New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys Talk Upcoming Tour At AMAs

NKOTB's Jordan Knight tells MTV News that their American Music Awards
By Mawuse Ziegbe, with reporting by Tim Kash

Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Superstar boy bands New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, who each spent a segment of the '90s causing teen-girl hysteria with their squeaky-clean party jams and baby-faced good looks, are now joining forces for a U.S. tour in June.

On Sunday night (November 21), the country got a taste of what an NKOTBSB show will look like when the nine-member collective closed the 2010 American Music Awards.

Before hitting the AMA stage, the fellas told MTV News that the collaborative awards-show production mirrors the staging of their upcoming trek.

"It's gonna be exactly what they see on the tour," NKOTB's Jordan Knight said of the show, in which the guys took turns belting pop smashes by both groups. "I think a lot of people, when they hear New Kids are going on tour with the Backstreet Boys, they think we're gonna, like, [face] off; we're gonna be some kind of rivalry. But that's not the case. They're gonna see tonight onstage that it's a collaboration, that we get along ... and you'll see it on our performance."

The amiable rapport among the crew is definitely evident when the guys talk about each band's contribution to pop music. Members of NKOTB and BSB maintain that the groups have a symbiotic relationship: The New Kids paved the way, and the Boys kept the boy-band phenomenon alive.

"In many ways, they contemporize us. They brought us to the forefront," NKOTB's Joey McIntyre explained. "When the Backstreet Boys came out, at first you're like, 'OK, these guys are kinda doing their thing.' To get the credit that somehow we started [the boy-band trend] - which we didn't, 'cause there's New Edition and the Jackson 5 and this tradition's being going on forever - they kinda shed a light on what we did too, and that's nice."

Nick Carter added that the "Larger Than Life" crooners were amped to hit the road with their '90s teen-idol forefathers.

"We appreciate and respect everything that these guys have done for the music industry, and now it's just great to be together," he said. "I think that's what's awesome."

NKOTB's resident bad boy Danny Wahlberg compared the team-up to a successful partnership straight out of Hollywood.

New Kids On The Block perform with the Backstreet Boys at the 2010 American Music Awards on Sunday
Photo: Kevin Winter/ AMA2010/ Getty Images

They might have been the only nine guys who could close out a show as hectic as the American Music Awards. In a show filled with pop newcomers like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys graced the stage to show they still had the right stuff.

Like any good boy-band performance, there were pyrotechnics and sweet dance moves. The pop supergroup started with a mash-up of the BSB hit "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" and the NKOTB classic "Hangin' Tough." Soon the guys slowed it down for Backstreet's "I Want It That Way" and then kicked it old school for the New Kids' "Step by Step."

All nine guys took a dance break before they segued into "The Right Stuff," complete with the New Kids' infamous shuffle dance from the video. The spotlight once again fell on a BSB tune before they capped it off with "Larger Than Life," complete with an "NKOTBSB" chant. Confetti fell from the sky as the guys closed out the show.

Earlier in the night, all nine guys hit the AMA red carpet together. In an interview earlier this month, they teased that there was a chance they might record a track together.

"It's tough getting these guys in the studio. These young cats," New Kid Joey McIntyre explained about his tourmates, the Backstreet Boys. "Well, it's honestly, it is tough to get everybody together. Yes, we have lots of great intentions.

Ke$ha's Cannibal: A Cheat Sheet

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Ke$ha
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/ Getty Images

It's been a pretty phenomenal year for Ke$ha. The brash, glitter-loving club kid burst onto the scene in January with her debut album, Animal, hot on the heels of the smash debut single "Tik Tok."

In short order, she ended the chart run of Susan Boyle when Animal debuted at #1, made her first trip to the Grammy Awards, teamed up with pals 3OH!3 for another hit video with "Blah Blah Blah," dropped in on "American Idol" and hit the road with Rihanna. And that's just the first three months of the year!

But after scoring another hit with "Your Love Is My Drug" and flipping the bird to haters over their critiques of her wobbly debut on "Saturday Night Live," Ke$ha unleashed another single, "Take It Off."

For a minute, there was talk of a follow-up album that might have a country twang, not out of the question considering that she's a Nashville native and her mom penned songs for Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. But as she said at the time, "I'm also really digging being called, like, half-jokingly, a white-girl rapper. I think it's really funny, and I'm going to ride that train for a little bit."

By August, she was already plotting her next move, telling MTV News, "I'm always writing and kind of thinking of the next step. I'm still executing this record properly onstage, but the next record is definitely on my mind, and potentially in the works soon." She described waking up in Tokyo at 4 in the morning with a brainstorm for a new song and then spending seven hours making a "horrible" beat on "Garage Band" and singing and rapping into her computer.

A short time later, it was announced that her nine-song follow-up, Cannibal, would hit stores November 22 as a "companion" album to a reissue of Animal. The disc was reported to contain eight new songs produced by heavy-hitters like Max Martin, Benny Blanco and Bangladesh and to be preceded by "We R Who We R."

"This year has been carnivorous and life-changing. I have my rowdy, gorgeous fans to thank for taking me on the ride of a lifetime," Ke$ha said in a statement. "My only goal with this record is to keep them dancing. The songs on Cannibal were made to inspire people to ignore any hate or judgment and be themselves unapologetically. It's the perfect companion to Animal and I hope you guys like it. And if you don't like it — bite me."

Though a rumored hookup with Drake was false, a confirmed track list proved to have plenty of profane and silly titles, including (ahem) "C U Next Tuesday," "Sleazy," "Blow," "The Harold Song," "Cannibal," "We R," "Crazy Beautiful Life" and "Grow a Pear," plus a remix of "Animal." After winning an MTV EMA for Best New Act, the singer also locked in her first headlining affair, the Get $leazy Tour, which is slated to kick off February 15 in Portland, Oregon.

Like most major new albums, Cannibal leaked online a week before it hit shelves, perhaps the finest proof yet that Ke$ha has truly hit the big time. Only this time, after most of the songs had hit the Web, Ke$ha just posted the damn thing herself on her website and told her fans to enjoy.

"This is my album premiere, and it's top secret, and it's really fun and it's wild," Ke$ha said in a message posted on her site. "Things are going to get crazy and a little awkward, it'll be okay. Listen to it."

She's going to have plenty of major competition on the charts this week with new releases from Kanye West, Nicki Minaj and My Chemical Romance, but something tells us Ke$ha isn't that worried.

Ke$ha Proclaims 'We R Who We R' At AMAs

Ke$ha performs at the 2010 American Music Awards
Photo: Christopher Polk/ Getty Images

Whirring sirens and post-apocalyptic stage design certainly set the tone for Ke$ha's energetic American Music Awards performance on Sunday (November 21). Surrounded by keyboards, Ke$ha kicked it all off in a glowing robot helmet and began her Animal track, "Take It Off."

Soon she was surrounded by dancers, some of whom broke through mirrors to join the singer on the stage as she transitioned into her Cannibal track "We R Who We R." For the performance, Ke$ha let her hair down and graced the stage in a mirrored bodysuit and leather jacket. She danced and gyrated her way through the track off her latest release, out this week.

When she wasn't dancing, she played a white guitar as confetti fell from the ceiling toward the song's synth filled and Auto-Tuned finale. As the song wrapped, she turned the guitar around and revealed that it said "hate" with a slash through it. She destroyed the guitar as sparks flew from behind her.

"This year has been carnivorous and life-changing. I have my rowdy, gorgeous fans to thank for taking me on the ride of a lifetime," she said in a statement. "My only goal with this record is to keep them dancing," she said of the new album. "The songs on Cannibal were made to inspire people to ignore any hate or judgment and be themselves unapologetically. It's the perfect companion to Animal and I hope you guys like it. And if you don't like it -- bite me."