Editor’s note: The gallery from the July 7, 2022, show in Atlanta has been added to this story about the tour originally published Oct. 4, 2021.
Tapping nostalgia lovers in their 30s and 40s, the latest News Kids on the Block arena tour is curated with other acts from the same late 1980s-early1990s era: En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa and Rick Astley.
The 50-city tour in the summer of 2022 will include a stop at State Farm Arena July 7 with tickets going on sale to the public on Friday. Pre-sale tickets for NKOTB Fan Club folks start Tuesday. Prices have not been released but the comparable 2019 State Farm tour stop was priced from $29.95 to $249.95.
The popular boy band with hits like “Hangin’ Tough” and “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” has been smart about who it has paired up with in the past. In 2017, the group toured with Paula Abdul and Boyz II Men and stopped at Infinite Energy Arena (now Gas South Arena) in Duluth. In 2019, they stopped by State Farm with Salt-N-Pepa, the one-two punch of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson and Naughty by Nature.
The tour was announced Monday on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” with a hit medley featuring New Kids with En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa and Clarkson.
The tour melds the top 40 radio of that time with pop, R&B and hip-hop.
Astley’s popularity has only grown over the years, thanks in part to the jokey “Rick Roll” bit on YouTube in the late 2000s when people expecting one thing end up getting a clip of “Never Gonna Give You Up” instead. The now iconic 1987 pop song even showed up in a recent episode of Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” during a funeral. And Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters has expressed his love for the crooner.
En Vogue was one of the biggest R&B groups in the early 1990s with massive hits like “My Lovin’ " and “Free Your Mind.” And they had a top 3 hit with “Whatta Man” with Salt-n-Pepa in 1993, an enduring rhythmic dance song that ended up ranked No. 14 for the year on the Billboard Top 100.
Salt-n-Pepa, who were featured in a Lifetime biopic earlier this year, were one of the first female hip-hop acts that crossed over into the pop world courtesy of “Push It” in 1987 and later with “Let’s Talk About Sex” (1991) and “Shoop” (1993).
This tour, like the 2019 one, is called “Mixtape” for a reason. That tour grossed $53.2 million and sold more than 650,000 tickets.
“Just like a mixtape, these shows are going to take audiences through all the emotions,” said Donnie Wahlberg in a press release. “To be able to have Salt-N-Pepa come back and now also have the iconic and legendary Rick Astley & En Vogue join the tour… we could not be more excited.”
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