Justin Timberlake made a viral splash this weekend for his performance at Pharrell Williams‘ “Something in the Water” music festival in Washington, D.C. The former ‘NSYNC member punctuated his performance with Beat Ya Feet-style dance moves while donning khakis, which prompted a strong backlash on social media.
Always one to take a joke, Timberlake took to his Instagram Story to post a video response to the viral moment.
“D.C., I want to apologize to you for two reasons: here and here,” he said as he zoomed the camera to a close up of his feet. “I had a long talk with both of them, individually, and said, ‘don’t you ever do that to me again.’ Maybe it was the khakis. It was a real khaki vibe,” he said. “I’m gonna focus. I’m gonna focus on these two guys right here to get it right.”
Fans were not impressed with Timberlake’s rendition. “JT did not just say ‘beat your feet’ and proceed to river dance & skip. Boy if you don’t get your a– off the stage,” mocked one Twitter user. “Justin Timberlake said ‘DC beat your feet’ and proceeded to do the hokey pokey,” noted another. “Justin Timberlake your DC pass is revoked until further notice,” said another disgruntled observer.
The video on his Instagram story isn’t the only response from Timberlake. The “Mirrors” singer re-posted a video of a young girl dancing with the caption “she did it better than JT.” He wrote, “I don’t disagree” with a laughing emoji. He then shared a TikTok video of a fan recreating his dance move-by-move with matching khakis to boot. Timberlake left a comment on the video saying that the fan “nailed it.”
Let’s hope Timberlake can perfect the move in time for his next performance in D.C.