The Backstreet Boys are going back to the start. The boy-turned-man band announced the dates for a six-night 2026 residency in Germany on Friday morning (Dec. 5), slated to kick off on Sept. 25. The gigs at the Merkur Spiel Arena in Düsseldorf, dubbed Into the Millennium — Homecoming: Live in Germany, will be the band’s only European gigs next year.
They will also mark a return to the country where the group scored their first-ever platinum record 30 years ago when — before U.S. audiences really caught wind of them — German fans helped make “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” a top 10 hit in that country.
“When we talk about this being a homecoming, it’s because Germany is where everything clicked for us,” the group’s Brian Littrell said in a statement. “It’s where our dream stopped being hypothetical and became something real. Coming back for these shows feels full circle.”
In a promo video for the run, the group — Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson and Littrell — make their way to an airplane hangar, where they encounter some of their vintage late 1995 stage gear and crates of dusty Millennium CDs. Gathered for a photo shoot in their all-white outfits, things go sideways when the backdrop falls down, prompting Littrell to ask, “Guys, are we doing this again?,” as Richardson announces “our ride’s here fellas,” while their BSB-branded private jet idles in the background.
The release notes that long before the group became one of the best-selling boy bands in music history, Europe, specifically Germany, was where they initially took off. “They recorded some of their biggest hits overseas and spent their first years performing across Europe, building a loyal audience show by show,” according to the statement. “German fans were among the very first to pack venues, call radio stations, and wait outside hotels, giving the group an early glimpse of what their career would become.”
The shows will take place on Sept. 25, 26, 27, 29, 30 and Oct. 2, with sign-ups available here now for access to an artist pre-sale beginning on Dec. 12 at 12 p.m. CET; a general on-sale will kick off on Dec. 15 at 10 p.m. CET.
The German Millennium shows will kick off more than a year after the band wrapped their run of 20 gigs at Las Vegas’ Sphere in August. The release promised that the band will bring “an unforgettable, stadium-sized celebration of the Backstreet Boys’ legacy. The group will bring their iconic, five-time GRAMMY-nominated Millennium album to life on stage, featuring beloved classics like ‘I Want It That Way,’ and ‘Larger Than Life’ along with a powerful lineup of their greatest hits.”
Check out the promo video for the German shows below.
