Justin Timberlake with a casual Las Vegas show in Hamburg | NDR.de – Culture – Music

by Danny Marques Marcalo

The fans in the sold-out arena are already partying, but Justin Timberlake hasn't even shown up yet. Instead, a DJ is warming things up. He's playing hits from the 90s and 2000s. The same time period when many fans first heard about Justin Timberlake.

Casual megastar

The megastar is wearing black trousers and a jacket, white shoes and a white pearl necklace. It looks casual. His movements are not too elaborate, but very perfect with his accompanying dancers. The eye-catcher is a large box, a gigantic domino that comes loose from the video wall, moves over Timberlake and crew, is illuminated or sometimes complements a video – a Las Vegas show in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld.

Letter from teenage times printed large

Justin Timberlake doesn't talk much, but he does take a few moments to interact with the fans. He reads the signs that some of them are holding up. One woman has printed out a large letter that he wrote to her when he was a teenager in the boy band N'Sync. He takes selfies and walks through the entire arena to a second stage at the back. He politely thanks everyone in German, “I love you all,” he says. The fans dance and celebrate.

Show with hot air and gap fillers

The 43-year-old is a full-time professional, but not all of his songs are a hit. Justin Timberlake has a bunch of fillers in his repertoire, hot air on an evening that already has enough hot air in Hamburg due to the thunderstorm. Timberlake also says several times: “It's so hot” and keeps drinking from his 1.5 liter water bottle. Towards the end, the concert in the arena, which was already too loud, gets really loud again with “Can't Stop The Feeling” and “Rock Your Body”. And then, as the final wrecking ball of ecstasy, “Sexy Back”. Anyone who doesn't dance to that is a Backstreet Boy.

Superstar is clearly having fun on stage

Justin Timberlake played for less than two hours. All of his hits were included, not all of the songs were played in their entirety, some were shortened. But the man danced, flirted with the audience and absolutely gave the impression that he was having fun. That's not something you can say about all superstars these days. The tour is set to end on December 20 in Kansas City.

More information

The US pop singer's new album will be released in March, and the 43-year-old will perform four times in Germany as part of his world tour. more

The US singer performed in Hamburg for the first time – for three and a half hours. The second star of the evening were the fans. more

The US singer's book “The Woman in Me” is also a piece of pop history. Her relationship with Justin Timberlake plays a central role. more