Justin Timberlake’s It’s Gonna Be May meme is back once again! While the song released in 2000, the meme began over a decade ago went viral from Tumblr and hasn’t stopped ever since.
Decades later, an NSYNC band member Joey Fatone spills beans from their group chat where they share their favorite It’s Gonna Be May memes every year on April 30. He also revealed how the word meant to be “Me” eventually became “May” and how unexpectedly all of it went viral for decades.
When, where, and how did the It’s Gonna Be May meme originate?
When It’s Gonna Be Me released, it peaked in the top 10 on several international charts including US Billboard Hot 100. Written by Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub, and produced by the latter, it was the second single from NSYNC’s third studio album No Strings Attached.
The American boy band members are portrayed in the video as real-life dolls flirting with different quasi-Barbies on toy store shelves donning crop tops and bikini bottoms. As Timberlake takes the lead vocals of the upbeat pop song and sings the lyrics, “Baby, when you finally get to love somebody, guess what — it’s gonna be meee,” he ends the sentence with a vibrato that sounds funkadelic, making “me” seem a lot like “May.”
NSYNC fans picked up quickly when a picture featuring the singer smiling with the caption “It’s gonna be May” appeared on Tumblr on April 30, 2012. In the same year, BuzzFeed also posted an April calender with Timberlake’s picture at the bottom with the same caption. And, the list is endless!
NSYNC bandmate Joey Fatone revealed his favorite It’s Gonna Be May meme shared on their group chat
In an exclusive conversation with People, Fatone revealed that they often share their favorite It’s Gonna Be May meme on their group chat. “Every once in a while, one of us will find a good one and we’ll send it on the group text.”
Calling his favorite one “really funny,” he shared that the one he liked had “Justin looking like he was dressed up in something from the Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones.” He continued, “I sent him one of those.” He recalled the time when the song released in 2000 and that “it wasn’t even a thing.” He said, “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. 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.”
Meanwhile, Fatone collaborated with the waterpark hotel group Great Wolf Lodge on their Its Gonna Be May promotion which offered up to a 51% discount on May 1 on stays through August 14 with the code BEMAY (conditions applied).
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