On our AOTW today, spotlight goes to that American singer-songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer, businessman. The artist that sings to lull himself to fall asleep and the recipient of 10 Grammy Award. An artist who has proved himself a talented actor apart from singing.
Born, Justin Randall Timberlake on January 31, 1981 in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in Shelby Forest, a small community between Memphis and Millington. Timberlake first became famous when he appeared in the television series Mickey Mouse Club and later when he was part of the Grammy Award-winning boy band *NSYNC (consisted of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Joey Fatone, and Lance Bass.)
Justin Timberlake attended the Millington, Tennessee E.E. Jeter Elementary School. He left the school at the end of the sixth grade, after which, he was homeschooled until it was time to go to middle school and high school.
He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, (started out in the Mickey Mouse club as a child alongside other celebrities, such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling) where he met future bandmate JC Chasez.
Timberlake became famous in the late 1990s as the lead singer and youngest member of the boy band ‘N Sync, whose launch was financed by Lou Pearlman. He started his own career as a solo musician in 2002 and has recorded three albums, Justified, FutureSex/LoveSounds, and The 20/20 Experience. All of which were commercially successful. Justified sold more than seven million copies worldwide. The album was a commercial success, spawning the hits “Cry Me a River” and “Rock Your Body”- which was originally intended to be featured on Michael Jackson’s tenth studio album Invincible (2001), Jackson rejected the song along with several other tracks, which were instead given to Timberlake for his debut album.
4. Rock Your Body” 2002
Rock Your Body” peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and became the third single from Justified to do so, following “Like I Love You” and “Cry Me a River”. It charted at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. It topped the Australian Singles Chart. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales of 500,000 and 400,000 copies, respectively.
2004–2007: After the Super Bowl incident- The event that sparked up a ton of backlash featuring Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. The “wardrobe malfunction” that left Jackson’s breast exposed on the broadcast — which was watched live by 143.6 million viewersTimberlake put his recording career on hold to act in several films, having starred in a few feature films earlier in his career. The first role he took during this time was as a journalist in Edison Force, filmed in 2004 and received a direct-to-video release on July 18, 2006. Then released his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, on September 12, 2006. The album, which Timberlake created from 2005 to 2006, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart, selling 684,000 copies its first week.Timberlake continued his success with his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and produced the US number-one hit singles “SexyBack”, “My Love”, and “What Goes Around… Comes Around”.
3. SexyBack” 2006 off his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006).
SexyBack” became Timberlake’s first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, staying seven weeks at the top spot. It also topped several of Billboards magazine’s other charts. Internationally, it became Timberlake’s first single to reach number one in the United Kingdom. “SexyBack” is one of the bestselling singles of all time. The track won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording at the 2007 ceremony and a couple of awards
Discussing “SexyBack”, Timberlake revealed that he went “left”, singing the song in a rock style, not an R&B style. The track features Timbaland (who is credited on the album but not the single itself) while Timberlake’s voice is distorted.
In January 2007, Timberlake embarked on the FutureSex/LoveShow tour. Following singles off the album, “LoveStoned/I Think She Knows (Interlude)” and “Until the end of Time”, peaked within the top 20 on the Hot 100, while the sixth single “Summer Love” reached the top 10. The song “Give It to Me”, a Timbaland single on which Timberlake guests with Nelly Furtado, reached the Hot 100 number-one spot.
In November 2008, it was confirmed that Timberlake would make a guest appearance and produce some tracks on R&B/pop singer Ciara’s upcoming album Fantasy Ride due out May 5, 2009. Same year Timberlake stated that he has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder
Timberlake began work on his third studio album The 20/20 Experience in June 2012, with “no rules and/or end goal in mind. He publicly announced his return to the music industry in January 2013, releasing the album’s lead single “Suit & Tie” featuring Jay-Z later that month, which would eventually peak at number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
Bonus “Suit & Tie” featuring Jay-Z (Timberlake featured on Ciara’s second single “Love Sex Magic”)
2. Filthy Peaked at #9 on 1.20.2018
Off JT’s fifth studio album Man of the Woods released on February 2, 2018. It was two days before he headlined the Super Bowl LII halftime show in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 4, where Timberblake performed a medley of his songs and featured a duet of “I Would Die 4 U” with a video projection of late singer Prince on screen.
Man of the Woods is named after his son Silas, whose name means “from the forest. Its first single, “Filthy”, was released on January 5, along with its accompanying video directed by Mark Romanek.[139] The electro-funk song[140] has reached number 9 in the US[141] and number 5 in Canada.[142] The songs “Supplies”, “Say Something” featuring Chris Stapleton and “Man of the Woods” were also released along with music videos ahead of the album.[143]Linxx, this track sounds more like where JT came from than any other music he’s ever made in his words.
Yeah! He says “It’s Southern American music which he wanted to make sound modern – at least that’s the idea right now. JT claims America has a lot of influence in his music saying Growing up in Tennessee—very central of the country—Memphis is known as the birthplace of rock & roll, but also the home of the blues, but Nashville’s right down the street so there’s a lot of country music.”
Let’s talk about Super Bowl and other controversies, Albums, Awards and nominations before we wrap up the show with the no1 song on AOTW. I hope everybody remembers the 2004 Super Bowl halftime controversy. The controversy is still relevant till date.
In 2004, Timberlake performed with Janet Jackson at Super Bowl XXXVIII, and during “Rock Your Body” he pulled the front of her leather outfit to reveal her jewel-covered nipple to tens of millions of viewers. What followed was pure outrage from fans and CBS, which aired the game. After the incident, Jackson was punished by CBS (the network and its related properties, like MTV, refused to promote her soon-to-drop album Damita Jo) while Timberlake mostly escaped blame.
In an interview, “I had my wires crossed,” he said. “And it’s just something that you have to look back on and go like, ‘Ok, well you know, you can’t change what’s happened, but you can move forward and learn from it.’”
While Janet Jackson was forced to write an apology, JT has mostly danced around the controversy for the last 14 years — giving partial apologies for the incident, as his solo career continued to skyrocket. Meanwhile, Timberlake was recently asked to return to the Big Game, performing at halftime of Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4.
Personal/Controversies
Timberlake had a relationship with Britney Spears when they met at the Mickey Mouse Club. This relationship gained high public attention. It ended suddenly in 2002 when Timberlake claimed that Spears cheated on him with choreographer Wade Robson.
Later in 2002, he dated actress-dancer Jenna Dewan and actress-singer Alyssa Milano. In April 2003, he started dating actress Cameron Diaz after they met at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. There were many rumors afterwards that the two broke up. He stated on December 16, 2006 on Saturday Night Live that they had split up.
In 2007, it was revealed that he had a romantic relationship with actress Jessica Biel. They married in 2012.Their son, Silas Randall Timberlake, was born on April 11, 2015.
1. Can’t Stop The Feeling! Peaked at #1 on 5.28.2016
He recorded the song “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” for the upcoming DreamWorks animated film, Trolls. The song entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number one. It also garnered 3.28 million commercial success according to billboard 2018
The single debuted atop the US Billboard Hot 100, opening with 379,000 downloads in its first week, marking Timberlake’s fifth No. 1 single in the country, and making it the 26th song on the Hot 100 history to start at the summit of the chart.[3] Additionally, it became the second song to spend its first 10 weeks atop the Digital Songs chart.
He has 5 No. 1 Hits 19 Top 10 Hits 33 Songs. Compilation albums: 2 Studio albums: 5Soundtrack albums: 2 Singles: 39
BONUS TRACKS:
– My Love Featuring T.I. Peaked at #1 on 11.11.2006
– What Goes Around…Comes Around Peaked at #1 on 3.3.2007
