New Edition, New Kids make boy band history with AMAs performance three decades in the making: 'Totally worth the wait'

#1:New Edition, New Kids make boy band history with AMAs performance three decades in the making: 'Totally worth the wait'

 

 
The American Music Awards tend be an extremely young-skewing affair. Case in point: This year’s ceremony, which aired Sunday on ABC, introduced a new “Best Trending Song” category for artists whose music exploded on Tik Tok. (Megan Thee Stallion won that one.) But interestingly, the three-hour telecast’s most hyped moment was the “Battle of Boston” — a sort of real-life Verzuz — between two '80s acts: Roxbury’s finest, New Edition, and Dorchester’s own New Kids on the Block.
And even though this year’s AMAs host, Cardi B, admitted that she wasn’t even born yet when the two trailblazing boy bands were ruling the Billboard charts, she understood the significance of this event — the first time in pop history that New Edition and New Kids had officially faced off onstage.
It was so EPIC having New Edition on the #AMAs stage! Don't miss any more awards or performances and tune in to the #AMAs NOW on ABC! #NewEditionAMAs​pic.twitter.com/8ZvBI2oHEk
— American Music Awards (@AMAs) November 22, 2021
It was hard to believe that it took so long for this collaboration to happen, since the two boy bands’ careers have always been intertwined. Both were produced and discovered by Maurice Starr, who assembled NKOTB after he and New Edition parted ways. Years later, New Edition guested on NKOTB’s 2008 comeback album, and New Edition’s spinoff trio, Bell Biv DeVoe, opened for the New Kids at Fenway Park earlier this year.
But it all came down to this epic moment, as the New bands kicked it old-school during a rapid-fire medley of their hits — New Kids’ “You Got It (The Right Stuff),” “Step By Step,” and “Hangin’ Tough,” and New Edition’s “Candy Girl, “Mr. Telephone Man,” “Can You Stand the Rain,” and “If It Isn’t Love,” plus a mashup of the two acts’ “Please Don’t Go Girl” and “Is This the End” — while Gen X and Xennial Twitter predictably went wild.
Right now every #bh is 13 again screaming and jumping! #NKOTBxAMAs #nkotb #AMAs​pic.twitter.com/KFzWPVMJ2v
— Alex (@appleblond) November 22, 2021
New Edition still got it! I felt like we just watched a #verzuz battle we didn't know we needed 🙌🏾 #AMAs pic.twitter.com/GlA8tAdT8N
— Blessing (@TheBlessedMesss) November 22, 2021
New edition and New kids on the blocks performance was fireeeee #AMAs​pic.twitter.com/XlDsZ1Sys5
— ARCHIE RESURRECTION🤰🏼 (@vmydrizzle) November 22, 2021
New Edition vs New Kids on the Block was totally worth the wait! #AMAs
— Lisa Bee (@leebee4life) November 22, 2021
The Battle of Boston was a high point for the #AMAs #NKOTBxAMAs #NewEditionAMAs
— J9MT (@DCJerseyGirl) November 22, 2021
When I tell you I'm in my boy band feels. ❤️ @NKOTB @NewEdition #AMAs
— 🧈 ᴮᴱR3⁷ 🐳🐙 // D-6 #PTD_ON_STAGE_LA (@BKiddo1212) November 22, 2021
Historic Seeing The New Kids On The Block And The New Edition On The Same Stage! Thank You @AMAs #Amas
— Malcolm A.K.A Mr.Awesome (@awesome_malcolm) November 22, 2021
Meanwhile, inside Los Angeles’s Microsoft Theater, where Sunday’s AMAs took place, game respected game, as fellow boy-banders like NSYNC’s Joey Fatone, Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman, and 98 Degrees’ Drew Lachey rocked out in the audience, as did the night’s big winners, BTS. And that K-pop septet was presented with the ceremony’s top honor, Artist of the Year, mere seconds after NKOTB and New Edition finished their performance, thus proving that boy bands still have the right stuff after all these years.