On Sunday (Oct. 6) night, the American Music Awards celebrated a half century with the two-hour American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special on CBS. The evening featured various walks down memory lane as well as new performances from today’s biggest artists, each one representing a different musical genre. For the boy band tribute, Stray Kids hit the AMAs stage and delivered the most visually incredible and energetic performance of the night.
At the outset of the performance, strings dangled from the ceiling, each one attached to various members’ limbs in homage to *NSYNC’s marionette-inspired 2000 American Music Awards performance of “Bye Bye Bye.” And it wasn’t just a visual reference – the *NSYNC smash hit came blasting over the speakers, with Stray Kids putting their spin on its choreography before singing their own banger, “Chk Chk Boom.” Dressed in black, each member of the South Korean boy band was bursting with energy, attitude and cool, supported by a fleet of backup dancers. Toward the end of their performance, they weaved a bit of “Bye Bye Bye” back into the “Chk Chk Boom” mix before wrapping it up to thunderous applause.
Prior to Stray Kids, *NSYNC’s Lance Bass and Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean introduced them and spoke on the AMAs’ boy band legacy. “Fifty years — the American Music Awards have been around long enough that a lot of boy bands have grown up with the show,” Bass said. “Lance and I are proud to be part of that legacy on the American Music Awards,” McLean added. “A boy band legacy worth remembering and even screaming for.”
Before taking the AMAs 50th Anniversary Special stage, Billboard’s Tetris Kelly caught up with Stray Kids, who thanked their Stays and paid homage to the boy bands who came before them, including *NSYNC.
