Justin Timberlake is trying to leave things on a high note as he teases his first new solo music in six years — just months after Britney Spears’ memoir revealed shocking bombshells about the stars’ early aughts romance.
On Friday, the “SexyBack” singer, 42, teased his new single, “Selfish,” in a video shared to Instagram featuring footage from rehearsals for a show he played at the Orpheum Theater in his hometown of Memphis that night.
“So if I get jealous, I can’t help it. I want every bit of you, I guess I’m selfish,” the 10-time Grammy winner croons in the R&B track.
Later on Friday, Timberlake shared another video — captioned, “Justin Timberlake Presents: ‘EVERYTHING I THOUGHT IT WAS’” — with a voiceover from his “Reptile” costar, Benicio Del Toro.
The clip, which appears to serve as a trailer for his forthcoming sixth album, followed a teaser simply captioned “EITIW.” The album will be his first since 2018’s “Man in the Woods.”
A series of other clues had already hinted at new music from Timberlake, such as the announcement he’d appear on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and then serve as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” that same week.
The solo music comes on the heels of a brief reunion with his fellow NSYNC alumni last year. In September, the group released “Better Place,” off the soundtrack for “Trolls Band Together,” which marked the boy band’s first new music in 21 years. That same month, the group reunited at the 2023 MTV VMAs, where they presented the award for Best Pop Video to Taylor Swift.
But Timberlake’s name was a constant fixture in headlines for other reasons last fall — in the lead-up to and aftermath of Britney Spears’ memoir, “The Woman in Me,” being released.
Among the claims made by the “Oops!…I Did It Again” singer, also 42, were that Timberlake encouraged her to get an abortion during the pair’s relationship, which lasted from 1999 to 2002. Spears also accused Timberlake of cheating on her and, following their split, throwing her under the bus with the media.
As Spears’ claims came to light, Timberlake began canceling gigs amid the backlash. It wasn’t long before collaborators like Timbaland went after Spears, saying Timberlake should have “put a muzzle on that girl.”
