Timberlake sang the titular line of *NSYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” in a way that “haunts” him to this day, he joked on social media
May is almost here, and that’s a bit triggering for .
In a video shared to social media on Tuesday, the 43-year-old Grammy winner of the titular line in ‘s 2000 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” and how it spawned endless “It’s gonna be May” memes.
“What’s a word you pronounced incorrectly one time and it still haunts you to this day?” asked influencer in a TikTok video, which Timberlake stitched with a hilarious response, as he said in a front-facing clip: “Um… ‘Me.'”
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Decades ago, *NSYNC fans began circulating endless clips of the boy band members’ distinct singing of the word “me” in the song, pairing the moment with pictures of the “SexyBack” singer in various scenarios.
His bandmate recently told PEOPLE the group trade “It’s gonna be May” memes back and forth in an *NSYNC text chain. “There was the one meme that was like, Justin looking like he was dressed up in something from the Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones and I sent him one of those,” he said.
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“It was really funny. Every once in a while, one of us will find a good one and we’ll send it on the group text,” added Fatone, 47, who explained the meme “wasn’t even a thing” upon the chart-topping song’s initial release on *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached album.
“It was just, ‘It’s gonna be me.’ When you sing it, it sounds a lot harsher if you’re trying to go, ‘It’s gonna be meeeee.’ It doesn’t sound very good to the ear,” he said. “So when we pronounced it, [producer] Max Martin came up with the idea of saying, ‘It’s gonna be May.’ But we never knew that it was going to take off and become its own thing. And every year you get crazy stuff. But it’s hilarious. And we might as well embrace it.”
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Last year, Timberlake behind the lyric’s pronunciation in an interview alongside Fatone, , and on Hot Ones.
“I sang, ‘It’s gonna be me,'” recalled the “Rock Your Body” performer, “and [Martin] was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no.’ He was like, ‘It’s may, MAY.’”
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