Former *NSYNC singer Justin Timberlake debuted his new single "Selfish" to an appreciative crowd at his one-off gig on Jan.19. But there was more to come, including a new album, titled Everything I Thought It Was.
Timberlake had been teasing "something" for the past few weeks. After Team Justin wiped his Instagram account, a special show in his hometown of Memphis was announced at the (for Timberlake) intimate Orpheum Theater, with tickets allotted by lottery. This past Friday proved, at least in fan-based social media posts, that Timberlake is bringing sexy back.
His social media accounts had given snippets and clips for the first single "Selfish." which he announced and performed in full at the Memphis gig. The song is a falsetto-driven ballad, not unlike the Al Green tune he also sang that night, "Let's Stay Together." He also popped into the crowd to bop with the host DJ as another new song "No Angels" played and Timberlake took a selfie video.
To top off the gig, it's been revealed that he'll head to New York City for an appearance with bestie Jimmy Fallon for The Tonight Show on Thursday Jan. 25. and then be the musical guest on the Jan. 27 episode of Saturday Night Live. There's heavy fan and media speculation that the Fallon appearance will be some sort of new album/new era announcement that will segue into the weekend SNL music slot.
Timberlake is poised for a 2024 comeback.
All the hype surrounding new music for Timberlake has not been without a long stretch of silence. Since his last full-length release Man of the Woods, he's been releasing collabs, most recently in September 2023 for "Keep Going Up" with Natalie Furtado and Timbaland.
Despite the much-ballyhooed presentation from *NSYNC to Taylor Swift for Best Pop Award at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards and an *NSYNC song "Better Place" from the animated Trolls Band Together, Timbaland remarked back in April 2023 in an interview with Variety that the singer was done with his album, describing it's sound as "fun," akin to Timberlake's 2006 4x Platinum FutureSex/LoveSounds. The album's Grammy-winning single "SexyBack" stayed at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 for seven weeks, in addition to becoming his first solo No. 1 on the UK's Official Charts.
