It’s gonna be May! Wait, May is already here, and so is the first of the May memes this month. (May the fourth be with you is awaiting its galactic turn.) A certain *NSYNC song is back in memedom for a day or so, before disappearing for another year.
It’s Gonna Be Me is a hit song released by boy band *NSYNC back in 2000 — 25 years ago this May. In it, singer Justin Timberlake doesn’t actually sing, “It’s gonna be May,” instead, he sings, “It’s gonna be me,” but his Tennessee accent and the spin he puts on the word make it sound like he’s welcoming in the year’s fifth month.
So every year, right before it’s gonna be May, the *NSYNC video gets a spike in YouTube views, and the memes start flying. In 2014, even then-President Barack Obama joked about it on Facebook, sharing a photo of himself and Timberlake.
‘Memes last forever’
Members of *NSYNC recently spoke about the meme on NBC’s Today.
“‘It’s Going to Be May’ time is always the gift that keeps on giving,” said bandmember Lance Bass.
Bass credits the younger generations for keeping his song alive.
“It’s the kids out there. They’re doing it,” Bass said on Today. “I mean, memes last forever. Thank goodness. Who knew 25 years from now so remembered out of the way Justin pronounced ‘me’? Thanks, Justin!”
Timberlake himself has joked about it. On the last day of April 2020, he tweeted a photo of his COVID-masked self with the “It’s gonna be May” caption.
“Thanks for this, Internet,” Timberlake wrote in the tweet.
Spring Summer 2020. Thanks for this, Internet. pic.twitter.com/I3mdWPTjiN
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) May 1, 2020
The memeing of the quote dates back to a 2012 Tumblr post, and it seems ready to continue on as long as there are Mays.
