Who sang with Justin Timberlake on SNL?
JUSTIN Timberlake is bona fide pop royalty — as well as being a songwriter, producer and Hollywood actor.
He performed two tracks from his sixth studio album on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in January 2024 — here we take look at what he sang and who he performed alongside.
Who sang with Justin Timberlake on SNL?
On his appearance on SNL on January 27, 2024, Justin Timberlake performed two tracks from his new album Everything I Thought I Was, which is released on March 15 by RCA Records.
The new release comes six years after his previous album Man of the Woods sold 422,000 copies in the US — making it JT's first album not to sell a million stateside.
On the first song he performed live in New York on the night, Sanctified — a gospel-funk hybrid track, which will reportedly be the second single from the new album — he was backed by Houston rapper Tobe Nwige, who added a scorching verse at the bridge.
Justin opens the song with the verse: “You know I’m an animal/I belong in the wild, wild, wild/When I get out of control ain’t no bringing me down, down, down.”
He also performed an R&B ballad named Selfish, which has the hook: “So, if I get jealous, I can’t help it/I want every bit of you, I guess I’m selfish.”
Speaking about the lyrics of the song, Timberlake told Apple Music: “We were talking about the song itself and just breaking down the idea that you just don’t hear that from men often, that they would express an emotion that makes them vulnerable.
“And then, growing up the way I grew up, you’re taught not to do that. But I don’t know, it just felt like a really honest song.”
He added: “The lyrics just started to come out honestly.
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“And when I listened to the whole album, I felt like it’s probably, of all the songs on the album, production-wise, probably the most straightforward, and I don’t want to say simple because it’s complex within its simplicity to me.”
How did Tobe Nwige get into music?
Prior to his music career, Nwige was an aspiring professional Footballer who played college ball — before an injury derailed his dreams of making it to the NFL.
Following this setback, Tobe worked in the non-profit world, where he met motivational speaker Eric Thomas, who was the first person to encourage him to create music and pursue a career in the industry.
Even though he had no knowledge or experience in the field, Nwige drew from his past as a sportsperson to become an artist.
He said on Audible's Origins podcast: “I did have the perspective that I gained from football. I knew how to be disciplined, consistent, persevere.”
He added that he was used to “getting up and doing what you don’t feel like doing on a regular basis for a specific goal.
"I had those type of intangibles and that helped me develop musically.”
What are the lyrics for Sanctified?
Verse 1
You know I'm an animal (animal)
I belong in the wild, wild, wild
When I get out of control
Ain't no bringing me down, down, down
You know I go crazy
I go off the wall, no MJ
But I'm walking on moons
It's amazing, baby
I know you a good one (good one)
Closest thing to a saint
So I come alive
Every (time) we interchange
Yeah, don't condemn me
I get down on my knees and confess to your temple
And you take me and you serve me mercy
Chorus
Something about
How we break all of the rules
Make a sinner feel so blessed
You take all of my wrongs
Move right along, take me and fix my mess
Get me up when I'm low, hand on my soul
Like you see right inside
I come out a new man
No blood on my hands
(Sing) Sanctified
Rid me of my sins
Take and forgive them
Make me a new man
And I'm sanctified
Sanctified
Rid me of my sins
Take and forgive them
Can I get a witness?
Sanctified
Sanctified
Verse 2
I gotta come to you (only you) when I want to repent
Surrender my all right at your throne and do it again
Yeah you crucify me
Burn me up until there's nothing left inside me
Right hand to your every word
My religion my love
Baptized in your ocean
Willing and open, never enough
You never judge me
You just take your halo
Put it right above me
Chorus
And there's something about
How we break all of the rules
Make a sinner feel so blessed
You take all of my wrongs
Move right along, take me and fix my mess
Get me up when I'm low, hand on my soul
Like you see right inside
I come out a new man
No blood on my hands
(Sing it) Sanctified
Rid me of my sins
Take and forgive them
Can I get a witness?
Sanctified
Sanctified
Bridge
I get down on my knees every night and I pray for you
(I get down on my knees yeah)
Don't you see you're my savior, I'm made for you
I get down on my knees every night and I pray for you
Don't you see you're my savior
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Rap by Tobe Nwige
Swear it's only right that I
Hold the toast just for my protection
Need the Holy Ghost 'til the resurrection
But I still might beckon angels
My complexion to swoop down
Your direction and make your connection to me
Just a bit stronger
I know it's wrong to sit back and conjure
A million ways for you to heal the monster
That has been postured inside my loins
Yeah, boing
That's what it do when I see you
I know you see through me
And I ain't see through
But you never treat me like I am fecal matter
Wow had to smile
I know I ain't spoke to you like this awhile
I know you cried me a river like the Nile
But hell, I got baptized in it and came out
So so so so much better
Know I could never try to measure the weight of your glory
But sometimes with you it's like my heads in the pool
And my eyelids have opened
Chlorine, that ho can burn
But in return
All I discern is to be different
One has to unlearn
And just be
Chorus
Sanctified
Rid me of my sins
Take and forgive them
Make me a new man
And I'm sanctified
Rid me of my sins
Take and forgive them
Can I get a witness?
Sanctified
Sanctified
Oooh, sanctified