With just hours to go before Justin Timberlake takes the stage at the Orpheum Theater in his hometown of Memphis tonight (Jan. 19), the singer posted a five-second sneak peek of what is expected to be the preview of his return to music. “SEE YOU TOMORROW” Timberlake wrote on X on Thursday night in advance of the free underplay show he announced last week.
Even better, the post came with a brief video of Timberlake walking onto the theater’s stage, which was bathed in orange light illuminating a full band playing a slinky R&B groove as the “Mirrors” singer crooned what sounded like “it’s all that I saw.” It was unclear at press time if the groove was from a new song, but Justin’s increased activity lately has ramped up speculation that the JT6 era is imminent.
In addition to the show, Timberlake will be back in the friendly confines of The Tonight Show next Thursday (Jan. 25), where he is booked to appear as a guest alongside Molly Ringwald and musical guest Flo Milli. Timberlake and host Jimmy Fallon are old friends, so fans have been hoping that the singer will use the opportunity to announce his as-yet-untitled new album; at press time Timberlake had not officially confirmed speculation that he’s prepping the follow-up to 2018’s Man of the Woods.
There have been a number of clues that something is up, including Timberlake wiping his social media feeds over the past week before posting a series of pictures that appear to be from a music video shoot, captioned “EITIW.” The latter spurred suggestions that his new single will be called “Everything I Thought I Was,” with eagle-fingered Redditors tracking down a trademark application filed by a mystery LLC early last year for that phrase, as well as for “Everything I Thought I Was… A Sonic Film.”
At press time a spokesperson for Timberlake had not returned a request for comment on his upcoming plans.
In September, Timberlake reunited with his old bandmates in *NSYNC to release “Better Place” from the Trolls Band Together soundtrack, marking the group’s first musical release since 2002’s Neptunes remix of “Girlfriend” featuring Nelly.
Check out Timberlake’s post below.
