The calendar reverses from April to May on Wednesday, meaning social media users will almost certainly see “It’s Gonna Be May” memes featuring singer Justin Timberlake in the coming days.
The meme comes from NSYNC’s 2000 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me.” While singing the main phrase of the song, Justin Timberlake announces the word “me” as “May”.
According to a 2016 article from E! News, the first iteration of the meme appeared on Tumblr in 2012. The meme was a calendar with a smiling photo of Timberlake on April 30 with “It’s going to be May!” written on. The meme caught fire and different versions have since circulated.
Timberlake even got in on the fun himself in 2020, posting a version of the meme on X where his mouth is covered by a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Timberlake said in a September 2023 interview on the popular YouTube interview show “Hot Ones” that it wasn’t him who came up with the idea to sing the song’s line that way.
Timberlake confirmed on the show that he sang “It’s Gonna Be Me,” and a producer told him to say “may” instead, with fellow NSYNC member JC Chasez stepping in to remind Timberlake producers and songwriters Max Martin, Andreas Calsson and Rami were Swedish and had accents.
“What’s funny specifically for Max Martin is that the parts of their English that were broken made them catchier songwriters because they put words in a way that made almost no sense, but when you sang them, they were more memorable,” Timberlake said.
“I knew one day they would invent this thing called memes,” Timberlake joked. “But yeah, it was a specific note and I did it like he asked and that’s what made the record,” he concluded.
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Memes came early this year
Some social media users have already started posting the annual meme in anticipation of May 1.
Gabe Hauari is a national news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].
