May 21, 2026: On this day in 2000, NSYNC’s toy-store-themed music video for “It’s Gonna Be Me” premiered on MTV’s Making the Video, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most memorable pop videos of the TRL era.
Directed by Wayne Isham, the video turned Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick into boxed toy-store dolls trying to catch the attention of a shopper. The concept leaned perfectly into the song’s title and the No Strings Attached era, playing with the idea of pop stars as manufactured toys while still delivering the slick choreography, bright visuals and dramatic camera moves that ruled early-2000s MTV. The video debuted on MTV’s Making the Video on May 21, 2000, and made its first appearance on Total Request Live two days later.
“It’s Gonna Be Me” was released as a single from NSYNC’s 2000 album No Strings Attached. The song was written by Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson and Rami Yacoub, with production by Rami. It followed “Bye Bye Bye” and helped keep NSYNC locked at the center of pop music during one of the biggest boy-band years ever.
The song later became NSYNC’s only No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard’s chart for July 29, 2000 shows “It’s Gonna Be Me” at No. 1, after climbing from No. 4 the previous week.
More than two decades later, the video remains a time capsule of peak MTV pop: giant toy shelves, plastic hair, shiny costumes, dance breaks and enough Y2K energy to power a mall food court for a week. It was playful, polished and just strange enough to stick.
And of course, the song found a second life online thanks to the annual “It’s Gonna Be May” meme. Every year at the end of April, Justin Timberlake’s stretched pronunciation of “me” comes back around, turning a 2000 pop single into a recurring internet holiday. Vogue noted that NSYNC’s members eventually embraced the meme themselves, sharing and reacting to fan posts around April 30.
For Millennium Hits listeners, “It’s Gonna Be Me” is more than a boy-band single. It is a snapshot of 2000 pop at full brightness: MTV countdowns, CD singles, synchronized choreography and a chorus that refuses to leave the brain once it checks in.
Twenty-six years later, the dolls are still on the shelf, the hook still hits, and yes, every spring, it’s still gonna be May.