Los Angeles, Sep 23 (IANS): Actor and singer Justin Timberlake has revealed that he was not the original creator of his iconic 2000 hit song ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’, which today has become a meme.

Decades after 2000 single ‘It's Gonna Be Me’ first premiered, the pop song—and more specifically, the way Justin sang its closing line ended up taking on a life of its own, becoming a meme that resurfaces each year to mark the month of May.

However, according to the singer, he was not the mastermind who thought up its unique delivery. When recently asked if it was "fact or fiction" that one of the song's producers had advised him to add emphasis on the word to sound "meaner," Justin confirmed that it ain't no lie, reports Eonline.

"I don't remember the specifics," he told host Sean Evans during NSYNC's appearance on Hot Ones' episode, "but I sang, 'It's Gonna Be Me,' and he was like, 'No, no, no, no, no.'"

The 42-year-old explained that the producer wanted him to say "may" instead, with bandmate JC Chasez noting how all of the track's songwriters had Swedish accents.

"What's funny specifically to Max Martin," Justin said of the hitmaker, who co-wrote the song with his fellow Swedes Andreas Carlsson and Rami, "the parts of their English that was broken actually made them catchier songwriters."

He continued: "Because they would put words away that almost didn't make sense but when you sang them, they were more memorable."

In the present day, ‘It's Gonna Be Me’ has since become a part of pop culture lexicon and is a full on meme song, something which Timberlake himself has acknowledged and is more than happy with.

In fact, the singer himself even poked fun at his unconventional pronunciation on the song in a September 17, in a TikTok video.

"What's a word you pronounced incorrectly one time and it still haunts you to this day," a TikToker asked, to which ‘The Social Network’ actor replied in his own stitch, "Um, me."