First a *NSYNC reunion, now new Justin Timberlake music! The 42-year-old singer shared a taste of what fans can expect from his highly anticipated next project during a hometown performance at the famed Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday.
Timberlake debuted a new song titled “Selfish,” with several fans capturing the moment and sharing it on social media. “If I get jealous / I can’t help it / I want every bit of you / I guess I’m selfish,” he crooned in the performance.
The star also revealed an up tempo, never-before-heard song, calling it “Angels,” grooving along while listening to the track.
In another fun show moment, Timberlake offered a shoutout to his *NSYNC bandmate, Chris Kirkpatrick, who was cheering him on in the audience, by playing the band’s 2001 hit, “Gone.”
Just after the set, Timberlake took to his own social media to share a first look at what appears to be a visual album, Everything I Thought It Was, featuring a voiceover preface from Benicio Del Toro. He also shared a carousel that featured highlights from Friday’s performance.
The announcements come on the heels of a series of cryptic posts Timberlake shared on social media, the first of which appeared to be shot behind the scenes of some kind of production. In the TikTok clip, Timberlake responds to a fan’s query about new music. Timberlake counts silently on his fingers until he reaches the number six before walking out of frame. In his solo career, Timberlake has so far released five studio albums.
One day later, Timberlake returned to Instagram to share only his second post since scrubbing his account clean earlier this month. The carousel featured a slideshow of pictures and the vague caption, “EITIW.”
The first image showed an upside-down faux missing person flyer asking “Have you seen this man?” with his name.
Another photo included a soundstage, as well a a miniature recreation of a brick wall with an ice chest. The final photo showed what appears to be an orange hard drive with the letters “EITIW” marked in Sharpie along the front.
As social media went wild speculating on what the acronym could stand for, reports from Billboard and TMZ indicated that the artist’s team had filed a trademark application for the phrases “Everything I Thought It Was” and “Everything I Thought It Was…A Sonic Film.”
Timberlake’s upcoming sixth album will be his first since 2018’s Man of the Woods debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and earned him a GRAMMY nomination. His other solo efforts include 2002’s Justified, 2006’s FutureSex/LoveSounds, 2013’s The 20/20 Experience and The 20/20 Experience — 2 of 2.
In September, Timberlake went back to his boy band roots by reteaming with *NSYNC bandmates JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Kirkpatrick for the first time in 20 years on the song “Better Place.” The catchy tune was featured in the animated film, Trolls Band Together. In the movie, Timberlake’s character, Branch, is revealed to have once been part of a boy band phenomenon called BroZone.
*NSYNC publicly reunited to hype the project during the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, where the group presented a starstruck Taylor Swift with the award for Best Pop Video.
One month prior, Timberlake made headlines for reuniting with Timbaland and Nelly Furtado on the former’s new single, “Keep Going Up.”
“This [“Keep Going Up”] sets you up for everything JT and Nelly about to do,” the producer teased in an interview with ET at the time. “I went to Justin doing a rehearsal, I said, ‘A fan said we should do an album.’ He’s like, ‘You know what, we should.’ And that’s in the works.”
As for the timeframe, Timbaland said it could happen “ASAP.”
“This whole song is sparking off something that I think that’s gonna be incredible,” he said.
Timbaland previously produced Timberlake’s FutureSexLoveSounds and Man of the Woods albums.
