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Justin Randall Timberlake (born
January 31, 1981) is an American pop singer, songwriter, record
producer, dancer, and actor. He came to fame as one of the lead
singers of pop boy band 'N Sync and has won four Grammy Awards as
well as an Emmy Award. In 2002, he released his debut solo album,
Justified, which sold over 9 million copies worldwide. Timberlake's second solo release,
FutureSex/LoveSounds, was released in 2006 with the U.S. number-one
hit singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes
Around". The album also spawned three additional U.S. top twenty
hits ("Summer Love", "LoveStoned", and "Until the End of Time")
making it the first time a male artist has achieved six top twenty
hits from one album since Michael Jackson did so from 1991-1992,
with his album "Dangerous". As of January 2008, FutureSex/LoveSounds
has sold over 9 million copies. With his first two albums, Timberlake has sold over 18 million albums
worldwide. He has started a record label called Tennman Records and
a fashion label, William Rast.
Timberlake was born in Memphis,
Tennessee to Randall Timberlake and Lynn (née Bomar). He has British
ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Charles L. Timberlake, husband
of Bobbye Joice, was a Baptist minister, and Timberlake was raised in the Baptist religion,
although he considers himself more "spiritual than religious",
though still a Christian. His parents divorced about 1985 and both
have remarried; his mother, who now runs an entertainment company
called Just-in Time Entertainment, remarried to Paul Harless, a
banker, when Justin was aged 5; while his father, a choir director
at a Baptist church, has two children, Jonathan (born c. 1993) and
Stephen (born c. 1998), from his second marriage to Lisa. A
half-sister, Laura Chwieseni, died shortly after birth in 1997 and
is mentioned on one of Timberlake's record
acknowledgments as "My Angel in Heaven". Timberlake grew up in Millington, a small town
just north of Memphis. His first attempts at a singing career saw
him singing country music songs on Star Search as "Justin
Randall".
In 1993, he joined the The Mickey Mouse Club. There he met future
girlfriend and pop superstar Britney Spears, future tourmate
Christina Aguilera, and future bandmate JC Chasez. When the show
ended in 1995, Timberlake recruited Chasez
to be in a new all-male singing group organized by boy band manager
Lou Pearlman (an Orlando swindler, now indicted on criminal charges
of investment fraud) was forming with Chris Kirkpatrick. The group
would come to be known as *NSYNC. In 1999, Timberlake acted as Jason Sharpe in the
made-for-TV movie Model Behavior.
Personal life
Two early teen romances, first to a school sweetheart and then to
aspiring pop singer Verionica Finn predated intense media interest,
but both ended unhappily. Timberlake then
entered a high-profile celebrity relationship with fellow pop singer
Britney Spears, with whom he had worked on the New Mickey Mouse
Club. This ended abruptly in March 2002, amidst allegations of
Spears' infidelity with choreographer Wade Robson, a mutual friend
of Spears and Timberlake. Lynn Harless says
as a mother she too was devastated regarding the break-up, but to
this day speaks warmly of Spears, "Britney grew up on my living room
floor. I still love her to death. They (Justin and Britney) were
together 10 or 11 years and had, from day one, instant chemistry
between them. She's a sweet girl. I just hate what she's going
through now." The breakup influenced the lyrics and theme of Timberlake's hit "Cry Me A River", one of the
most popular singles from Justified.
Timberlake later dated actress-dancer
Jenna Dewan (in mid-2002) and actress-singer Alyssa Milano (between
September and October of 2002). Timberlake
began dating actress Cameron Diaz soon after they met at the
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in April 2003. Regular rumours of
break-ups reported in the tabloid press were invariably denied. On
the December 16, 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live, Diaz
introduced Timberlake as the night's
musical guest, and the couple actually did split up shortly
afterwards. They issued a joint statement on January 11, 2007:
It has always been our preference not to comment on
the status of our relationship, but, out of respect for the time
we've spent together, we feel compelled to do so now, in light of
recent speculation and the number of inaccurate stories that are
being reported by the media. We have, in fact, ended our romantic
relationship and have done so mutually and as friends, with
continued love and respect for one another.
In January 2007, Timberlake was linked
to Jessica Biel when pictures surfaced of the two snowboarding in
Park City, Utah during the Sundance Film Festival. On May 12, 2007,
the gossip was refueled with the release of romantic pictures of
Timberlake and Biel on multiple dates,
specifically caught kissing while dining in the UK accompanied by
producer/mogul Timbaland and then Manchester United footballer Alan
Smith. Timberlake was given sexiest Man
titles by Teen People and Cosmopolitan magazines.
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