Justin Timberlake is still out on tour. (What tour? The world tour.) He’s currently on the European leg, and it seems concertgoers across the EU are wishing Justin would actually shake a leg at his own dang show. Videos are popping up all over social media that reveal performances from JT that are undeniably lackluster, listless, and rather lacking in vocals. And where there are videos, there are comments raising legitimate concerns, like why Justin won’t just dance, dance, dance and rock his body. Or when will he be bringing singing back. Like I said, they’re fair questions, especially once you watch one of the clips. But it’s the array of zingers people are coming up with that will have me laughing until the end of time.
Justin Timberlake is facing a firestorm of criticism from fans who accuse him of delivering “dishonest” performances on his current tour. A viral TikTok video from a Paris concert has opened the floodgates, with social media platforms like Reddit inundated with comments from disappointed concertgoers questioning the star’s work ethic. The latest concert appearance comes after the singer received backlash for a similar performance in Romania.
The online mockery has been swift and brutal. After footage showed Timberlake seemingly letting the audience handle vocal duties, one user quipped, “this performance could have been an email.” The sentiment was widely shared, with others calling the tour the “Justin Timberlake karaoke tour” and suggesting, “The back up singers deserve his paycheck.”
The jokes pointed to a deep sense of being short-changed. “Is the performance in the room with us?” one commenter sarcastically asked. Another joked, “Go girl, give us nothing.” The criticism became so specific that one person drew a viral comparison: “Justin Timberlake is the Airbnb of concerts. At Airbnb, you pay a cleaning fee but still do the cleaning. At his concert, you pay for a ticket but still do the singing.”
Fans described a performer who appeared completely disengaged. “He went to his own concert as an attendee and made the crowd do the show for him,” one user wrote. Another noted, “The mic is most def off,” while a third asked, “Why is the mic on the floor lol.” The frustration led one fan to conclude, “you have enough evidence to request for refund.”
While a lone defender suggested that letting the crowd sing is a “pretty common thing for artists to do,” that argument was quickly dismissed. A commenter shot back, “There’s plenty of videos that show he does this again and again, for minutes at a time… barely any attempts at singing and no dancing. That’s no performance.”
There’s a term in rehearsals called “marking” it, when you go through a sequence to map out spacing and timing, but you don’t do it at full throttle performance level energy. That’s what I see Justin doing in these clips. The internet is right (for once!), what he’s doing up on stage is not the caliber fans pay to see! (Let alone for the prices they’re asked to cough up.) And yeah, he really is passing off singing duties to the audience waaaay too much, fo’ shiz fo’ shiz. Among the plethora of outstanding comments, I equally love “this performance could have been an email” and “Go girl, give us nothing.” Just coming up with these quips took more effort than what Justin’s giving! But I think we all know it’s the Airbnb line that really takes the cake. No notes.
Poor Justin! Out on his lonely, unglamorous world tour, where he’s been forced to cancel several stops due to injuries and illnesses. Plus the mean young cop in Sag Harbor didn’t recognize him and the mean iconic pop star he used to date exposed him as a douche, and in the middle of it all his wife cut her hair into a bob! Justin thought his DWI was going to ruin the tour; turns out he was capable of doing that all on his own. Cry me a river indeed.
Justin Timberlake puts his mic on the ground, walks away and lets the audience sing for him. This must be a new karaoke thing? Singing three words in almost 30 seconds is embarrassing and disrespectful. pic.twitter.com/gJDyqul8jK
— Justin Timberjail (@justintmbrpussy) July 22, 2025
Fans really stood out in the rain 3 HOURS waiting for Justin Timberlake and he couldn’t even be bothered to fully sing for them. SMH This is disgusting, if I was there I would have requested a full refund TBH. 😡😡 pic.twitter.com/HVD5H59RuM
— Justin Timberjail (@justintmbrpussy) July 21, 2025
If you're not on the TikTok side of the Internet, Justin Timberlake phoned it in for a concert in Romania and the world is here to avenge those ticketpayers' loss. pic.twitter.com/QMyjZMYVzQ
— J. Evelyn (@EvitorialPage) July 22, 2025
Photos credit: TamaraBieber/Bang Showbiz/Avalon, IMAGO/Eibner-Pressfoto/Daniel Lakomski/Avalon, Ben Kriemann/DDP/INSTARimages and via social media
Expecting anything but a lacklustre performance from him was the first mistake.
Paying to see JT was the first mistake.
He had his back to the audience with his hood up while they sang to him! Those clips are bad. He’s phoning it in.
My favourite comment was someone on Threads heading the link with “Watch the crowds go mild!” 🤣🤣
Has his drug problem gotten so bad he can’t hide it anymore?
This is what it looks like. Pure speculation, of course.
He seems more depressed than high to me.
I wonder if this is a contractual obligation/ debt clearing tour? I saw him in concert a little more than 10 years ago after he had released the 20/20 experience and it definitely wasn’t this. This looks like the Marshawn Lynch, I’m only here so I don’t get fined, of concerts.
I think he knows he’s done. It’s been one flop after the next for him. He will be forever linked to the mistreatment of Britney Spears, the public cheating on his wife, that weird album he released where he pretending to be a “man of the woods” or whatever. He doesn’t enough talent or charisma to do what he did ten or fifteen years ago
I saw some comments that he wasn’t acting like that at the start of the tour. Maybe he got bored.
Yikes! Maybe, but still, this is his job! And people paid good money to see a PERFORMANCE!
I saw his 20/20 experience concert too and he was fabulous, so this does actually surprise me. That man used to be a great performer.
Those comments are outstanding and one of the few things that still make me love the internet.
He has the vibe of someone doing it because they have to (quiet quitting maybe), like Bob Dylan when I saw him a few years back and he kept his back to the audience almost the whole show (at his piano) and just didn’t engage. My aunt gave me some backstory and it was essentially doing it because he needed the cash. Fortunately he was a double bill headlining with Neil Young who BROUGHT IT.
Of course you get the crowd to sing bits of the songs they love but you have to sing the sing too! We saw Texas a couple of weeks back and Sharleen Spiteri is amazing at getting the crowd going and getting them involved. She also gives us what we came for.
These are die hard fans to go to a Justin Timberlake concert in 2025.
This is not a new thing either- when I worked in Mobile, it felt like two thirds of the hospital staff went to his concert in New Orleans, and everybody came back complaining that they didn’t pay $$$ to hear the audience sing all night. (This would have been about 2018.)
Note to the rest of the world: when JT threatens to unload his lack of talent in your town, don’t go outside, lock the doors, and hide the children.
What. A. Loser. And his style, so schlubby, that looks like what my hubs puts on to pull the trash bin out to the curb when it’s a rainy day.
“This performance could have been an email” has me dying.
You know when Brit performed Gimme More in 2007 she was absolutely EXCORIATED for her low energy and bad dancing so as Timberlake once famously sang: What Goes Around…Comes Around.
My dislike of him has grown SO MUCH since his heyday. This feels so disrespectful to his fans.
Also I kind of hate that photo with the heart hands because that came from Taylor Swift, who would never do this to her fans.
Who is still buying tickets to a JT show in 2025?
The jokes pointed to a deep sense of being short-changed. “Is the performance in the room with us?” one commenter sarcastically asked. Another joked, “Go girl, give us nothing.” The criticism became so specific that one person drew a viral comparison: “Justin Timberlake is the Airbnb of concerts. At Airbnb, you pay a cleaning fee but still do the cleaning. At his concert, you pay for a ticket but still do the singing.”
Will is just as disappointing and can neither sing nor dance nor act devoted to public duty or his wife. This hard done by UK tax payer will remember the above comments whenever Will next shows up briefly for royal duty, empty handed and empty headed. They are too funny 🤣🤣🤣
That TikTok with the guy in his back yard has me rolling… 🤣🤣🤣
Same!
I saw one of a guy cleaning up a commercial kitchen and pausing just to do the JT parts, it was great!
I’ve always disliked him so I’d never pay to see him, but I actually feel bad for those who did, what a colossal waste of time and money. He should be so embarrassed. I suspect we’re going to get some illness excuse, but if it’s that bad cancel and reschedule.
Performances like this just make me have so much more respect for folks like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Those women put on a SHOW. Every stop, every time. You can tell they rehearsed, put thought into production, and actually give a crap that their fans get their money’s worth. With the true irony being that neither Taylor nor Beyoncé actually NEED the money. They just care that much about being great.
“Phoning it in” is far too generous a description.
I can’t believe I am going to defend him, but I have seen him in Pinkpop. He opened the show like this, first two songs (Mirrors and Cry Me A River), he didn’t sing much. After that, he was so entertaining. He didn’t sing Can’t Stop The Feeling much too. But apart from these 3 songs, he was very much into it. He has an amazing band too. I think people are being unfair. Everybody is sharing the same song video, which i think is part of the show to let crowd sing.
Wanda, if he sucked, he sucked. Maybe it’s time for him to retire or for the whole world to stop buying tickets to his shows. Either would work.