The infamous ‘wardrobe malfunction’ has been the subject of renewed controversy ahead of Timberlake’s return to the Super Bowl half-time show
In 2004, Justin Timberlake performed at the Super Bowl half-time show with Janet Jackson. During the performance, Timberlake ripped Jackson’s metal breastplate off in an incident that was infamously referred to in the media as a ‘wardrobe malfunction’.
It’s an event that people have been talking about a lot recently in light of Justin Timberlake’s forthcoming album Man of the Woods and his scheduled return to the Super Bowl half-time show on February 4. In a new interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1, he addressed the incident, responding that he had “resolved the incident” and “made peace” with Jackson.
“I stumbled through it, to be quite honest,” Timberlake told Lowe of his previous half-time show appearence. “I had my wires crossed and it’s just something that you have to look back on and go like, ‘Okay, well you know, you can’t change what’s happened but you can move forward and learn from it.’”
When Lowe asked if he and Jackson had resolved things, Timberlake replied: “Absolutely, yeah. And I don't know that a lot of people know that.” As of now, however, Jackson has not revealed whether the feelings are mutual – though resports have previously suggested she’d be open to joining Timberlake on-stage again if he asked.
The wardrobe malfunction incident and the ensuing outcry has previously been documented in a ten-year retrospective on Gawker. Today, there’s been a renewed discussion of how race and gender played a role in the media response – how Timberlake, a white man, emerged from the scandal relatively scot-free, but Jackson, a black woman, suffered enormous damage to her career.
You can watch the snippet from the interview above. Otherwise, Justin Timberlake released a new song today, which is for some reason called “Supplies”. Listen to that below.