page_title: What Goes Around... Comes Around
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: What Goes Around... Comes Around / Production
caption_attribution_description: Justin Timberlake singing What Goes Around.../Comes Around and playing piano in a New York.
context_page_description: "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Justin Timberlake for his second studio album, FutureSex/LoveSounds. It was written and produced by Timberlake, Timbaland, and Danja. The song was said by Timberlake to be about betrayal and forgiveness, and was described by some music critics as a "sequel" to his 2002 single "Cry Me a River". The song received generally positive reviews from music critics.
  The song was retitled "What Goes Around... Comes Around" for its December 19, 2006, release as the third single from FutureSex/LoveSounds. It became Timberlake's third consecutive number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Internationally the song was also successful, reaching the top ten in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and Australia. The song was later certified two-times platinum in Australia, gold in the United States and gold in New Zealand. The song won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 50th Grammy Awards, where it also received a nomination for Record of the Year.
  The Samuel Bayer-directed music video for "What Goes Around... Comes Around" was released February 7, 2007.
context_section_description: When Timberlake began working on FutureSex/LoveSounds at Timbaland's studio in Virginia Beach, Virginia, they had no idea of what the album would be like with no plan for it or even a title. He told his collaborators to do a remake of his previous single, "Cry Me a River". Danja, a protégé of Timbaland, stated: "We had no direction at all other than 'Cry Me a River,' and not in the sense of mimicking the track, but in how big the song was. There was no direction for how he wanted the song to sound, because there was no direction for how he wanted [his album FutureSex/LoveSounds] to sound."
  The song was written and produced by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Nate "Danja" Hills. While in the studio, the three men were just "fooling around" and "freestyling". When Danja began playing a guitar riff, it caught Timberlake's attention. Timberlake started humming to the melody, and then the lyrics came. Timbaland, who was at his keyboards beside Danja, added drums to the melody. Danja commented that "everything was coming together at the same time". After coming up with the music, Timberlake never wrote down the lyrics and, in an hour, he was ready to record it. By the time Timberlake was in the vocal booth, the basic track was done, then Timbaland produced a prelude of the song. Timberlake sang the song in a couple of takes and went back line by line to fill up the gaps. During the recording sessions, Timbaland and Danja added everything else, including the basses and strings. Danja compared the process to scoring to a movie, thinking the song was like a horror flick.
  "What Goes Around... Comes Around" was pivotal to the creation of FutureSex/LoveSounds. After finishing the production of the song, Timbaland teased Timberlake. Timberlake responded: "Let's do something we would never do. Let's go far left and just see what happens." His answer motivated the collective, and they ended up producing ten songs for the album.
caption: Justin Timberlake on a piano while singing "What Goes Around..."
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