Self-described Justin Timberlake “superfans” from New Jersey, Sara Miller and Kim Mitchell failed to win tickets to the pop singer’s free concert at the Orpheum on Friday night.
But they flew to Memphis, anyway.
“I left the kids, my four dogs and my husband behind,” said Miller, 46.
“This is what we do,” said Mitchell, 54. “We travel all over the country for him.”
They arrived Downtown Friday, with faith that their karma would be in sync, so to speak, with the whims of the gods that watch over hopeful concertgoers. Explained Mitchell: “We’re manifesting it, hoping the powers that be will make it happen.”
Sure enough, the friends finagled a pair of tickets, and soon were in line at the merchandise table in the Orpheum lobby, where $50 T-shirts were emblazoned with words that affirmed the uniqueness of the event: “Justin Timberlake – One Night Only – Memphis Tennessee.”
The New Jersey women weren’t alone in their devotion to the boy band heartthrob turned “SexyBack” singer and movie star. Before Timberlake took the stage, Kendi Chinn-Johnson, 41, explained why she and her husband, Anthony Johnson, traveled from Seattle for the show. (They flew to St. Louis, rented a car, then drove to Memphis, arriving in town with only an hour to spare.)
“We consider this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Chinn-Johnson said.
“Once-in-a-lifetime” was not an exaggeration, even for fans who have followed Timberlake throughout his career.
Organized to promote the imminent launch of the pop star’s first album in six years and to tease the possibility of a national tour, the free 90-minute concert — announced to the surprise of fans on Jan. 12, with tickets distributed mainly through a Ticketmaster lottery — showcased an exuberant Timberlake and his 11-piece “Tennessee Kids” backup band in a novel circumstance in an unusually intimate and meaningful setting.
The show contained numerous unusual highlights. It introduced two new Timberlake songs. It was filled with references to Memphis, which Timberlake lauded as “my hometown.” It included an Al Green cover. And it reached an emotional audience-participation climax when Timberlake led the band and the crowd in a performance of “Happy Birthday” for his tearful mother, Janet Lynn Harless, who turned 63 on Jan. 20. (Timberlake, too, is a January birthday baby: He’ll be 43 on the 31st.)
Said Timberlake: “Welcome to the greatest city on Earth — my hometown.”
‘SexyBack,’ ‘Cry Me a River,’ ‘Let’s Stay Together’ & more
Timberlake was born in Memphis, attended E.E. Jeter Elementary School in Millington and was raised in the Shelby Forest neighborhood until stardom beckoned in the mid-1990s. That’s when an audition earned young Justin an offer to join the cast of Disney’s “The All-New Mickey Mouse Club,” an Orlando-based production that also introduced audiences to Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Pop stardom in the boy band *NSYNC and as a solo singer followed.
Beginning almost 90 minutes minutes after its announced start time of 8 p.m., Friday’s concert had a foot in that past even as it stepped into the future.
The show opened with Timberlake reclaiming his pop star prominence with “SexyBack”; he followed that 2006 hit with such crowd favorites as the wrenching “Cry Me a River,” the kinetic “Rock Your Body,” and the dramatic “Holy Grail,” which originally appeared on a Jay-Z record with guest Timberlake vocals. The songs drew from soul, gospel and rhythm-and-blues traditions, while the punchy arrangements and Timberlake’s sometimes crooning falsetto dipped the material in a candy-apple pop gloss.
Timberlake did more than name-drop his hometown. About halfway through the show, he paid tribute to another Memphis musical hero, Al Green, with a caressing cover of the genius soul vocalist’s 1972 Hi Records hit, “Let’s Stay Together.”
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New Justin Timberlake album — and a documentary?
So, yes, there were classics. But the promise of new music — hinted at throughout the week on social media sites and by the entertainment news media — was evident as soon as a concertgoer entered the Orpheum.
Some T-shirts on sale at the merchandise booths featured the legend: “EITIW – Everything I Thought It Was.” Meanwhile, a video posted on Timberlake’s Instagram account about the time the Memphis show ended teased: “Justin Timberlake Presents: ‘EVERYTHING I THOUGHT IT WAS’ Preface by Benicio Del Toro.” Fans and media outlets have identified “EITIW” as the name of Timberlake’s new album, although the singer has yet to confirm a title or release date. (Friday night, the Orpheum’s marquee simply read “NO VACANCY,” in the “EITIW” analog-computer font.)
No doubt, definitive album information will arrive soon, as the Timberlake new-music promotional campaign continues in earnest this month. The singer is booked for a Jan. 25 appearance on “The Tonight Show,” hosted by Timberlake’s longtime friend and comedic musical foil, Jimmy Fallon; he also will be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 27.
Whatever the album’s title, Timberlake did confirm Friday that he is releasing a new LP — the sixth of his 22-year solo career, and his first since “Man of the Woods” in 2018.
A song from the new album, “No Angels,” was given what Timberlake called its “world premiere” when it was played on the Orpheum sound system by Virginia-born producer/DJ Andrew Hypes, during a lengthy mid-concert interlude that found Timberlake leaving the stage to join the deejay at his turntable console, which was on the floor of the Orpheum, at stage left.
Timberlake pumped his fist and encouraged the audience to sing along as Hypes played snippets of such cuts as “Poppin’ My Collar” by Memphis rap artists Three 6 Mafia. The singer delighted fans by sauntering up the aisles, occasionally hugging or dancing with concertgoers, while Hypes scratched and mixed.
“You want more new music?” Timberlake asked as he returned to the stage, where he and the band debuted another new song, a midtempo ballad titled “Selfish.” Crooned Timberlake: “If I get jealous/ I can’t help it/ I want every bit of you/ Guess I’m selfish.”
A Timberlake documentary is in the works, too. Directing a camera crew, actor/filmmaker Fisher Stevens — most recently seen on HBO’s “Succession” and in Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” — was collecting footage for a possible movie or docu-series about the singer. “We’re good friends,” said Stevens, who directed Timberlake in the 2021 Apple+ drama, “Palmer.” “I’m kind of following him a little bit, so we’re figuring it out.”
Justin Timberlake’s first performance at ‘very, very special’ Orpheum
Dressed in a dark suit and white sneakers, Timberlake was in constant motion during the show, although he mostly was not so much dancing as remaining active: bouncing, spinning, crouching, kicking and striking terpsichorean poses. The design of the stage that hosted this activity was simple and elegant, with some musicians arranged along a low horizontal platform, backed by long pleated curtains that changed color — red, orange, blue, even magenta — when bathed by the mobile and dynamic lights.
The crowd, too, was active and on its feet for the entire show, cheering frenziedly for each quip, wiggle and Memphis reference,
The concert climaxed a whirlwind week for these fans, who learned about the event a week earlier, on Jan. 12, when the message “JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE IS PERFORMING FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY IN MEMPHIS” was posted on the singer’s Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts, which, together, have 133 million followers. The message was embedded in a photograph of Beale Street, so that the announcement appeared to be on a billboard on the side of the New Daisy theater. (The Orpheum is on the corner of Main and Beale.)
Most of the free tickets for the concert were made available through a Ticketmaster lottery, but some were distributed to Timberlake fan clubs and to local nonprofits, including the Stax Music Academy and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, which Timberlake long has supported. Overall,1,854 of the 2,308 distributed tickets were used Friday night, with the empty seats likely held by out-of-towners who couldn’t make it to Memphis or by locals who did not want to risk the icy drive to the Orpheum.
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The weather was a theme. Due to what a posted sign identified as “water pressure issues” caused by recent freezing temperatures, the Orpheum’s bathrooms were closed, requiring patrons in need of relief to venture out into the 19-degree night and make use of Porta-Potties located on the south side of the building.
Timberlake expressed “gratitude… from the bottom of my heart” to the fans who braved the cold. “As my favorite rapper once said, you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather,” he said, quoting a line delivered by André 3000 in the song “Ms. Jackson.”
Timberlake has participated in other “homecoming”-type promotional events in the past, including a 2006 performance on an outdoor Beale Street stage during the ABC-TV program “Good Morning America,” when “SexyBack” was No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart. He last performed in Memphis at FedExForum in January 2019.
Friday, Timberlake said his show at the Orpheum — an unusually intimate space for an artist of Timberlake’s drawing power — was his first performance in the historic Downtown theater, where his mother took him to see concerts and musicals when he was a boy.
“This city and this venue is very, very special to me,” he said. “It’s so good to be home.”
