Britney Spears's new album out in December

Britney Spears, hoping to get her career back on track after a series of public humiliations, will release a new album on her 27th birthday, December 2, her record company said Monday.

"Circus" will be Spears's sixth studio album, and the first single "Womanizer" will be released on September 22, Jiva/Zomba said in a statement.

The Los Angeles-based singer hit rock bottom in January when she was twice rushed to hospital for treatment in a psychiatric unit.

The drama came after she lost custody of her two young sons last year as her life unravelled in the full glare of a frenzied media.

But Spears has recently amicably ended the custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the two boys, and earlier this month she enjoyed a triumphant return to the MTV Video Music Awards where she scooped three of the top honors.

Spears shot to superstardom in late 1998 with her smash-hit debut album "Baby One More Time," which she followed with another chart-topping success the following year, "Oops! ... I Did It Again."

She remains one of the top selling women artists of the last decade.