BERLIN (AFP)

US pop singer Britney Spears will pick up a top German media prize Thursday in recognition of her "comeback from an absolute low point" in her career, organisers said.

Spears, 26, will collect the Bambi statuette for Best International Pop Star, and perform a song from her new album, at a gala ceremony hosted by the Hubert Burda Media group, which has given out the gongs since 1948.

"Britney Spears is back," Burda said in a statement. "Radiant and better than ever, the erstwhile teenie idol has reclaimed her throne."

Patricia Rieke, editor-in-chief of Burda celebrity magazine Bunte, called Spears a role model for young women around the world for bouncing back from a string of public humiliations.

"Her stunning comeback from an absolute low point impressed all of us," Rieke told reporters.

Spears will collect her prize in the southern German town of Offenburg a day before she is to appear on the much-watched Star Academy reality television show in France.

Spears hit rock bottom in January when she was twice rushed to hospital for psychiatric treatment after losing custody of her two sons to her ex-husband Kevin Federline.

Her new album "Circus" is to be released on December 2, her 27th birthday, containing the single "Womanizer" which has already leapt to the top of the music charts.

Other winners at the 60th annual Bambis include Hollywood actress Meg Ryan, British racing champion Lewis Hamilton, fashion designers Karl Lagerfeld and Tommy Hilfiger, US actor Keanu Reeves and Spanish tenor Placido Domingo.