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Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2006: Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is Billboard's Greatest Pop Star of 2006 for how he stepped into pop music's future.

But the song shortly proved itself as something powerful enough to both define top 40 and also push it forward, while severing the final ties between Timberlake and his teen-pop past — his grown-man getup and swagger a lifetime away from the MJ wannabe who showed up to the 2002 VMAs in fringe and a chain wallet. His accumulated acting experience added a new dimension to his combo-threat appeal, and his skills as an all-around entertainer were on display off when he served as both host and performer on a December Saturday Night Live — in which the uber-viral (and JT-co-starring) “Dick in a Box” short debuted, quickly making Timberlake as ubiquitous on the Internet as he was on TV. The Canadian pop star had come a long way from her folkier singer-songwriter days of the early decade, but her clubgoing fembot makeover paid dividends — particularly once Timbaland duet “Promiscuous” became the unavoidable song of the summer, taking her to Hot 100 heights she never soared to even when she was in full “I’m Like a Bird” flight.

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