Backstreet Boys at 30: The boy band that defined 2000s pop makes Las Vegas comeback

As paradoxical as it may seem, nostalgia has taken over the world’s most futuristic stage this summer. Las Vegas’s impressive Sphere — an iconic building in the city of casinos thanks to its 54,000-square-meter LED-covered globe — hosted the Backstreet Boys’ residency, Into the Millennium, during July and August.

One of the year’s most successful shows, it has just extended its run through February 2026. Sky-high ticket prices — the cheapest seats were over $500 — did not stop Nick Carter, AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, and Howie Dorough, all between 45 and 53 years old — and known to fans simply by their first names — from filling all 20,000 seats nightly with fans eager to sing along to the soundtrack of their youth, including hits like I Want It That Way and As Long As You Love Me.

This is yet another sign that early-2000s trends are hotter than ever — Lindsay Lohan dominates the box office, and ultra-low-rise pants fly off the shelves — and a testament to the pop group’s resilience, as they now celebrate 30 years of performing. They do so bearing scars, but they are in surprisingly good shape. Following their triumphant concert series, their most iconic album, Millennium, once again made it onto the U.S. best-seller charts this summer, according to Forbes.

On September 5, 1995, American radio stations aired the Backstreet Boys’ first single, We’ve Got It Goin’ On. A pop track bursting with youthful energy and influenced by groups like Boyz II Men, it invited teenagers to join the party led by five strangers who, a couple of years earlier, had responded to an ad in an Orlando newspaper placed by Lou Pearlman — one of the original five left soon after, and Brian suggested his cousin Kevin as a replacement.

Pearlman’s idea was simple: replicate, with a new quintet, the success formula of New Kids on the Block. He succeeded, but not only did he amass a fortune at their expense, he also stole millions from them. Pearlman eventually died in prison in 2016, after being convicted of orchestrating one of the largest pyramid schemes in U.S. history.

The early days weren’t easy, either. At the height of grunge and rap, the Backstreet Boys struggled to make a mark in the U.S., which they jokingly called “No Fan Land,” and ended up crossing the Atlantic after their debut single didn’t even break into the top 60 charts. From Stockholm, Sweden, with the help of then-unknown producer Max Martin — who would later craft hits for Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift — they won over European audiences and went on to sell millions of copies of their self-titled album worldwide.

According to the band, their success followed this path: from Germany to Switzerland, then France, Canada, and finally the northern U.S. cities that tuned into border radio. The final push came from the U.K. “The Spice Girls dropped Wannabe and that really helped us. That and Hanson’s MMMBop broke open the door for pop music to flood into America,” said Nick Carter.

The rest is history: swooning teens, magazine covers, endless merchandise, catchy choreography, larger-than-life ballads, scathing reviews from critics, and record-breaking album and ticket sales. They became MTV’s darlings, the quintessential boy band — though they insist on calling themselves a “vocal harmony group” — and a phenomenon built largely on the distinct personalities of the quintet: the tattooed rebel (AJ), the angelic blond (Nick), the shy sensitive one (Howie), the paternal figure (Kevin), and the perfect boyfriend (Brian). “Which Backstreet Boy would be your ideal boyfriend?” teen magazines asked at the time.

They never again reached the heights of those early years, becoming a massive yet fleeting phenomenon, barely five years at the top. As their fame grew, so did the challenges. Pearlman hadn’t just stolen millions from them — he had also launched their natural successors and rivals, NSYNC.

The band’s Black & Blue world tour had to cancel several shows so that AJ McLean could enter rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, while the rest of the band confronted their record label, Jive, for prioritizing Nick Carter’s solo career over the group’s future.

In 2006, Kevin left the band and wouldn’t return for six years, when they attempted a media comeback with a Christmas single — a classic pop maneuver that often feels more like an honorable surrender than a reinvention. Brian also revealed at the time that he had developed a serious vocal condition (muscle tension dysphonia) that had changed and weakened his voice forever.

Unlike many bands of their era, the Backstreet Boys have never fully broken up. “There were countless times that we could have easily thrown in the towel and just said, ‘the heck with it.’” McLean said. “But that wasn’t our destiny. Our destiny was to push forward.”

In their effort to survive, they continued recording albums and touring to maintain their connection with fans. They did so even when their most famous member, Nick Carter, faced controversies serious enough to threaten the band’s future. First, with the death of his brother Aaron in November 2022 — a relationship long marked by conflict, including a restraining order requested by Nick. Then, with multiple sexual abuse allegations against him dating back to 2018, which he denied. In April of this year, a fourth accusation of rape was filed against Carter. His lawyers dismissed it as “nonsense.”

As early as 2017, their Las Vegas residency became the fastest-selling show in the city’s history, dispelling the notion that Sin City was the professional graveyard for stars. This year, the quintet once again triggered flashbacks of their glorious past for thousands of fans — just as seasoned as the band themselves — singing along to every hit.

AJ McLean openly defended the power of nostalgia in an interview: “We’re doing nostalgia because it takes people back to a great moment in their lives — whether it’s their wedding day, first kiss, or the first time they heard a song. It takes you to a happy place, and for two hours nothing else matters. You leave happy, glowing, and singing the songs."

The singer also shared on his Instagram account, which has 1.5 million followers, that this is just the beginning: “This is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re just getting started.” As their iconic chorus goes: “Backstreet’s back, alright.”

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition