We Love The ’90s: Debbie Gibson & NKOTB’s Joey McIntyre Team Up For Vegas Residency

Stephen J. Cohen / Getty Images – Debbie Gibson and Joey McIntyre of New Kids On The Block
perform at U.S. Bank Arena on May 2, 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Gibson and McIntyre are preparing for a limited Las Vegas run Aug. 26-28 and Sept. 16-19, on the heels of her first album release in 20 years, The Body Remembers.

Every decade in the modern pop era has seen a revival 20 or so years on, as fans grow up and seek out the soundtracks of their lives when times were simpler. In recent years, even before COVID-19 made all our lives more complicated, tours by artists who made their bones in the 1980s and ‘90s were already proving lucrative as music fans sought out the music of their youths.

There’s some justifiable thought that nostalgia could be even bigger than ever in post-COVID times, as fans emerge from lockdown and seek out some semblance of the “Before Times.”

Universal Attractions Agency’s Jeff Epstein is somewhat of an expert on this. His company is currently booking tours like “I Love The ‘90s,” “Lost ‘80s Live” and the “Pop 2000” tour featuring Mark McGrath and Lance Bass.

“When you hear those songs and see those artists, you can forget about your troubles and for a while be transported back in time,” Epstein tells Pollstar. “It makes sense that people will want to go back after being locked up for the last almost two years and remember the joy.”

Debbie Gibson and New Kids On The Block’s Joey McIntyre are bringing some of that joy back to concert stages with a limited run in Las Vegas Aug. 26-29 and Sept. 16-19, and her first album in 20 years, The Body Remembers, invokes the kind of exuberance that promises to return her “Electric Youth” generation of fans to more carefree times.

In fact, Gibson was one of the openers on NKOTB’s hugely successful 2019 tour that included Naughty By Nature, Salt-N-Pepa and Tiffany.

It played 55 mostly sold-out arena shows including two-night, sold-out stands in Boston and Rosemont, Ill., in the Chicago market. The tour sold 655,643 tickets for a total gross of $52,695,376 – an average of 12,370 fans in seats and $994,252 per night