Tonight was just like any other Sunday night in the Duchene household.  Come home from church, eat, and pop in a movie or watch a show on Hulu/Netflix.  Tonight after watching a new favorite, Mirror Mirror, we decided to watch something a little different on Netflix: The Justin Beiber movie Never Say Never. Now I have to say I did NOT want to watch this movie, but the madre’s interest was peaked and there was no turning back.  So we start watching and I’m immediately thinking to myself, “Oh my gosh, I’m watching Justin Beiber.  I’m so ashamed of myself.  What will my friends think? Oh heavens, some of them LIKE him and the others, oh I will never hear the end of this…”  There were clips of him as a baby, growing up (all 16 years of it…) and his “struggle” to break out (his “struggle” was all of like 2 years.  Big whoop, you’re still young.)  So then they show the screaming fans.  I instantly die laughing.  Throngs of screaming, hormone-raged pre-teens, teens, and moms are trying to fight their way through a crowd and barricades to get to him. Girls are crying, screaming, breaking metal doors open with their bare hands and what am I doing?  Laughing.  Hysterically.  Then they cut to a concert of his where he sings to a girl who is a complete chocolate mess onstage bawling her eyes out and he gives her roses.  It’s genuinely sweet to see it, but at the same time, hilarious. 

Then something happens…the madre turns to me and goes, “What would Tracy do at a concert if the headliner sang to her?”  Then I realized something: I would be that crying girl.  It’s true.  Here I am, a twenty-something year old woman who would instantly be reduced to a thirteen year old girl crying onstage at a concert.  BUT, let me emphasize this: it would not be a Justin Beiber concert.  In fact, I could think of about 5 concerts that would reduce me to a chocolate mess, bawling onstage, ugly crying, and being a thirteen year old and oddly enough, 4 out of 5 are boy bands.  So now that we have come to this point, I have a confession to make:

I, Tracy Lee Duchene, being of relatively sound mind and body, love boy bands. 

And my 5 concerts go as follows:

1.) NSYNC

2.) Backstreet Boys

3.) Jonas Brothers

4.) New Kids on the Block

5.) Spice Girls (didn’t see that one coming huh?)

THERE!  I said it! Now the whole world knows.  Not that my whole world didn’t already know, but in case anyone was wondering, there’s the truth.  I love boy bands.  I always have.  I will always and forever have a soft, special place for boy bands in my heart.

I guess you could say it started when I was an infant and my sister would dance around the house singing and dancing to New Kids on the Block.  I’m fairly certain she greatly wore out that cassette tape.  Or maybe it was my mom singing (off-key) to The Osmonds, Monkees, and Beatles, some of the boy bands of her life.  I don’t know where it started exactly, but I do know that it will never end, and I will always be a thirteen year old when it comes to them. 

When my sister and I were younger, at the peak of the Backstreet/NSYNC rivalry, she clearly chose Backstreet and I was a little closer to NSYNC, but we had a large grey area where we listened to and loved both bands.  You could say that our house was neutral territory for the rivalry.  Howie Dorough from Backstreet was my 1^st love and Chris Kirkpatrick was my 2^nd.  TO THIS DAY if I hear Chris Kirkpatrick on XL 106.7 in Orlando, it takes me EVERYTHING in me not to drop everything, drive to the studio and kick in some doors screaming his name like a possessed psychopath.  Not that I think I would actually be able to do anything other than cry and giggle like a thirteen year old, but the fact that I would be in the same room as him would be enough for me to have a complete brain aneurism and die right there.

Last summer, the madre, my sister, and I went to the NKOTBSB concert at the Amway Center.  It was THE BEST concert I’ve been to ever. Hands down.  Backstreet reunited (minus Kevin, but who really liked him anyways?) and sang ALL their classic songs and NKOTB reunited and sang all their classics.  And they ALL looked HELLA good.  Um, HELLA HELLA HELLA GOOD.  Nick is finally sober, Brian doesn’t have heart issues anymore, AJ is sober, Howie is perfect (like always), Donny Wahlberg is DANG FINE, Joey is still adorable, Jordan can still sing the high notes perfectly, and Jonathan and Danny still look super fly.  Oh lordy and when they combined forces and became NKOTBSB, it was like, oh my gosh.  Can’t even describe it in words.  JUST AMAZING.  Oh, and guess who were special guests? BOYS TO MEN.  BAM.  Yeah, it made it even better.  It was legit the best night ever.  I died and went to heaven.  I couldn’t speak the next day at work because my voice was gone from screaming so much.  It was worth it.

 

The only other epic concert of epicness that I can describe from my boy band love was the Jonas Brothers concert of 2008.  My Best Friend, Nicoleon, brought me with her and we were the only people there without a chaperone.  Everyone around us had a mom with them and was under the age of fifteen, easily.  Then there was us, the eighteen year olds, probably more excited than they were.  We went in, screamed like you would NOT believe, and had the best time.  I am forever grateful to Nicoleon for taking me to that concert with her, it was a glorious night of boy bandiness that I will never forget. To Nicoleon: remember when they sang about NH in the song and we instantly turned thirteen and said, “OMG, WE’RE FROM NH!  WE’RE IN NH! OMG! WE’RE BETTER THAN CALIFORNIA!!!!”  Yeah, I always think of that when I STILL listen to that CD.

This summer, I have discovered that I love another boy band, yet again, a new love has sprung.  They’re a little band called One Direction, I don’t know if anyone’s heard of them, but I love them. (Please note the sarcasm…of course you’ve heard of them.) Anyways, every time one of their songs comes on the radio, I BLAST it.  If I go deaf prematurely, it will be at the fault of boy bands and how much I love them.  I love One Direction.  I don’t know why!  They’re like, at least, 4 years younger than me, I don’t know any of their names, but their music takes me back to that thirteen year old feeling, and I’m not ashamed.  I am proud of my love of boy bands.  No matter how much my taste in music changes (and it has changed a lot), I always go back to the boy bands and the solo boy artists a la Nick Lachey, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Cabrera, Jesse McCartney, and Michael Bublé. 

So now it is past midnight, I work today (Monday), and what am I doing when I should be sleeping?  Blogging about boy bands while listening to my Backstreet Boys station on iheartradio.com.  Yeah.  This love runs deep.  I love boy bands more than sleeping.  That’s what’s up.