Justin Timberlake sets record straight on weird ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ pronunciation

nme.com:

Justin Timberlake has explained why he sang the chorus of the popular *NSYNC song ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ bizarrely.In their 2000 hit, Timberlake sings “It’s gonna be me”, with the last word pronounced as “may”.

This part of the ‘No Strings Attached’ single has gone viral and been memeified on social media multiple times over the years.During a recent Hot Ones interview with the reunited boyband, host Sean Evans asked *NSYNC how they felt about the song’s resurgence and where the weird inflection came from.Timberlake revealed that he sang the chorus as such at request from Swedish songwriter-producer Max Martin. “I don’t remember if the specifics were a ‘meaner me,’ but I sang, ‘It’s gonna be me,’ and he was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no.’ He was like, ‘It’s may,” he told Evans.JC Chasez jumped in, adding, “You also remember their Swedish accents?

And they had done a demo of it, and they were like, ‘It’s like this!’” The rest of *NSYNC nodded in agreement before Timberlake continued.“You know what’s funny?” he said. “Specifically to Max Martin, the parts of their English that were broken actually made them catchier songwriters because they would put words [in] a way that almost didn’t make sense.

But when you sang them, they were more memorable, right? And yes, it was a specific note that I got, and I was just like, ‘This guy is crazy.’ But yes, it was a specific note and I did it the way that he requested and that’s what made the record.”Earlier this month, *NSYNC reunited and will release ‘Better Place’, their first single in 20 years, next Friday (September 29).