Justin Timberlake will hit the Super Bowl stage for the third time on Sunday, February 4, as the New England Patriots take on the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. In anticipation of the singer’s latest gig, Us Weekly revisits the most memorable moments from his past appearances.
Timberlake, now 37, first teamed up with the NFL in January 2001, when the Baltimore Ravens faced off against the New York Giants during Super Bowl XXXV. Not yet a solo artist, the ’NSync standout and bandmates JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick performed alongside Aerosmith at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
The show featured a medley of Aerosmith’s hits “Jaded” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” with ‘NSync’s “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me.” The performance ended with a bang as Britney Spears (Timberlake’s then-girlfriend), Nelly and Mary J. Blige strutted on stage and joined both bands for an epic cover of the Steven Tyler-led rock group’s single “Walk This Way.”
Fast-forward to February 2004, a year-and-a-half after the release of Timberlake’s debut solo album, Justified. Midway through the Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots’ game at NRG Stadium in Houston, Janet Jackson walked on stage and performed her song “All for You.” Diddy, Kid Rock and Nelly appeared next, singing a mixture of songs including Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Diddy’s “Mo Money Mo Problems.”
Jackson, now 51, returned to sing her 1989 classic “Rhythm Nation.” Then Timberlake appeared, and the rest is history. Near the end of his song “Rock Your Body,” the former boy bander accidentally removed part of the R&B icon’s costume, exposing her right breast. In wake of the incident, the FCC implemented a five-second broadcast delay for future live performances and charged CBS a $550,000 indecency fine.
“I stumbled through it, to be quite honest,” Timberlake recalled during an interview with Apple Music’s Beats 1 host Zane Lowe earlier this month. “It’s just something that you have to look back on and go, like, ‘OK, well, you know, you can’t change what’s happened but you can move forward and learn from it.”
Super Bowl LII airs on NBC on Sunday, February 4, at 6:30 p.m. ET.