Biography

Justin Randall Timberlake was born in Memphis, Tennessee on January 31, 1981 to Lynn Harless and Randall Timberlake. He grew up in the small town of Millington, Tennessee. Justin came to fame as one of the lead singers of pop boy band ‘N Sync. Timberlake and Joshua (JC) Chasez, who met while filming the Mickey Mouse Club, were the two lead singers of the popular 1990s boy band. The group formed in 1995 and began their career in Europe in 1996. They hit it big in the United States two years later in 1998 with the release of their debut album *NSYNC. *NSYNC sold 11 million copies alone. The album included a number of hit singles including Tearin’ Up My Heart. For the next two years, they, encouraged by a similar situation involving the Backstreet Boys, engaged in a lengthy legal battle with corrupt manager Lou Pearlman and eventually signed with Jive Records. They released a long-awaited album, No Strings Attached, in March 2000, which became the fastest-selling album of all time with 2.4 million copies sold in its first week and produced a #1 single, It’s Gonna Be Me. This success was followed by their third album, Celebrity, which held the title of the second-fastest selling album of all time. In 2002, after the completion of their Celebrity Tour and release of Girlfriend, the third single from Celebrity, the group disbanded, citing interests in other fields of entertainment. It is then that Justin created his first solo album, and sky rocketed even further into stardom.

Justin has won six Grammy Awards as well as an Emmy Award for his comedic music video with Adam Sambourg entitled Dick In a Box. In 2002, he released his debut solo album, Justified, which sold over 7 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 between the years of 1991 and 1992, with his album Dangerous. As of January 2008, FutureSex/LoveSounds has sold over 8 million copies. With his first two albums, Timberlake has sold over 18 million records worldwide alone, as well as over 50 million copies as one of the two lead singers in NSYNC. He has started a record label called Tennman Records and a fashion label, William Rast, which he runs with his best friend Trace Ayala.

SOURCE: Wikipedia with editing by Brittany Ruffin

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