Britney Spears dropped a previously unreleased song titled “She’ll Never Be Me” on Friday, October 9 — which she wrote with her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake in 2001.
“She’ll Never Be Me” leaked online in 2008, but it is now officially available for the first time on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms as part of the upcoming 25th anniversary edition of Spears’ third studio album, Britney.
Spears, now 44, and Timberlake, now 45, penned the upbeat track with Canadian duo Bradley Daymond and Alex Greggs, who also coproduced it.
“You know I’m one of a kind (There’ll never be another me),” Spears sings during the chorus. “Can’t get me out of your mind (You’re lost in your own fantasy) / And when you look in my eyes / It’s not hard for you to realize / She’ll never be me.”
Timberlake’s vocals are not featured on “She’ll Never Be Me,” though he did sing backup on another song from Britney, “What It’s Like to Be Me.”
Britney (25th Anniversary Edition) will also include the never-before-heard song “My Big Secret,” in addition to “When I Found You,” “Intimidated” and more bonus tracks that previously were only released internationally. The full 23-song deluxe album is set to be released digitally on Friday, November 6, with physical copies expected at a later date.
Former Mickey Mouse Club costars Spears and Timberlake dated from 1999 to 2002. After they broke up, the ‘NSync alum infamously called out the Princess of Pop for cheating on him in his song “Cry Me a River,” prompting her to respond with “Everytime.”
Spears admitted to being unfaithful to Timberlake with their mutual collaborator Wade Robson in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, in which she alleged that the former boy band member had not been loyal either.
Elsewhere in the book, Spears revealed she had been pregnant with Timberlake’s baby earlier in their relationship but got an abortion.
“Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” she claimed. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young. … I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Spears went on to welcome two sons, Preston, 21, and Jayden, 20, with Kevin Federline, to whom she was married from 2004 to 2007.
Timberlake, meanwhile, shares two sons of his own, Silas, 11, and Phineas, 6, with Jessica Biel, whom he wed in 2012.
Spears retired from the music industry after the 2021 termination of her 13-year conservatorship. She sold the rights to her entire catalog to publishing company Primary Wave for approximately $200 million earlier this year.
