Justin Timberlake bringing touring back: Forget Tomorrow tour makes May stop in L.A.
Justin Timberlake will embark on his Forget Tomorrow world tour in April and will swing by the L.A. area in May for one stop on the global outing.
The 10-time Grammy Award winner, who released his first solo song since 2018 on Thursday, will set out on the tour in conjunction with his upcoming album, "Everything I Thought It Was." The RCA Records album drops March 15 and is the sixth studio album for the "SexyBack" and "Can't Stop the Feeling" hitmaker.
Timberlake, 42, made the official tour announcement Thursday — the same day he released "Selfish" — during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," purposely "forgetting" to announce the 22-city trek during a bit with the host who is his longtime friend.
"Oh, yeah, I'm going on tour," Timberlake quipped.
The tour kicks off April 29 in Vancouver and heads south to Seattle on May 2 before stopping at the SAP Center at San Jose on May 6. Timberlake will play the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 10, then head back to California for a May 14 show at the Pechanga Arena San Diego and a May 17 show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood. After that, he makes his way to Phoenix and then out east. Barring an extension, the tour is set to wrap the U.S. leg at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. Additional dates including stops in Europe and the United Kingdom will be announced soon, concert producer Live Nation said Friday in a statement.
Read more: Justin Timberlake releases new song, 'Selfish,' for his first solo album since 2018
"Fans can expect to hear songs from his forthcoming new album 'Everything I Thought It Was,' his latest single 'Selfish' out now, and everyone’s favorite hits," Live Nation said. The tour is Timberlake's first in five years. He wrapped his 13-month Man of the Woods tour in April 2019.
Tickets go on sale through Timberlake's fan club Monday and Citi and Verizon presales begin Jan. 30. The general on-sale begins Feb. 2.
The former 'NSync frontman and "Trolls" star told Fallon he worked four years on "Everything I Thought It Was" and wrote "almost 100 songs" before narrowing the track list down to 18. He worked on the album through the pandemic and the arrival of his second son, Phineas, with wife Jessica Biel. Unlike his previous music, Timberlake said he worked on the album in spurts that he described as "writing camps" with various songwriters. Earlier this week, he told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe that "it is my best work.”
Fallon volunteered his own "phenomenal" review of the upcoming album: "This is perfectly done. Everything you've done, the layers upon layers, the different tempos. It's fun. It's dancey. It's ballad. There's surprises on there. It's good."
And Timberlake told the host that he "can't wait to perform it." The musician gave fans an early listen to "Selfish" during a hometown show in Memphis, Tenn., last weekend and played a classroom instruments version (and a medley of his hits) with Fallon and the Roots on Thursday's episode.
Before he launches the tour, the "Rock Your Body" and "My Love" singer will play a free show at Irving Plaza in New York City on Jan. 31. In his bit with Fallon, he said that they're still putting together the set list for that show, so it's unclear how much of his new music will make it in.
"The Mickey Mouse Club" alum's return to the spotlight comes after he kept a relatively low profile last year, particularly amid bombshell revelations about his relationship with Britney Spears in the singer’s memoir, “The Woman in Me.” Spears' loyal fans didn't take kindly to the fact that Timberlake's new song bore the same title as a track from her 2011 album, "Femme Fatale." Naturally, they drove the 13-year-old song up the charts.
Spears' "Selfish" entered the top 40 on the U.S. iTunes chart on Friday and, at one point, outpaced Timberlake's "Selfish," The Times has confirmed. As of press time, Spears notched the No. 2 position in the top 10 behind Tom MacDonald's "Facts." Timberlake's "Selfish" was at No. 3.
Timberlake notably stepped out twice since Spears' book’s October release: for the premiere of the animated movie “Trolls Band Together” in November and to headline the splashy opening of Fontainebleau Las Vegas last month.
Read more: Justin Timberlake means 'no disrespect' to Britney Spears in 'Cry Me a River' performance
He and his former 'NSync bandmates also made headlines in September after they reunited — albeit briefly — to present an award to millennial superfan Taylor Swift during the MTV VMAs. (Timberlake and Fallon also had plenty to say about Swift's current beau and their pal/golf partner, Travis Kelce, during Thursday's "Tonight Show.")
Timberlake — a four-time Emmy Award winner — also is returning to “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. The pop and R&B singer has hosted the sketch series five times and has frequently guest-starred, but this weekend he’ll return to Studio 8H as a musical guest. The episode will be hosted by "Madame Web" star Dakota Johnson, who co-starred with Timberlake in the 2010 film "The Social Network."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.