Celebs & EntertainmentBackground

Timberlake's 'What Goes Around... Comes Around' single is released

Justin Timberlake's single from FutureSex/LoveSounds arrived in late 2006, and many listeners heard it as a follow-up to 'Cry Me a River'.

9 Nov 2026, 09:361 min read

This summary was written by AI to complete the context; it is not based on a current source.

"What Goes Around... Comes Around" was a single from Justin Timberlake's second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds, which came out in September 2006. The song was released as a single around the turn of 2006 and 2007, after the hits "SexyBack" and "My Love".

It is a long, dramatic song about a relationship that ends in betrayal, with a mid-song shift in tempo and mood. Its title and theme of consequences quickly drew comparisons with "Cry Me a River", the 2002 single from his debut solo album Justified. That earlier song was widely read by fans and the media as a response to his breakup with Britney Spears, although he never confirmed it in those terms.

The music video, directed by Samuel Bayer, starred actress Scarlett Johansson as Timberlake's love interest and reinforced the idea of a story continuing from the earlier video. Because of that, audiences and commentators widely assumed the song was a sequel to "Cry Me a River". The assumption stuck for years and is why the song's meaning has been revisited in later interviews.