Justin Timberlake has managed to do what is known in the trade as a 'George Michael.' No, not importuning undercover cops in an LA park toilet but making the tricky transition from boyband star to international solo superstar.



Timberlake was a natural performer who practically began dancing and singing when he was still in diapers. He won his very first competition as a young teenager and prophetically, it was a Dance Like New Kids On The Block contest, indicating that young Justin was destined to join a boy band.



Timberlake's relatively untroubled, middle class upbringing makes for an unlikely, sexually charged R&B hero. He learnt to sing at his nearby Baptist church in his hometown of Memphis when he was a child and he is devoted to his mum, just like Memphis' other famous son, Elvis Presley with whom Justin shares the same love of food. His favourite is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches although hopefully not the 15ft long incarnation that Elvis loved.



"We have a very special relationship,'' Timberlake says of his mum. "She's been my best friend since I figured out who I wanted to be. With girls, you keep searching for somebody as good as your mother, and that's a losing battle.'' Lovingly (or disturbingly) enough, Timberlake has a tattoo on his back of an angel holding a banner that bears his mum's initials.



Born on January 31, 1981, in Memphis, Tennessee, Justin Randall Timberlake's first 'paid gig' was at the age of 12 when he became a member of Disney TV's The New Mickey Mouse Club, (where he first met future girlfriend Britney Spears). He had made his TV debut a few years earlier on an '80s talent show, Star Search. He lost but instead of slinking away to a life of fry ups and chocolate éclairs in typical Rik Waller fashion, he kept going. It was at the new Mickey Mouse Club show in Orlando, Florida that he met up with future *NSYNC bandmate JC Chasez (and the walking advert for penicillin, Christina Aguilera).