Britney Spears Set for VMA Return as Comeback Builds

LOS ANGELES - A year after her dazed, disastrous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards became an instant cautionary tale, Britney Spears is returning to the VMA stage next weekend — this time, her camp says, on her own terms.

Spears will open the Sept. 7 ceremony in Los Angeles, MTV announced — though the network and her representatives insist she will not perform, only present. The distinction has not dampened anticipation for a redemption story a year in the making.

The past 12 months have been a public rebuilding. After a period of hospitalizations and a conservatorship that gave her father control of her affairs, Spears has steadily resurfaced: a well-received guest arc on "How I Met Your Mother," a new album, "Circus," due in December, and now the VMA return.

"She's healthy, she's working and she's happy," a person close to the singer said. "That's the whole statement."

The 2007 VMA performance of "Gimme More" — sluggish, lip-synced and instantly infamous — has been viewed millions of times online. This year's ceremony will air against the backdrop of the election's home stretch.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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