Introducing "BackSync," the boy band collaboration you always dreamed about.
AJ McLean and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys joined Lance Bass and Joey Fatone of ‘N Sync for a joint performance Friday as part of a fundraising event at The Grove in Los Angeles in celebration of Pride Month — and fans are hoping this team-up won’t be the last.
The blended boy band performed mega hits from each group, including the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” and ‘N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye.”
The guys even helped each other learn the signature dance moves for each song.
“Teaching members of @backstreetboys the #byebyebye dance is a trip,” Bass, 42, captioned a TikTok video of the group rehearsing for the show.
He also shared another TikTok video that gives a glimpse of their get-together, with TikTok star Rod there, too.
Meanwhile, Carter, 41, shared a funny clip of him and his fellow bandmates moving a sofa as a parody of the famous “pivot” scene from “Friends.”
“‘Friends’ will always help you move,” he wrote in the caption.
Back in the ‘90s, diehard fans probably couldn’t have imagined these two groups joining forces, but as Fatone, 44, pointed out, any rivalry between the ‘N Sync and BSB fan bases is a thing of the past.
“It’s interesting to have the four of us knuckleheads do something together, which you’ve never seen before,” he said in a recent interview with Variety. “BSB fans are very loyal, so we’re going, ‘We get it — certain people liked one band or the other back in the day, but now it’s OK to like both.’”
His bandmates also talked about the dynamics of mixing two groups.
“It just fits,” McLean, 43, told Variety. “Not that the five of us (Backstreet Boys) don’t work because we obviously do, but it’s a different feeling. It’s like when you’ve been in the same relationship for a long time, take a break, meet somebody new, and it’s fresh and exciting!”
It’s safe to say that plenty of millennial fans lost their minds at the news of this epic collab, with many people begging BackSync to go on tour.
“Can we please give the people what they want and do a mega tour with BSB And 'NSync?” one fan commented on an Instagram video clip of their performance posted by McLean. “I have been saving up my money for years for the possibility of this happening.”
“Omg, we need a #backsync tour,” another fan wrote.
While nothing has been announced, McLean strongly hinted that this won’t be the last we see of BackSync — or whichever hybrid name they ultimately choose.
“I want to thank my brother, Nick Carter, and my two adopted brothers, Joey Fatone and Lance Bass,” he said in a TikTok video. “Last night was our first performance, hopefully of many, as BackSync ... SyncStreet ... I don’t know what the hell we’re going to call ourselves! But it was fun.”
As for Justin Timberlake, though the ‘N Sync member didn’t join the recent collab, he definitely has an open invitation.
“The more the merrier,” McLean told Variety. “Fans still want a Backstreet/'N Sync tour, but it’s got to be all 10 of us. It’s the only way to make it work, so I think he’d be sleeping on it if he didn’t do it, but he’s a dad doing his thing and I completely respect that. This four is a dream team right now.”