Backstreet’s Back, Alright: Checking In With Backstreet Boys Ahead of Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony 

The Backstreet Boys will help ring in the holiday season this year at Rockefeller Center’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which airs on December 4, 2024, at 8 p.m. EST on NBC and Peacock. America’s favorite Y2K boy band joins a star-studded list of performers, including Little Big Town, Jennifer Hudson, Dan + Shay, and others. Kelly Clarkson also hosts for the second time.

Nick, AJ, Kevin, Brian, and Howie will make their Rockefeller Christmas debut this year, 25 years after releasing their iconic hit “I Want It That Way.” For all of us who still know every word—backup vocals, too, obviously—let’s look at what the Backstreet Boys have been up to since the early 2000s.

Backstreet Boys’ Rockefeller Christmas Performance Comes On The Heels Of Massive World Tour

The Backstreet Boys’ ascent to worldwide fame started in the mid-1990s with the release of their U.S. eponymous debut, which included late ‘90s bangers like “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and swoon-worthy ballads like “As Long As You Love Me.” By 1999, they released “I Want It That Way,” turning them into a global sensation. The Backstreet Boys—comprised of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson—skyrocketed to fame alongside similar groups like *NSYNC and 98 Degrees. What a time, you know?

The Backstreet Boys continued to stay in the charts into the mid-to-late 2000s, even amidst lineup changes with Richardson’s departure and return in 2006 and 2012, respectively. Even after their last chart appearance in 2007, the Backstreet Boys have continued to perform for devoted fans who stuck around even after their Top 40 popularity began to wane. The boy band ventured into fictional and non-fictional films with their appearance in This Is The End and their documentary Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of in the mid-aughts.

The boy band found chart success for the first time since 2007 with their 2016 collab with Florida Georgia Line, “God, Your Mama, and Me.” The following year, they locked into a two-year, 80-show Las Vegas residency titled “Backstreet Boys: Larger than Life.”

Then, in 2019, the Backstreet Boys embarked on their tenth concert tour, the “DNA World Tour,” kicking off in Western Europe in the spring and the U.S. and Canada in the summer. The massive tour has spanned six years, including 18 legs that cover the Americas, Oceania, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The 18th leg of the “DNA World Tour” ended on October 23, 2024, at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

Watch Your Favorite Boy Band Sing, Er, Ring In The Holiday Season

If you thought you remembered the Backstreet Boys already performing at the Rockefeller Center’s glitzy, glittery annual Christmas celebration, you’re probably thinking of *NSYNC’s performance in 1999. (That’s okay: we, Nick, AJ, Howie, Kevin, and Brian all forgive you.) This will be the first time the Backstreet Boys perform at the televised holiday special, allowing all of us to revel in Y2K nostalgia and all of its dELiA*s-outfitted glory.

Once you’re done watching the Backstreet Boys ring in the holiday season at Rockefeller Center, you can keep the festive spirit going by listening to the boy band’s first holiday album, A Very Backstreet Christmas, released in 2022. Now, here’s to hoping that when they sing, Everybooooodaaay (yeaaaaah), they also include, Rock-uh-feeeeller (yeaaaah). Hey—we can dream.

Photo by Fryderyk Gabowicz/picture alliance via Getty Images