SXSW: Justin Timberlake Plays Least Secretive Secret Show, Ever

Justin Timberlake closed the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, on Sunday (March 17, 2013) with one of the worst kept secrets...probably in the history of live music. The South by Southwest Festival does throw up its fair share of very secret shows, with some big names taking to their guitars in various bars at 4am, though Timberlake's show was anything but kept under wraps.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the game was given away almost immediately, when the Austin Police Department leaked news that J-T would be performing. They had prepared extra security for the pop superstar and subsequently dropped his name to the press. If for some reason that hadn't alerted fans to the fact that Timberlake was playing, advertisements for his new venture MySpace were littered all over the place. At one 800-capacity music venue on a heavily trafficked downtown intersection in Austin, passers-by were greeted by huge 'THIS IS MYSPACE' graffiti on the wall.

And then there was another piece of graffiti, "Secret Show," inked onto the side of another wall, in the customary Timberlake typeface. It was at the Coppertank venue where the gig eventually took place, with Questlove performing a supporting set before Timberlake took to the stage to play tracks from his two albums, Justified and FutureSex/LoveSounds, and forthcoming third studio album 20/20. He also took fans by surprise when covering INXS's 'Need You Tonight.'

Watch Justin Timberlake performing 'Senorita' at his secret SXSW show: