It was released on July 18, 2006, to US mainstream and rhythmic radio stations[5] by Jive Records as the lead single from the album.

"SexyBack" became Timberlake's first number-one single as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100, staying seven weeks at the top spot.

[9] The song was written and produced by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, and Nate "Danja" Hills, and mixed by Jimmy Douglass, using Pro Tools.

[1] Hills played the Akai MPC3000, as well as virtual synths on his Macintosh computer, while Timbaland performed instruments on the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling keyboard.

"[13] "SexyBack" is an "urgent, pulsing track, a cocktail of soaring, distorted vocals and heavy, electronic chords threaded together with rap", according to Camilla Long from The Observer.

"[25] Ben Williams of New York magazine wrote that Timberlake had been working on his pickup lines, with "You see these shackles baby I'm your slave / I'll let you whip me if I misbehave.

"[27] Charlie Brooker for The Guardian, in regard to the lyric, "them other fuckers don't know how to act", writing that Timberlake's translation is of him telling everyone in the world that they are a "clueless fornicator".

[28] In addition, Brooker noted that the line, "If that's your girl you'd better watch your back", as Timberlake stating his intention to meddle in the private affairs of others.

[21] In the Billboard magazine review of the album, contributor Katy Kroll wrote that Timberlake "claims to be bringing 'sexy' back to pop music, and indeed he is.

[31] Russell Baillie of The New Zealand Herald noted, "The producer's angular synthesizer crunch is all over it – at best on the single 'SexyBack' where they dispense with a chorus, leaving the song sustained by its vocal fireworks, electrofunk and Timberlake's repeated declaration that 'I'm bringing sexy back.

'"[32] PopMatters' contributor Quentin B. Huff wrote that "SexyBack" was the "fraternal twin" to Nelly Furtado's 2006 song "Promiscuous".

[33] Andrew Murfett of The Age wrote that the song was a "raunchy club banger that slyly suppresses" Timberlake's customary falsetto.

[34] Glenn Gamboa of Newsday was complimentary towards the song, writing that it was "Timberlake at his best, mainstreaming a combination of the wild, edgy dance-pop style of Basement Jaxx with Missy Elliott's more experimental hip-hop to create a boldly inventive sound that still pleases the masses.

"[3] Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote: "...'SexyBack', a twitchy, emaciated track that shot to the top of the charts and also became an irritating catchphrase.

)"[35] Dagny Salas of North by Northwestern commented that Timberlake and Timbaland trade ridiculous lines, with "Get your sexy on/Go ahead, be gone with it" and "Dirty babe/You see these shackles/Baby I'm your slave/I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave.

"[36] Matt Burns of The Post wrote, "Take the polarizing summer single 'SexyBack', a repetitive song with little structure that doesn't know when to stop, all centered on a ridiculous declaration.

[39] Guy Blackman of The Sunday Age wrote: "The distorted vocals and stilted production of first single 'Sexyback' make Timberlake's claim to be 'bringing sexy back' ... seem almost laughable.

"[40] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Justin Timberlake, we didn't even know that sexy was missing until 2006.

"[41] Charlie Brooker, columnist for The Guardian, jokingly criticised Timberlake, saying "How DARE this dot-eyed, crop-haired, fun-sized, guff-tongued, pirouetting waif-boy scamper on to the world's airwaves and loudly proclaim to be the sole global administrator of all things sexy?

You'd think it takes massive balls to do something like that, but given the shrill, squeaking vocals cheeping through his ghastly little gobhole, it's safe to assume he's got testes the size of capers.

[67] The video starts off with a cable car looking over Barcelona, from the West looking East, then it switches to a luxurious-looking hotel in Plaça de Catalunya with Elena Anaya taking off her shirt, revealing her black bra and a gun tucked at the back of her skirt, all while German newscaster Alexander von Roon plays on her TV.

Then when Anaya goes to check it out, Timberlake confronted her, but it quickly became erotic as they begin kissing each other and Justin ripped the pearl necklace from her neck.

In the club, Justin and Elena met at the bathroom stall and they immediately kiss each other, proving that they still have a romantic interest after their sex in the hotel.

[68] The song's abrasive electro-funk came as such a shock to the system in the era of pitched-up soul samples and MOR pop-rock that you might not have been quite sure what to do with it immediately upon its July release.

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.

"[70] Complex staff acknowledged in 2013 that the song "arrived on the scene like a hurricane", adding that while it had been established that "the dude from 'N Sync" was "more than capable" when he first released solo material with Justified four years earlier, "SexyBack" put Timberlake in a position "where you were forced to take him seriously.

[76] At the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, Timberlake won Male Artist of the Year for "SexyBack", "Let Me Talk To You / My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around".

Timberlake performed a remixed version of "SexyBack" at Super Bowl LII (2018) and an NPR Tiny Desk Concert (2024).

[86] British soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae recorded a jazz/swing version whilst appearing on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in 2007.

[87] American pop rock band Maroon 5 covered the beginning of the song as part of a medley during their 2012 Overexposed Tour.