--- description: After Justin Timberlake released his first single in six years titled "Selfish," Britney Spears' fans decided to troll him by boosting her song to No. 1 on iTunes. title: Britney Spears' Fans Troll Justin Timberlake image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c98b6b8044f47f/698a443947ca3842833bb89b/justin-timberlake-britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Music](/tag/music/) ## Music Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Britney Spears Fans Boosted a 13-Year-Old Song to No. 1 on the iTunes Chart to Beat Justin Timberlake  by [Moises Mendez](/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 26, 2024 10:18 PM CUT  Britney Spears; Justin Timberlake Britney Spears; Justin TimberlakeGetty Images (2)  by [Moises Mendez](/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 26, 2024 10:18 PM CUT Justin Timberlake’s past is catching up to his music career. On Thursday, the singer released his first single in six years, titled “Selfish.” Over the next day, Timberlake's biggest competition on the iTunes chart came from his ex-girlfriend, [Britney Spears](https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/ "undefined"). On Friday, Spears’ 2011 song “Selfish,” from the album _Femme Fatale_ climbed to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes top 40 singles chart, knocking Timberlake to No. 3\. (It hasn’t cracked the Spotify charts just yet, but the Spears song is getting airplay on the radio.) > [](https://twitter.com/BritneyTheStan/status/1750936814141976892?s=20) Fan accounts dedicated to Spears rallied together on Thursday to buy the song to help it climb the charts, following Timberlake's release. By the next day, the 13-year-old song—which was never put out as a single—made its way back to the top of the iTunes chart (though on Friday afternoon, [both "Selfish" songs](https://twitter.com/PopCrave/status/1750994286227726531 "undefined") were outranked by Tom MacDonald and Ben Shapiro's "FACTS"). > [](https://twitter.com/popcrave/status/1750964968940278058?s=46&t=VzJZPOsO8IJKT4D9a96LyQ) Timberlake hasn’t put out solo music since his last album, 2018’s _Man of the Woods_. Since then, he has been the subject of controversy after both his negative treatment of Spears following the end of their relationship in 2002 and his conduct during the [2004 Super Bowl incident with Janet Jackson](https://time.com/6121771/malfunction-janet-jackson-review/ "undefined") came to light in the 2021 New York _Times_ documentary _Framing Britney Spears_. That year, the “Mirrors” singer released a vague apology on Instagram to both women, saying that he was “deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right.” > [](https://twitter.com/makhondlovu/status/1360273403396128769?s=20) He continued, “I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.” Timberlake promised to do better moving forward. More recently, Timberlake's treatment toward Spears received renewed attention following the October publication of her [2023 memoir, _The Woman In Me_](https://time.com/6325780/britney-spears-justin-timberlake-relationship-timeline/ "undefined")_._ In it, Spears wrote that she had an abortion because Timberlake wasn’t ready to be a father. She wrote that she “took the little pills,” and was in agonizing pain. “Justin came into the bathroom and lay on the floor with me,” she wrote. “At some point, he thought maybe music would help, so he got his guitar, and he lay there with me, strumming it.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6589194/justin-timberlake-britney-spears-selfish-itunes-chart/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6589194/justin-timberlake-britney-spears-selfish-itunes-chart/"},"headline":"Britney Spears Fans Boosted a 13-Year-Old Song to No. 1 on the iTunes Chart to Beat Justin Timberlake","datePublished":"2024-01-26T22:18:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:01:53.532Z","description":"After Justin Timberlake released his first single in six years titled \"Selfish,\" Britney Spears' fans decided to troll him by boosting her song to No. 1 on iTunes.","url":"https://time.com/6589194/justin-timberlake-britney-spears-selfish-itunes-chart/","keywords":["Music","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c98b6b8044f47f/698a443947ca3842833bb89b/justin-timberlake-britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Moises Mendez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c98b6b8044f47f/698a443947ca3842833bb89b/justin-timberlake-britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"justin-timberlake-britney-spears","caption":"Britney Spears; Justin Timberlake","creditText":"Getty Images (2)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/music/","name":"Music"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6589194/justin-timberlake-britney-spears-selfish-itunes-chart/","name":"Britney Spears Fans Boosted a 13-Year-Old Song to No. 1 on the iTunes Chart to Beat Justin Timberlake"}}]}] ```