Not only is Backstreet back, but since it was originally announced as a nine-show run spanning three weekends in July 2025, the group’s Sphere Las Vegas residency, Backstreet Boys: Into the Millennium, has been extended 11 times—bringing the grand total to 56 performances through August 29, 2026.
Suffice it to say, the ’90s nostalgia is on full blast, and AJ McLean, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, and Brian Littrell remain as polished, energetic, and synchronized as ever, performing in futuristic, largely monochromatic looks styled by Tierney Burchett and incorporating pieces by designers including Issey Miyake. They also execute plenty of their original choreography, which will be immediately recognizable to their legions of fans.
While most of Sphere’s concert residencies thus far have featured artists and bands whose audiences skew largely toward Baby Boomers and Generation X—think: U2, Phish, Dead & Company, Eagles, Kenny Chesney, and No Doubt—Into the Millennium speaks directly to millennial nostalgia. That generational connection is why many will tell you this may be the most organic melding of artist, catalogue, audience, and technology of any Sphere residency to date.
And while the entire 25-song, roughly 95-minute show—produced and directed by Baz Halpin and his production company Silent House—is a blast from start to finish, there are a few definite highlights.
The first comes immediately, with the opening sequence for “Larger Than Life,” during which Sphere transforms into an enormous spacecraft that propels the audience through outer space before landing. At that point, the five members appear onstage in their signature Millennium white. And, because approximately 10,000 seats at Sphere are equipped with an infrasound haptic system that produces deep, precisely timed vibrations, the production can be felt as well as seen and heard. Combined with the enormous visuals, immersive sound, and plenty of bass, the effect makes it seem as though you are actually hurtling through space.
“Siberia”—a deep cut from the Backstreet Boys’ 2005 album, Never Gone—finds the audience flying through a frozen mountain range in which colossal, Mount Rushmore-like versions of the band members’ faces appear carved into the ice—and then begin singing. It is colossal, campy, slightly creepy, and totally unforgettable.
The audience also seems to delight in the show’s plethora of Y2K-era visual references, cheering an enormous Backstreet Boys-branded flip phone during “Don’t Want You Back” and a house assembled from falling, Tetris-like blocks during “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).”
But the moment that truly gobsmacks the audience arrives during “I Want It That Way” and “Get Down (You’re the One for Me),” during which the oval platform at the center of the elongated stage—suspended from four virtually invisible cables—carries the band almost 70 feet into the air, where they appear to float above the audience as galaxies swirl around them. Apropos of which, this was one of many vignettes to pay homage to the Star Wars films (in this case, the scenes from The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), and Revenge of the Sith (2005) that take place in the Galactic Senate). It is a genuine “wow” moment, for sure.
In fact, eagle-eyed film buffs will likely geek out over the visual references to such epic sci-fi films as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Superman (1978), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Flash Gordon (1980), Blade Runner (1982), Tron (1982), Akira (1988), and The Fifth Element (1997). I certainly did.
Since Backstreet Boys: Into the Millennium grew out of the 25th-anniversary celebration of the group’s second U.S. album, Millennium, and 2025's expanded Millennium 2.0 reissue, the band performs all 12 tracks from the original album, as well as “Hey,” the previously unreleased bonus track from Millennium 2.0. Of course, that's in addition to a dozen hits from their other albums.
By the time the residency’s final summer run concludes, Millennium will be 27 years old. Clearly, the party is still going, and Backstreet remains very much back.
The setlist for Backstreet Boys: Into the Millennium at Sphere Las Vegas is:
1. Larger Than Life
2. It’s Gotta Be You
9. Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely
Backstreet Boys: Into the Millennium
Sphere Las Vegas
Through August 29, 2026 | 8 p.m.
Click HERE for tickets and information
Get into it!
#Sphere
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