The career paths of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears have long been intertwined, and with fans turning a more critical eye to the pair's infamous 2000s relationship, some memers in the #FreeBritney camp are pushing to replace Timberlake's iconic It's Gonna Be May meme with a Spears variation.

"It's Gonna Be May" is a play on the classic N*SYNC song "It's Gonna Be Me," on which Timberlake sang the title lyric. Started in 2012, the meme makes an implicit joke about Timberlake's peculiar pronunciation of the word "Me," making it sound more like "May." Since then, an image macro of Timberlake captioned "It's gonna be May" has been a staple of the internet every April 30th, as the next day, well, it's gonna be May.

Earlier this year, HBO released Framing Britney Spears, a documentary on Britney Spears' career, which painted Timberlake in a negative light over the pair's relationship in the 2000s. The documentary generated pro-Britney and anti-Justin sentiments, leading Britney fans to try and replace "It's Gonna Be May" with a Britney variation.

I hate Justin Timberlake so I made this to replace the stupid “gonna be may” meme – you’re welcome world pic.twitter.com/2RJjWqIfK6

— cathy acab forever humes (@CrappyFumes) April 30, 2021

A humble pandemic-year alternative suggestion: pic.twitter.com/pzS4nLWzzn

— Hydrogen + Time (@AgedHydrogen) April 30, 2021

People switching away from the JT to use the Britney May Meme is the #freebritney energy we love to see

— Mark MacKillop (@mark_mackillop) May 1, 2021

Though the memeing is well-intentioned, it seems unlikely to stick for the simple reason that Spears doesn't pronounce "Me" as "May" in any of her songs.

torn because Britney >>> Justin forever, and I swear there must be a song where her Louisiana accent turns “me” into “May” but I can’t find one! She turns “ee” into “ay” in Oops! and Lucky but it’s usually on words like “baby” (‘bay-bay’) https://t.co/WWOHcCZST9

— Alexander (@purplechrain) April 30, 2021

If anything, this may signal the end of the annual "It's Gonna Be May" rush, but it won't be until April 30th, 2022 that we know for sure.