Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” Intro Hinted At Britney Backlash

Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River” has normally been a certifiable bop, cloaked in controversy. In 2002, the song’s new music movie implied that Britney Spears’ cheated on Timberlake, spurring an onslaught of tabloid gossip that villified Spears. But that public notion transformed when Spears’ memoir The Female In Me arrived out in Oct — and judging by Timberlake’s December overall performance of “Cry Me A River,” he is aware of it.

On Dec. 13, Timberlake experienced a surprise Las Vegas overall performance, the 2nd time he’s stepped on phase because Spears’ e-book release. For the duration of the demonstrate, he executed his hits, which include “Cry Me A River,” but added a telling intro to the song. “No disrespect, but, uh,” Timberlake explained prior to singing the monitor.

Timberlake may possibly have meant “no disrespect” by the overall performance, but lovers did not necessarily just take it that way. “Him still singing this understanding what we know do not sit proper w/ my spirit,” just one TikTok usre wrote. A different commented, “This song tore aside Britney and 20 yrs later he’s nonetheless singing it.”

It was the 1st time Timberlake appeared to hint at his know-how of Spears’ memoir, in which she claimed they both cheated on every single other. In Spears’ reserve, per Us Weekly, she cheated as soon as with choreographer Wade Robson, while Timberlake cheated “a couple of times” with distinct women.

Spears’ claims came as a shock to followers considering the fact that the tune normally hinted at Timberlake staying the victim of infidelity. As well as, according to Us Weekly, in Timberlake’s 2018 reserve Hindsight: & All the Issues I Cannot See in Entrance of Me, he wrote about the song’s inspiration: “I’ve been scorned. I’ve been pissed off. I wrote ‘Cry Me a River’ in two hrs. I did not system on composing it.”

“The inner thoughts I experienced were being so robust that I had to generate it, and I translated my feelings into a type where by folks could hear and, hopefully, relate to it. Persons listened to me and they understood it mainly because we have all been there,” Timberlake ongoing.

Timberlake appeared to have a adjust of coronary heart 2021 when the No cost Britney movement was in comprehensive swing. At the time, clips of “Cry Me A River” (alongside with other films of Timberlake discussing his and Spears’ sexual intercourse lifestyle) went viral. Timberlake apologized on Instagram in February 2021.

“I’ve found the messages, tags, responses, and considerations and I want to reply,” Timberlake wrote at the time. “I am deeply sorry for the periods in my lifestyle where my actions contributed to the problem, the place I spoke out of change, or did not speak up for what was right. I fully grasp that I fell brief in these times and in numerous others and benefited from a procedure that condones misogyny.”