "fierce dance album", thus incorporating dance-pop, electropop, EDM and synth-pop styles with elements of dubstep, techno and electro in its sound.

Spears collaborated with various producers including Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Fraser T Smith, Rodney Jerkins, Bloodshy, will.i.am, Stargate, and Travis Barker.

The album debuted atop the charts in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Korea and the United States, and peaked inside the top ten in 24 countries.

Femme Fatale became Spears's most successful era on the US charts, being her first album to score three top ten singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, with "Hold It Against Me", "Till the World Ends" and "I Wanna Go" peaking at numbers one, three and seven, respectively.

[1] Spears promoted the album with television performances, the Femme Fatale Tour, and remix collaborations with Kesha, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna.

[3] Darkchild, who was also reportedly working with her, said during a Ustream session in August 2010, "Britney fans are gonna be so happy in a few weeks", hinting about the release of new music.

However, this was denied by Spears's manager Adam Leber, who stated, "No new music news right now....Wish people wouldn't mislead you guys with info.

PS- The guys that ARE working on Brit's next album ARE NOT talking about it..."[4] Leber later spoke with Entertainment Weekly, calling the sound of the record "progressive" and "a departure from what you've heard.

[6] Spears explained in an interview with Rolling Stone that she had worked with Luke during the production of Blackout (2007), stating that he was "incredible" during that time and that his skills have improved.

[9] Spears stated her desire to make the album "fresh-sounding [...] for the clubs or something that you play in your car when you're going out at night that gets you excited, but I wanted it to sound different from everything else out right now."

[26] The album opens with "Till the World Ends", co-written by Kesha, was described as an uptempo dance-pop and electropop song, with an electro beat and elements of techno and Eurodance.

[25] "How I Roll" is the fifth track, produced by Bloodshy, Henrik Jonback and Magnus, where Spears "pirouettes from a gulping in-and-out breath effect", and was described as a "bubbly, playful pop song".

[47] "Trouble for Me", the ninth song on the album, features a pre-chorus filled with "melting, wheezing synths" likened to a "Wiley grime wobble," segueing into a "Janet Jackson vocal.

[20][24] Erin Thompson of the Seattle Weekly said the song "takes a breather from aggressive, wall-to-wall synths, driven instead by a steady guitar rhythm and an oddly Asian folky-sounding flute melody.

"[46] The seventeenth and final track on the Japanese deluxe edition of the album "Scary" is another up-tempo dance song that finds Spears on the prowl.

The performance was filmed at Rain Nightclub inside the Palms Casino Resort and was included in a MTV special titled Britney Spears: I Am the Femme Fatale, which aired on April 3, 2011.

"[55] The original airing of the special in the United States was viewed by 0.665 million viewers and received a Nielsen rating of 0.3/1 in the key adults 18–49 demographic.

[64] Spears made a brief appearance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, performing the "S&M" remix with Rihanna and a short version of "Till the World Ends" alongside Femme Fatale tourmate Nicki Minaj.

Spears stated: "This is the Femme Fatale tour and I'm thrilled to have Nicki Minaj, Jessie and the Toy Boys, and Nervo join me and get everyone on the dance floor.

[74] In March 2011, Spears's manager Larry Rudolph told MTV News that the tour would have a "post-apocalyptic vibe", while commenting that "Till the World Ends" keeps becoming a theme for us."

[77] The music video for the song premiered on February 17, 2011 on MTV following a two-week teaser campaign and featured Spears as an alien who finds fame on Earth but becomes overwhelmed with her celebrity and breaks down.

[85] "Till the World Ends" was commercially successful worldwide, peaking at number three in the United States and topped the charts in Poland, Russia, Slovakia and South Korea, reaching the top ten in Australia, Belgium (Wallonia), Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland.

[91] After "I Wanna Go" reached number seven in the United States, Femme Fatale became Spears's first album to produce three top ten hits on the chart.

[102] Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail gave the album three-and-a-half out of four stars and complimented its "grainy, glistening electronic sound", calling it "one of the major guilty pleasures in pop this year".

[110] Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani commented that Spears's lack of involvement makes "the success of a Britney song rest almost entirely on the quality of other people's songwriting and production, and almost every track on Femme Fatale succeeds or fails on that basis".

[106] Los Angeles Times writer Carl Wilson felt that the album "finds unity of subject, style and sound by imagining scenarios in which vanishing into anonymity can be comfort and liberation".

[113] In a mixed review, Andy Gill of The Independent criticized its "single-minded dedication to dancefloor utility" and observed "only the tiniest of rhythmic variants or differences in electronic tones distinguishing one producer's work from another's".

[103] Evan Sawdey of PopMatters wrote that "Spears' worldview is completely self-contained" and described Femme Fatale as "just a big dumb club album".

[102] Singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder defended her, stating that "[Frank] Sinatra didn't write a song, Garth Brooks barely wrote anything, George Strait has had I think 51 No.

[135] This gave Spears her sixth debut at the top of the chart and leaves her in a four-way tie for third most number-one albums for a female artist, along with Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Beyoncé.