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“Ladies and gentleman, we are ‘NSync,” Justin Timberlake reminded the crowd at the Wiltern in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
Moments before, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and Lance Bass had appeared from behind a curtain to join Timberlake on the group’s track “Gone,” plus a medley of their other hits, reuniting for the first time on stage in almost a decade.
“Take it in, L.A., take it in,” the pop star said, as fans held up homemade heart-shaped ‘NSync signs and recovered from the initial shock of seeing their favorite boy band together again onstage.
It was the moment everyone had been waiting for at the historic L.A. concert venue all night, where a gray suit-and-tee-clad Timberlake had performed a free concert to a standing room. The evening’s set list was stacked with a brief medley of the band’s hits, his solo singles, and new cuts from his upcoming album, Everything I Thought It Was, including the ‘NSync-assisted track “Paradise.”
“I love you guys so much,” Timberlake told the band after performing the song.
Timberlake’s grown-man-band crew wasn’t the only surprise of the evening. Before the reunion, the singer brought out Grammy-winner Coco Jones to sing on “Until the End of Time,” from FutureSex/LoveSounds. Soon after, Jones and Timberlake delivered a rendition of the duo’s “ICU” remix, a true highlight of the entire set list that saw the two singers giving it their all.
“This ain’t got nothing to do with anything except, I just begged her and her team to come here because we did a remix to one of my favorite songs of the last like five years, so please come sing this with me, and she said yes. So without further ado, take it away,” Timberlake said, launching straight into the introduction to the ballad.
Timberlake’s intimate Wiltern show saw the entertainer playing everything from sleek versions of “SexyBack” to “Mirrors” to his recent single “Selfish,” backed by his acoustic guitar and incredible band the Tennessee Kids. The show also marks his final “one-night-only” event before he releases his new 18-track LP on Friday and embarks on the global Forget Tomorrow trek this spring.
The singer previously kicked off a string of shows in his hometown of Memphis in January, where he debuted his lead single, “Selfish.” Timberlake followed it up with another free concert at Irving Plaza in New York City on Jan. 31. Before launching into his Justified cut “Cry Me a River” at that show, he told the crowd, “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize… to absolutely fucking nobody,” what some viewed as a jab at his ex Britney Spears.
Due March 15, Everything I Thought It Was marks Timberlake’s sixth studio release — his first full-length solo project since 2018’s Man of the Woods.
Timberlake has teased snippets of new tracks on social media leading up to the release date, including collabs like “Paradise” and “Sanctified” featuring Tobe Nwigwe, which the two performed on SNL in January and again as the opener at the Wiltern show.
“I think there are moments that are incredibly honest, but also, there’s a lot of fucking fun on this album,” Timberlake previously told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in an interview to announce Everything I Thought It Was.
He continued, “I think that’s where I came up with the album title, with Everything I Thought It Was. I was playing it for people around me. They’re like, ‘Oh, this sounds like everything we know you for.’ And then another friend of mine was like, ‘Oh, this sounds like everything I thought I wanted from you.’ It was like that sort of phrase, in one way or another, was in the air. And I thought to myself about how some of the songs are more introspective and some of them are more what I think people know me for.”
Justin Timberlake L.A. Set List
“Sanctified” (with Tobe Nwigwe)
“SexyBack”
“LoveStoned”
“Like I Love You”
“My Love”
“No Angels”
“Selfish”
“What Goes Around … Comes Around”
“Señorita”
“Summer Love”
“Rock Your Body”
“Suit & Tie”
“Until the End of Time (with Coco Jones)”
“ICU Remix (with Coco Jones)”
“Cry Me a River”
“Holy Grail”
“Ayo Technology”
“Gone” (with ‘NSync)
“Girlfriend” (with ‘NSync)
“Bye Bye Bye” (with ‘NSync)
“It’s Gonna Be Me” (with ‘NSync)
“Paradise” (with ‘NSync)
“Mirrors”
© Melissa Auf der Maur
