*NSYNC see the memes every year and would like to clear the air.
The recently reunited pop group appeared on Hot Ones and clarified why band member Justin Timberlake sings “me” in a way that sounds like “may” on their 2000 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me,” which fans frequently post memes of at the end of every April.
Host Sean Evans asked the group featuring Timberlake, Chris Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass if the “SexyBack” singer, 42, was directed by the acclaimed Swedish songwriters behind the song — Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub — “to say it more like, ‘may,’ like a meaner ‘me’” while recording the track.
The “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” artist told the Hot Ones host, “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. It’s may. May!”
Chasez, 47, then jumped in to explain that it came down to differences in pronunciation. “You have to remember their Swedish accents,” he clarified.
“They had done a demo of it and they were like, ‘It’s like this,’” Chasez said, while mimicking a Swedish accent.
Timberlake continued to explain why that actually benefited the “Bye Bye Bye” band and other pop superstars at the time who worked with the iconic songwriting team. He said, “You know what’s funny, specifically to Max Martin, the parts of their English that were broken actually made them catchier songwriters because they put words in a way that almost didn’t make sense, but when you sang them, they were more memorable.”