(CNN) -- Britney Spears may have won her share of MTV Video Music Awards, but she'd never been accepted by the People's Choice Awards.

Until Wednesday night.

Spears -- who recently put out a new album, "Britney Jean" -- was named favorite pop artist at the 2014 edition of the awards show in which the public gets to vote.

She walked up the stage steps carefully, almost tottering on her heels, and thanked her fans and her management team.

The People's Choice Awards mark the beginning of what the denizens of Tinseltown refer to as "awards season" -- that most Hollywood of never-ending parties. It starts a flurry of kudofests, including Sunday's Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Grammys and the Oscars.