Guess what? It's gonna be May.
With so many of us feeling as though time means nothing while we're in COVID-19 isolation, what was once the second-most tiresome May-related meme (after those “May the 4th Be With You” ones coming on Monday) comes as a helpful reminder that a new month is upon us.
“It’s Gonna Be May” memes have been ubiquitous on the last day of April since 2012, when a Tumblr user singled out Justin Timberlake’s southern enunciation of “me” on the 2000 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me.”
Spring Summer 2020. Thanks for this, Internet. pic.twitter.com/I3mdWPTjiN
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) May 1, 2020
In 2016, Timberlake blamed the song's producer. "Max Martin made me sing ‘me’ that way,” he told a British radio station. “I think he just wanted me to sound like I was from Tennessee.”
NSYNC's Chris Kirkpatrick told Variety: "I remember when we were recording the song, Max Martin kept telling Justin to sing it more ‘may’ instead of ‘me,’ and then it just became May. When it was over, I remember even Justin saying, ‘Man, that sounds ‘May’ more than ‘me,’ but it didn’t really catch on until someone made that meme."
Appearing on Good Morning America last year, JT’s fellow NSYNCer Lance Bass celebrated the enduring popularity of the meme. “When we recorded that song there was no social media so we had no idea this would happen,” he pointed out.
“We never really thought about the way Justin pronounced ‘me’ before, until this meme started going around.”
Timberlake has embraced this little bit of pop culture by tweeting about it for the past few years. Afterall, “It’s Gonna Be May” has been good for business. According to YouTube, the song's video has been viewed 20 million times since last April 30. (JT utters the phrase around the 1:00 mark.)