Lady Gaga is looking towards the future.

In a new interview promoting her upcoming film, Joker: Folie à Deux, the superstar was asked by Buzzfeed Canada if there’s anything she’d like to “manifest” for the future. “I’m so happy to be in love, and I’m so excited to have a family,” she responded in reference to her partner, Michael Polansky. “That’s definitely number one, but also, I really believe in the ability to grow as a person. That feeling can give everybody hope. I just want to keep growing.”

She continued, “I’m 38 years old, and it’s kind of fun to embrace the challenge of being a 38-year-old pop star and figuring out who I want to be now and what I want to say. I really love women, and I really want to be a voice that deserves to be a part of our community.”

Gaga and Polansky have been publicly dating since early 2020; she made their relationship Instagram official with a post that February. In an interview a couple months later, she referred to Polansky as “the love of my life.”

She appeared to reveal that the duo are engaged in July while introducing Polansky to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. “My fiancé, Michael,” Gaga is heard casually saying in a clip the prime minister posted on TikTok. The short video shows Attal briefly hugging the singer and shaking hands with Polansky, Lady Gaga’s partner of more than four years, at an Olympic event.

The duo made their red carpet debut at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this month, to support the premiere of Joker: Folie à Deux.

In addition to Folie à Deux, which hits theaters Oct. 4, Gaga is also gearing up to release new music. She dropped “Die With a Smile” with Bruno Mars in July to warm fans up for her upcoming era — the track reached No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 — and she’s now begun teasing her seventh album, the first single of which arrives in October.

Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda are back in the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart with “Rey Sin Reina,” which soars 26-8 on the Sept. 28-dated list. The group last rose to the upper region with “El Amor de Su Vida” in 2015.

“Rey Sin Reina” lands at No. 8 on Hot Latin Songs thanks largely to its streaming activity during the tracking week ending Sept. 19. According to Luminate, the song earned 4.1 million official U.S. streams, a gain of 57%, from the week prior. Hot Latin Songs is a multimetric list that blends streams, digital sales and radio activity to rank the week’s most popular Latin songs in the U.S.

The streaming sum also yields a No. 10 debut on Latin Streaming Songs, the group’s first top 10 there among its five entries. Prior, the Mexicans reached their highest ranking in 2015, through the No. 14-peaking “El Amor De Su Vida.”

As “Rey Sin Reina” leaps 18 slots in its second week, it becomes the second-biggest jump to the top 10 on Hot Latin Songs in 2024. Karol G’s “Contigo” with Tiesto, released Feb. 15, debuted at No. 48 with only one day of activity, the last day of the previous tracking week, and rallied to No. 3 in March, after its first full tracking week. Only one other song has climbed at least 15 positions into the top 10 or more this year: Tito Double P’s “El Lokeron” rallied 27-7 last week (chart dated Sept. 21).

On a global scale, “Rey Sin Reina” debuts at No. 112 on the Billboard Global 200 and at No. 93 on Global Excl. U.S., the group’s highest debuts on both charts.

“Rey Sin Reina,” composed by Omar Cárdenas and Tláloc Noriega, is one of four tracks on Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda’s latest EP Atento Aviso… Rey Sin Reyna, which rises 22-20, a new peak, on Regional Mexican Albums on the current ranking. The album’s animated artwork was designed by Álvarez’s daughters, María Isabel and María Julia.

Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars including Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.

As Columbia Nashville prepared for the July 12 release of Megan Moroney’s sophomore album, Am I Okay?, the label held back the title track as it rolled out individual songs in advance of the project.

The move was purposeful: The title matches the reputation she has built with her fan base, and she wanted to catch listeners off guard the first time they heard it.

“I’ve branded myself as the emo cowgirl, and so I knew everyone was going to think that this is going to be a really sad song,” she says. “If you just see it on paper, you’re like, ‘Oh, no, it’s going to be tough.’ And that’s why we didn’t release ‘Am I Okay,’ the title track, ahead of the album, because I wanted everyone to be surprised once the entire album came out.”

The fans would not be the only ones surprised by “Am I Okay?” Her co-writers, Jessie Jo Dillon (“Messed Up As Me,” “10,000 Hours”) and Luke Laird (“Drink in My Hand,” “Undo It”), hadn’t expected to work on something so optimistic. Moroney, in fact, was a little apologetic when she spoke her mind during an appointment at Laird’s writing cabin on Oct. 2, 2023.

“When I was explaining how I felt, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to write a love song,’” she recalls. “Like, ‘I’m tired of writing sad songs. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I met this guy, and he’s being really nice to me, and for once, I don’t want to sabotage it. And I think I could be a girlfriend.’ And they were just like, ‘Oh my God, are you okay?’”

That, of course, became the title. The bright, upbeat topic helped meet her musical goals, too. Moroney knew she would be touring with Kenny Chesney in 2024, and she wanted a song that would feel good in a stadium. Laird called up a chugging track he had created around a floating guitar intro, and he believed it would fit her musically.

“She delivers a song so well with just her and a guitar,” he says. “I thought this one will be easy to do that way, too. There’s only, like, three chords. It’s simple. It’s in her key. And she liked it. And I think that it kind of brought an energy to the room, like more of a live thing.”

They attacked the chorus first, capturing the moment Moroney’s then-new squeeze had appeared in a Nashville bar where she had been hanging with some friends. They threw out some descriptors of a guy that most women would find intriguing — 6 feet 2, funny, smart and “good in…” The songwriter antenna went up at that moment, though it only lasted an instant: Would saying he’s good in bed play at radio? On TV? In family settings?

They had the solution before they even discussed it. “We were just rambling,” Moroney notes. “I was probably like, ‘He’s funny and he’s smart and he’s good in…’ And then Jessie Jo or Luke just echoed me. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ There wasn’t too much thought behind it.”

“Instead of just saying it,” Dillon adds, “that felt flirtier, in a way, to just repeat it.”

It wound its way to the final hook — “Oh my God, am I okay?” — kicked out in punchy phrases that seemed right for a gang vocal. Which Moroney didn’t entirely accept at first. “I wasn’t exactly sold on the gang vocals yet,” she recalls. “The last seven syllables of the song are the same note. I was like, ‘Is that weird?’”

As they dug in on the verses, they led with the singer checking to make sure she’s really breathing, a recognition of the change in personality that this new guy had inspired. “I’ve been playing less black keys, baby,” they wrote in that first verse, alluding to the sharps and flats on a piano keyboard, which create an alternative musical scale on their own.

“It’s alluding to writing less sad music,” Dillon says. “I feel like that was [about] being less emo and writing [fewer] sad songs because she’s known for some of her sad songs as much as ‘Tennessee Orange.’ ”

One of Moroney’s managers later capitalized Black Keys on a lyric sheet, believing it to be a reference to the Nashville-based rock band. That development surprised all three writers, who had not contemplated that interpretation.

“I’m a huge Black Keys fan, and their s–t can be pretty emo,” Dillon says. “Their lyrics can be pretty sad — and so I guess either way somebody interprets that, it kind of works.”

In verse two, Moroney sang, “And wait” — then literally waited before continuing, “There’s guys that can communicate.” It was clearly sarcastic; if listeners had any doubt that this “fun little bop,” as Dillon calls it, belonged to Moroney, that confirms it’s legitimately her. “She’s definitely a little snarky,” Laird says, “but the delivery gives it a lightness. I thought it was good.”

Laird finished the demo with the pulsing guitars creating a new wave feel, and all three of them did the gang vocals at the end of the chorus. It provided a solid template for the full recording, produced by Sugarland’s Kristian Bush at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio in January. The musicians bumped up the tempo a few beats per minute, but mostly followed Laird’s demo as a guide. With real musicians replacing some of the programmed elements, it took on more of a Tom Petty pulse, while Jordan Schipper’s steel guitar upped the country quotient. The steel, Brandon Bush’s keyboards and some of Benji Shanks’ guitar tones leaned hazy or fuzzy.

“I’m totally into ambient pedals right now,” Kristian says. “You don’t really know what you’re getting. You put a tone into it, like you’ll play your steel into it, or you play the guitar into it and it’s a very Brian Eno-y thing, where it starts to sort of randomize at certain frequencies the sound that’s coming out of it. You can control it with your hands, like on these knobs, but it’s all kind of voodoo. It becomes dreamy very quickly.”

Bush heightened the dynamic range; the track goes quiet when Moroney sings “Wait…,” and it nearly does it again at the bridge. At the finale, the instruments drop out as she delivers the last line, “I think I’m still breathing.” She could have followed it with a sigh, but it never quite appears.

“At the end of this song, when it cuts off, I wanted you to be waiting for the next song to happen,” Kristian says. “When you’re playing live, at the end of that first song, you want people to be like, ‘Is it over? What’s happening? Oh my God.’ And then all of a sudden, you’re into your next song.” The vocals challenged Moroney. Ironically, the week she sang about her boyfriend, they broke up.

“I’m in the studio having to sing this song about a guy being really nice to me, when actually it was just like three months and he showed me who he actually was,” she says. “And now I have to sing this forever.”

She just might. Columbia Nashville released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Aug. 5. It’s at No. 20 and rising on the Hot Country Songs chart dated Sept. 28. Even if it’s uncharacteristically buoyant for Moroney, the sarcasm still comes through.

“If I’m writing a love song, I must be ill,” she says. “That’s the whole premise of the song.”

Livelihood Music Company has brought on three-time Grammy-nominated hitmaker Ali Tamposi as a principal. In this role, she will join fellow songwriters JKash and Michael Pollack at the helm of the new independent music publisher. Tamposi has penned some of the biggest pop hits of the 21st century, including “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)” by Kelly Clarkson, “Havana” by Camila Cabello, “Senorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, “Let Me Love You” by Justin Bieber and DJ Snake, “It Ain’t Me” by Selena Gomez and Kygo, “Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer and “Break My Heart” by Dua Lipa. “I’m thrilled to be joining Livelihood Music Company, and expanding my sphere into the role of publisher,” says Tamposi. “Stepping into this new role creates a perfect blend of my two greatest passions – songwriting and motherhood – both requiring continuous nurturing and selfless devotion.”

Iconoclast, an artist and brand development company founded by Olivier Chastan, has acquired the catalog of rapper, singer and actress Eve. This includes her shares of hit singles like “Gangsta Lovin’,” “Love Is Blind” and “Who’s That Girl” among others. More recently, her work inspired a new generation of talent when she was sampled in Central Cee’s 2022 track “Doja.” Henry Root of Smith Entertainment Law represented Iconoclast, with Michael Poster of Michaelman & Robinson, LLP serving as advisor. Wayne Russell and Pippa Wealthall of Massive Management represented Eve in the transaction. Talya Shalsom and Tim Smith of Statham Gill Davies Law, with Benjamin Vermeil of Jab Music also facilitated the deal.

Prescription Songs has signed Grammy-winning producer/writer Tobias Wincorn to a global publishing deal. Among Wincorn’s many credits are works released by Fred again.., Missy Elliott, Lizzo, Swedish House Mafia, Fridayy, Jack Harlow, Shenseea, Megan Thee Stallion, and more. Most frequently, he works with Fred again.., Timbaland and Murda Beatz. In addition to his work in the studio, he has also previously worked as an a&r consultant for Crush Music, Seeker Music, and Hipgnosis Songs Group.

Killphonic Rights, an LA-based rights management company, has partnered with Stilwell Creative Capital. Stilwell is investing $3 million of working capital for a proportional stake of equity in Killphonic. The money will be put towards expanding services for the company’s growing roster of artists, writers, labels and publishers.

Warner Chappell Music UK has signed Will Manning to a global publishing deal. An award-winning broadcaster, producer and songwriter, Manning was a DJ for stations like KISS FM, BBC 1xtra, The Hits, Capital FM before signing a record deal with RCA last year. Now, he releases his own music and writes with others. This includes his work on the dance banger “Kisses” by BI3ss.

Low Profile, a music licensing company established by Jen Pearce in 2017, has launched a music publishing division. Its first signees are Thandii, Steady Holiday, Lani Rose, Petite Noir, Kassa Overall and Camp Saint Helene. As the company’s press release states, this new division is “dedicated to providing songwriters with transparent, fair deals and essential resources to help them navigate the intricacies of music publishing.” Among its services, Low Profile offers its clients access to its proprietary Advance Calculator tool to demystify how publishing deals are put together.

AllTrack, the latest U.S. performing rights organization (PRO), has launched a suite of APIs now-available to platforms like streaming services, UGC platforms, distributor and publishing administrators. The APIs will include a direct single-click PRO registration capability for unaffiliated creators from within a platforms, authentification of songwriters profiles and account details, access to detailed song-level metadata, the ability to display songwriter credits to end users and immediate clearance of performing rights.

With the first quarter of the 21st century coming to a close, Billboard is spending the next few months counting down our staff picks for the 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22, No. 21, No. 20, No. 19, No. 18, No. 17, No. 16 and No. 15 stars, and now we remember the century in Justin Timberlake — a true triple-threat whose insane winning streak to start this century seemed for a while like it might last indefinitely.

Justin Timberlake came into the 21st century as pop’s golden child. From his scene-stealing time as the baby bro of *NSYNC at the turn of the century, to his one-two-three punch of a solo start with the hit-making Justified in 2002, gliding into the cutting-edge FutureSex/LoveSounds in 2006, and rounding out a decade-plus of pop supremacy with the glossy two-part 20/20 Experience in 2013, it began to seem like no amount of time off from music (or even a globally televised Super Bowl catastrophe) could kill his vibe. And while that golden touch has lost a bit of its sheen in the past few years – as Timberlake’s commercially dominant streak tapered to an end – his chokehold on pop culture for those 15 years can’t be overstated.

But Timberlake’s transition from one-fifth of a blockbuster boy band to solo superstardom was never guaranteed. For every Michael Jackson, there are dozens of… well, we won’t name names, but for most boy banders, the group is the beginning and end of their success story. Timberlake was able to be the exception to the pop rule by choosing the exact right time to strike out on his own, and he had the most epic launch pad possible in the turn-of-the-millennium juggernaut that was *NSYNC.

Before we arrive at the year 2000, let’s quickly rewind to 12-year-old Timberlake landing a spot on Disney Channel’s All-New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993, where he met kindred pop spirit JC Chasez (and Britney Spears too, but we’ll get to her later). That was of course well before both were selected by Lou Pearlman as two of the five members of a new boy band, designed to recapture the late ’80s/early ’90s fan frenzy around New Kids on the Block, and backed by earworm productions from Swedish pop maestros, including the soon-to-be-legendary Max Martin. While *NSYNC made a huge impression with their 1997 self-titled debut album – spinning off four Billboard Hot 100-charting hits – their arrival was preceded by Pearlman’s other group, Backstreet Boys, and it felt a bit like the junior group was playing catch-up to their pop peers.

That perception was obliterated when *NSYNC’s new millennium kicked off with the January 2000 release of their first top five Hot 100 hit “Bye Bye Bye,” leading up to March’s No Strings Attached – which marked not just their biggest album debut yet, but the biggest album debut of all time, selling an unprecedented 2.4 million copies in its first week (setting a record that held for 15 years, until Adele’s 25); topping the Billboard 200 for eight weeks; and producing the group’s lone Hot 100 No. 1 in “It’s Gonna Be Me.”

One giant album led to another, with *NSYNC returning the next year with 2001’s Celebrity, their second Billboard 200 No. 1, which saw Timberlake’s introduction as the group’s true star. While Timberlake and Chasez had shared lead vocals on every song to that point, there was a solo showcase on Celebrity that painted the picture of what was to come: “Gone” found JT – who traded his famous ramen-noodle curls for a bad-boy buzzcut – singing every verse (showing off his vocal range, from a gravelly baritone to a floating falsetto) and starring front and center in the black-and-white music video, backed by his groupmates for lush harmonies on the chorus. Another sign of Timberlake’s future: Celebrity’s breakout hit “Girlfriend,” *NSYNC’s first foray into hip-hop-flavored pop and a Hot 100 top five hit, included a guest verse from Nelly and production by The Neptunes, foreshadowing the core sound JT would pursue on his solo debut.

And we can’t paint a picture of just how massive a star Timberlake was at this point without talking about the power couple that catapulted his public profile into another stratosphere. Timberlake started dating Spears, his fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum, in 1999, and their combined pop powers launched a thousand teen-magazine covers (and led to an iconically bizarre dual-denim fever dream of a red-carpet appearance at the 2001 American Music Awards).

The beginning of the end for *NSYNC arrived in April 2002, when the Celebrity Tour, the group’s fourth and (so far) final trek, wrapped up and was followed by an indefinite hiatus. Also in the spring of 2002: Timberlake broke up with Spears – meaning his public identity as both a boy bander and Britney’s boyfriend were behind him as he headed into the summer 2002 creation of his debut solo album, Justified. For the 13-track set, he reunited with The Neptunes on seven cuts and connected with hip-hop heavyweight Timbaland for the first time on four songs. Just four months after pressing pause on *NSYNC, JT’s debut solo single, the Neptunes-produced “Like I Love You,” arrived in September 2002, followed by the Nov. 5 release of the full album. 

“Like I Love You” peaked just outside the Hot 100 top 10, and Justified debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 – but the heat around Timberlake’s budding solo stardom had just started boiling. The Timbaland-produced “Cry Me a River” came next, climbing all the way to No. 3 on the Hot 100 by memorably mining the Britney breakup, fueling cheating rumors and deploying a Spears doppelganger in its eyebrow-raising music video. JT scored two more top 40 Hot 100 hits with a final pair of singles from the album: the MJ-indebted “Rock Your Body” (No. 5) and the Pharrell-intro’d “Señorita” (No. 27). Aside from his chart success, Timberlake also managed something on his debut album that *NSYNC never accomplished, picking up his first two career Grammys at the 2004 ceremony: best pop vocal album for Justified and best male pop vocal performance for “Cry Me a River,” from five nominations.

After Justified, Timberlake was hot enough to get the call to appear onstage with headliner Janet Jackson at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. What should have been a victory lap for the newly minted solo star turned into a world-famous nightmare when Timberlake accidentally exposed Jackson’s breast in front of 140 million TV viewers (just as he sang the “Rock Your Body” lyric “better have you naked by the end of this song”), later coining the infamous phrase “wardrobe malfunction” in his apology. But while Jackson’s career famously suffered in the aftermath, JT was largely left strikingly unaffected.

After back-to-back releases from *NSYNC followed quickly by his solo debut, fans had to wait a grueling four years for Timberlake’s next album. Led by “SexyBack” — his most experimental single yet, with a harsh but intoxicating electro-funk sound — FutureSex/LoveSounds debuted atop the Billboard 200 in September 2006 and signaled his arrival as a fully formed adult pop star. He leaned into his Timbaland partnership on the project, scoring his first three solo Hot 100 No. 1s with the album’s first three singles: “SexyBack”; the percussive T.I.-featuring ballad “My Love” and the two-part “What Goes Around…Comes Around,” basically a karmic sequel to “Cry Me a River.” He picked up another four Grammys across the ‘07 and ‘08 ceremonies for the project, cementing his spot as both a critical and commercial heavyweight. He also sprinkled his pop magic onto other artists’ singles in his downtime, returning the favor to Timbaland with the Hot 100-topping “Give It to Me” (also alongside Nelly Furtado) and gracing a trio of top five hits in Madonna’s “4 Minutes,” T.I.’s “Dead and Gone” and 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology.”

By this point, Timberlake had introduced a new layer to his many talents by hosting Saturday Night Live during both of his solo album cycles (he’d eventually join the Five-Timers Club in 2013) and introducing his recurring sketch “The Barry Gibb Talk Show” with Jimmy Fallon during his debut 2003 hosting gig. But the real gift came in December 2006, when Timberlake co-starred in The Lonely Island digital short “D–k in a Box,” which went on to win an Emmy for outstanding original music and lyrics the next year and virtually invented the idea of a viral hit on YouTube, the video-sharing site that had debuted only a year prior.

That SNL success seemed to feed into Timberlake’s next move, as he took a nearly seven-year break from music to pour himself into an acting career, with varying degrees of success (there was Oscar-favorite The Social Network and charming Mila Kunis rom-com Friends With Benefits, but there was also The Love Guru). At this point, it was unclear whether Timberlake would ever return to his recording career, but it was a testament to the level of stardom he’d reached that his fans never stopped anticipating his musical return, no matter how long he stayed on the sidelines.

He eventually found his way back to music, taking on a natty Rat Pack-inspired persona in a tuxedo and slick new hairstyle as he rolled out the smooth Jay-Z-featuring “Suit & Tie” (No. 3 peak on the Hot 100) in January 2013 and the eight-minute ode to wife Jessica Biel “Mirrors” (No. 2) in February ahead of the March release of The 20/20 Experience. The breathless excitement for Timberlake’s crooning comeback was made clear when 20/20 sold 968,000 copies in its first week – the largest solo week ever for JT – and finished as the year-end No. 1 Billboard 200 album for 2013. While the project was generally embraced by fans and critics alike, there were a few misgivings this time – including some hand-wringing over the songs’ excessive runtimes – compared to the flawless approval rating of its FutureSex/LoveSounds predecessor. 

The long-awaited album wasn’t the only music JT had up his tux sleeve that year: Timberlake surprised fans by announcing an imminent Part 2 coming for The 20/20 Experience – and it arrived just months later, scoring him a pair of Billboard 200 chart-toppers in 2013. The project was preceded by what might be considered Timberlake’s first musical misstep: Lead single “Take Back the Night” shared a name with a sexual-assault awareness group, but its suggestive lyrics instead told the story of a carefree, sexy night. JT apologized (“neither my song nor its lyrics have any association with the organization”) and shed light on the group’s efforts (“something we all should rally around”), but the song never really rose above the controversy, topping out at No. 29 on the Hot 100. There were two success stories from 2 of 2, however: The dreamy ballad “Not a Bad Thing” climbed all the way to the Hot 100’s top 10 eight months after the album’s release, and the twangy “Drink You Away” became JT’s first song to reach Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, following a lauded team-up with Chris Stapleton at the 2015 CMA Awards.

After sticking to his electro-pop sound on top 10 lead single “Filthy,” Timberlake found another country moment on his February 2018 album Man of the Woods when he re-teamed with Stapleton for the strummy standout cut “Say Something” and scored another Hot 100 top 10. Days after the release of his fifth studio album – which debuted atop the Billboard 200, but with a much smaller first week than 20/20 — Timberlake returned to the Super Bowl stage, 14 years after the Janet incident, for a much less incendiary showing and headlining for the first time. 

As JT made a memorable meme out of #SelfieKid in the Minneapolis crowd and paid tribute to hometown hero Prince at Super Bowl LII, some fans questioned why Timberlake was invited back to the Super Bowl when Jackson never was, and the pop star directly addressed that criticism years later in a 2021 Instagram statement. His comments were prompted by the February 2021 release of the documentary Framing Britney Spears, which put his post-breakup behavior in a new light and led to renewed criticism over the double-standard at play following the Super Bowl controversy, and Timberlake’s failure to properly support Jackson over the blowback she’d faced at the time, which he’d since expressed regret over. “I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson both individually because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed,” he wrote in part.

While he had amassed his fair share of detractors by this point, Timberlake had also broken through to a new, much younger generation of fans by combining his Hollywood aspirations with his musical prowess and voicing Branch in the pop-music-obsessed Trolls animated movie series, scoring his fifth Hot 100 No. 1 along the way with the bouncy, Oscar-nominated 2016 soundtrack single “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” Timberlake brought things full-circle in 2023 for Trolls Band Together, when he reunited his *NSYNC bandmates in the movie and for their first new song in 21 years, the whistling confection “Better Place.” 

And that wasn’t all he had in store for fans who had been with him from the beginning: For his sixth studio album Everything I Thought It Was (led by top 20 single “Selfish”), the pop quintet got together yet again for “Paradise,” which they live-debuted just before the album’s March 15 release, and which seemed to speak directly to the fans who had been begging the boy band to reunite for decades (sample lyric: “I’ve been waiting forever/ Right here for this moment”). 

Aside from the *NSYNC reunion, JT’s latest album mostly underwhelmed, debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and failing to produce any lasting hits. That lackluster performance was further compounded when Timberlake’s summer DWI arrest in The Hamptons amid the Forget Tomorrow World Tour became an online punchline, thanks to his police-reported prediction of “This is going to ruin the tour… the world tour.” But it didn’t: In fact, the recently extended trek is on track to land in the top 10 of Billboard’s year-end tours list. And the hunger for a potential *NSYNC reunion tour is still raging as well: “Bye Bye Bye” even recharted on the Hot 100 this year – 24 years after its initial Hot 100 debut – off its use on the Deadpool & Wolverine soundtrack. 

It seems fitting that Timberlake would find himself approaching the quarter-century mark by (however briefly) returning to the turn-of-the-century group responsible for much of what he’s created so far in his career. After all, while he’s surely picked up fans along the way who weren’t around for his *NSYNC heyday – whether they were too old to be invested in a boy band or too young to understand (or not even alive for it, for that matter) – the bond formed from watching someone at age 12 on Disney Channel to following along on their boy-band journey to seeing their ascension to the top of the pop pyramid is impossible to replicate. There’s an unconditional love that comes from those day 1 fans that has unquestionably fueled JT’s nearly three decades in pop, through its highs and lows. In the end, ain’t nobody love him like we love him.

Read more about the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century here — and be sure to check back on Tuesday when our No. 13 artist is revealed!