Britney Spears fans boosted a 13-year-old song to No. 1 on the iTunes Chart to beat Justin Timberlake.

Justin Timberlake’s past is catching up to his music career. The musician dropped “Selfish,” his first single in six years, on Thursday. Over the course of the following day, Britney Spears, Timberlake’s ex-girlfriend, posed the biggest threat to him on the iTunes list. On Friday, Spears “Selfish,” from the album Femme Fatale, climbed to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes top 40 singles chart, demoting Timberlake to No. 3.

Following Timberlake’s release, Spears’s fan accounts banded together on Thursday to purchase the song in order to propel it up the charts. The 13-year-old song returned to the top of the iTunes list the following day.

Timberlake hasn’t released any solo music since his last album, 2018’s Man of the Woods. Since then, he has been the subject of controversy for both his negative treatment of Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. That year, Justin released a vague apology on Instagram to both women, saying that he was “deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right.”

Break-up with Britney Spears

Justin Timberlake dated Britney Spears, whom he met on the set of ‘Micky Mouse Club’. They began dating in 1999 and called it quits in 2002. Justin initiated their breakup over a text message, leaving her “devastated.” Meanwhile, the media portrayed her as a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy,” though she was actually “comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”

Not just that, instead of coming to her rescue, he chose to make the situation worse. Justin released a song ‘Cry Me a River’, where he cast a Britney lookalike to recreate what transpired between them and suggested cheating. Even after that, he continued to hint towards the same, despite the cheating rumours being false.

Janet Jackson’s Nipplegate

The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show became notable for the moment when Janet Jackson’s right breast—adorned with a nipple shield—was exposed by Justin Timberlake to the viewing public. The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate or Janetgate, led to an immediate crackdown and widespread discourse on perceived indecency in broadcasting.