Break out the butterfly clips and hair gel and dust off your platform sneakers because the Backstreet Boys are coming to town! And Spotify data for the 90s boy band shows that South Africans are taking a nostalgic walk down memory lane ahead of their highly anticipated DNA tour later this month.
In the week after the announcement of their South African tour in February, the average number of Backstreet Boys playlist streams skyrocketed by 280%, with their most popular song I Want It That Way streamed the most as per Spotify data. The average number of streams of their music and the average number of searches also more than doubled with 103% and 115% increases respectively.
Spotify data from other countries where the band has already performed also shows an increase in the week leading up to the show, so a similar spike is likely in South Africa over the next week, leading up to their first concert in Cape Town on 16 May.
The cities streaming the most Backstreet Boys music include Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Pretoria, with Durban, and Port Elizabeth rounding out the top five.
“Nostalgia is such a powerful feeling, and we see how people use Spotify to seek out the music they love that spans across the decades on our platform, to amplify that feeling. The 90s birthed some of pop music’s greatest hits and was a golden era for boy bands like the Backstreet Boys so it’s not surprising that their music still resonates with local audiences in the streaming era,” says Warren Bokwe, Sub-Saharan Lead Music Strategy and Operations at Spotify.
To get you warmed up for the concert, these are the top five most streamed Backstreet Boys songs in South Africa:
Top 5 Streamed Songs
- I Want It That Way
- As Long as You Love Me
- Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) – Radio Edit
- Shape of My Heart
- Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)
