Icon: Justin Timberlake

 

The SingerNot all child stars turn out bad, you know. Justin’s career started out as a teenager at the Mickey Mouse Club, in the company of such stars as Ryan Gosling and err… Britney Spears – there’s always one. The next step for JT was slipping effortlessly into the role of lead vocals for NSYNC, consistent suppliers of guilty pleasure tracks such as ‘Bye Bye Bye’. In 2002, Justin launched his solo career with his debut album ‘Justified’. The album didn’t do badly either, selling seven million copies worldwide. After an all-too-long seven year break from music, he’s recently come back with a bang. JT’s new album, ‘The 20/20 Experience’ is one of his best yet, selling 968,000 copies in its fist week alone.

The Actor

During Justin’s hiatus from music, he put a lot of concentration into his acting. Breaking into Hollywood with the box office hit ‘The Social Network’ as Napster whizz-kid Sean Parker, JT’s agent has provided him a fine service over the years. 2011 was a fine year for Justin, with major roles in films such as ‘Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Friends with Benefits’ earning him serious acting stripes. It was perhaps these roles that earned Justin a job on his first film as leading man – In Time.  Starring alongside Amanda Seyfried, the film took an impressive 12 million dollars on its opening weekend. Singer, dancer, actor – our Justin is a triple threat!

The Comic

If you’ve somehow managed to avoid watching any of the several ‘Lonely Island’ videos on YouTube, then you’ll be doing yourself a favour by getting online now. In 2007, Justin joined the team for a cameo on the hilarious ‘Dick in a Box’, which featured on the Lonely Islands first album, ‘Incredibad’. The video is currently pushing 40,000,000 views on YouTube – not quite as many as Gaga, but then their not quite as funny as her either. The follow up, ‘Motherlover’, is a MANual favourite. Considering the name of the track, lyrics such as ‘If doing it is wrong, I don’t want to be right’ were a brave choice for our beloved Mr. Timberlake. Good on you JT, we and 50,000,000 others think the risk paid off.

The Man

There are not many men in the world that can rock a noodle haircut, go through a relationship with Britney Spears and expose Janet Jackson’s boob to the world and come out looking like the perfect example of a modern man.  JT has taken life in his stride; he’s become a fan favourite in all forms of entertainment where many critics were eager to write him off as a failure. So hats off to you Justin, you’ve just received the MANual seal of approval.