--- title: Here's What Happened to Britney Spears's Famous Yellow Snake description: The giant python from Britney Spears's iconic 2001 VMAs performance of "I'm A Slave 4 U" will always have a special spot in showbiz history. canonical: https://time.com/4468261/britney-spears-snake-mtv-vma/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T15:18:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:54.765Z og:title: Here's What Happened to Britney Spears's Famous Yellow Snake og:description: The python from Spears's 2001 VMAs performance has a special spot in history. og:url: https://time.com/4468261/britney-spears-snake-mtv-vma/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f66fc555bfa0746/6988a3d0428a9e7dd6cd40ad/britney-spears-2001-vmas-python.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 2001 MTV Video Music Awards - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Happened to Britney Spears's Famous Yellow Snake twitter:description: The python from Spears's 2001 VMAs performance has a special spot in history. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f66fc555bfa0746/6988a3d0428a9e7dd6cd40ad/britney-spears-2001-vmas-python.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Happened to Britney Spears' Famous Snake from 'I'm a Slave 4 U' > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 26, 2016 3:18 PM UTC  Britney Spears performs during 2001 MTV Video Music Awards at the The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. Britney Spears performs during 2001 MTV Video Music Awards at the The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. KMazur—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 26, 2016 3:18 PM UTC When [Britney Spears](http://time.com/4466645/britney-spears-carpool-karaoke-james-corden/?iid=sr-link6) performed her hit song “I’m A Slave 4 U” at the [MTV Video Music Awards](http://time.com/4465441/mtv-vmas-2016-guide/?iid=sr-link1) fifteen years ago, something very iconic happened: about halfway through the hip-shaking show, Brit strutted across the stage and collected a seven-foot albino Burmese python from another dancer. She then draped this reptile across her shoulders, [continuing to dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE2b68tOESA) and twirl with gusto. It was the getup that launched a thousand Halloween costumes, and solidified snakes as definitively sexy in the early 2000s. Britney was already a superstar, but with the snake’s help, she went supernova. But what happened to that snake? While we may never know the real purpose of the snake in the performance, we now do know that the giant reptile is — still! — alive and well, according to an animal handler. [MTV tracked it down](http://www.mtv.com/news/2922939/britney-spears-vmas-snake-found/), and learned a few interesting things in the process. For starters, the snake was a female — and a juvenile, at that. She was only about 20 lb. at the time, thankfully. Brit’s dancing partner is currently living with a friend of the handler’s and probably has no idea that she’s a superstar in her own right. May she live happily ever after. Meanwhile Britney, whose [new album _Glory_](http://time.com/4468037/britney-spears-album-glory-released/?iid=sr-link5) came out Friday, will be returning [to the VMA stage on Sunday](http://time.com/4465441/mtv-vmas-2016-guide/?iid=sr-link1). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4468261/britney-spears-snake-mtv-vma/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4468261/britney-spears-snake-mtv-vma/"},"headline":"Here's What Happened to Britney Spears' Famous Snake from 'I'm a Slave 4 U'","datePublished":"2016-08-26T15:18:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:54.765Z","description":"A superstar","url":"https://time.com/4468261/britney-spears-snake-mtv-vma/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Television","animals","celebrities","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f66fc555bfa0746/6988a3d0428a9e7dd6cd40ad/britney-spears-2001-vmas-python.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f66fc555bfa0746/6988a3d0428a9e7dd6cd40ad/britney-spears-2001-vmas-python.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2001 MTV Video Music Awards - Show","caption":"2001 MTV Video Music Awards - Show","creditText":"KMazur—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4468261/britney-spears-snake-mtv-vma/","name":"Here's What Happened to Britney Spears' Famous Snake from 'I'm a Slave 4 U'"}}]}] ```