Britney Spears‘ fans don’t seem to be letting their issues with Justin Timberlake stay at rest.
Following the release of Timberlake’s new single “Selfish,” the Britney Army took it upon themselves to troll the pop star by running Spears’ 2011 song of the same name up the charts. A day after the release of Timberlake’s track, Spears’ “Selfish” hit No. 1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart, reviving the bonus track from her album “Femme Fatale” and outperforming his new song.
Timberlake dropped “Selfish” on January 25, almost a week after teasing a snippet on his social accounts. He premiered the song in full during a hometown performance at Memphis’ Orpheum Theater, giving a preview of the mid-tempo track.
But he’d been in the news just months before, after Spears released her memoir “The Woman in Me.” In the book, Spears revisits her relationship with Timberlake, revealing details that didn’t portray him in the most positive light. Spears fans had long held a vendetta against Timberlake, particularly after he played the victim amid their breakup with his 2002 single “Cry Me a River” and villainized her in its accompanying music video that featured a Spears lookalike.
Spears wrote that she felt betrayed by the music video and shamed by how he framed her to the viewing public. She also went into detail about an abortion she had while dating him, saying that they terminated the pregnancy because he wasn’t ready to be a father.
“Selfish” is the first single off of Timberlake’s new album “Everything I Thought It Was,” releasing March 15. Shortly after the song’s release, he announced the Forget Tomorrow World Tour, which kicks off in Vancouver, Canada on April 29.
