Justin Timberlake finally explains why he sang ‘may’ in ‘It's Gonna Be Me’

Ever wondered why some singers seem to have their very own peculiar way of pronouncing words in their songs?

Well, I know I definitely have, with none other than Justin Timberlake being at the top of my list of celebrities who once opted for an alternative way of enunciating 'me' in NSYNC's 2000 smash-hit, 'It's Gonna Be Me'.

Now over two decades on from that culture-defining moment, Timberlake has finally spilled the beans on exactly why he sang 'may' instead of 'me'.

YouTube/First We Feast

While he sang the track alongside fellow band members Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, and Joey Fatone, fans may be surprised to discover it wasn't actually his idea to wrongly pronounce the word and sing the lyric 'It's gonna be may' instead.

The song has since gone down in pop culture history, after becoming a meme to signal the changer from spring to summertime - which crops up every year to mark the month of May.

Now, while we can all admit this moment has helped keep the legacy of 2000s boy band culture very much alive, we now know who the mastermind behind the word's bizarre delivery actually was.

YouTube/First We Feast

Timberlake has since revealed all on an episode of Hot Ones with Sean Evans, which was released to YouTube on Thursday (21 September).

In the episode which saw the Friends with Benefits actor quite literally cry a river given the heat of the spicy wings, Evans asked if it was 'fact or fiction' that one of the song's producers had advised Timberlake to add some extra emphasis on the word 'me' to sound 'meaner'.

Timberlake, interestingly, confirmed this was actually the case.

He revealed: "I don't remember the specifics but I sang, 'It's gonna be me,' and he was like, 'No, no, no, no, no.'"

The 42-year-old 'Bye Bye Bye' singer went on to explain that the producer instructed him to say 'may' instead, with bandmate Chasez pointing out how all of the track's songwriters had Swedish accents.

"What's funny specifically to Max Martin," Timberlake recalled, talking about the song's writer with fellow Swedish co-writers Andreas Carlsson and Rami, "the parts of their English that was broken actually made them catchier songwriters."

He went on, "Because they would put words away that almost didn't make sense but when you sang them, they were more memorable."

Well, it seems the song writers' decision truly paid off, given the fact we're all still banging on about the track over 20 years later.