Taylor Swift sobs as *NSYNC reunites at the MTV VMAs 2023
*NSYNC is tearin’ up our hearts once again after all five members of the beloved boy band reunited at the 2023 MTV VMAs.
Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, all took the VMA stage Tuesday night at New Jersey’s Prudential Center to present Taylor Swift with the Best Pop award for “Anti-Hero.”
“Twenty years ago, we were just kids when we won Best Pop Video for ”Bye Bye Bye,'” Chasez began to the crowd’s amusement. “It was our first VMA and it meant the world to us.”
“That award validated our hard work and while we might have won again for ‘Pop’ — you guys remember that?” Kirkpatrick asked the crowd.
Bass chimed in, “A lot has changed in the last two decades, but one thing remains constant: A creative boundary-pushing video leaves a lasting mark for decades.”
“Now we just wanted to say thank you MTV and especially all of you guys. Thank you so much each and every one of your favorite musical artists. So thank you,” Fatone said, as Timberlake introduced the award’s nominees.
Swift brought back her signature ultra-shocked face when the group declared her the winner.
Bass even presented the “Bejeweled” singer with beaded friendship bracelets similar to the ones her fans make and trade at her “Eras Tour” shows.
“I’m not doing well pivoting from this,” Swift said at the microphone, motioning to NSYNC behind her.
“I had your dolls,” she told them.
“Are you doing something?” she asked the group, who hasn’t dropped new music in over two decades. “What’s going to happen now? They’re gonna do something and I need to know what it is.”
NSYNC’s appearance comes hours after a source told Billboard that the group “will be onstage together” at MTV’s annual event.
*NSYNC has reportedly reunited to record a new song for the upcoming movie, “Trolls Band Together.”
Last month, a source revealed to Entertainment Tonight that the group is “expected to have surprise roles” in the animated musical comedy, due out in theaters Nov. 17.
Timberlake is reprising his role as Branch in the animated movie. His megahit “Can’t Stop the Feeling” was included on the first “Trolls” movie soundtrack in 2013.
A trailer for “Trolls Band Together” appears to tease the rumored reunion, with one character Floyd, played by Troye Sivan, telling Branch, “We’re out of sync.”
“We’ve gone from boys to men, and now there’s only one direction for us to go: to the back streets,” he adds, seemingly also referencing groups Boyz II Men and Backstreet Boys.
The new tune would be the group’s first in over two decades. Their last single, “Girlfriend,” off of their fourth and final studio album, “Celebrity,” was released in 2002.
*NSYNC also reunited for a performance at the 2013 VMAs during Timberlake’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award recipient performance.
Five years later, the “Pop” stars reunited in Los Angeles to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Ariana Grande also got the band, minus Timberlake, back together during her Coachella performance in 2019. She sampled *NSYNC’s 2000 song “Makes Me Ill” in her 2019 hit “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored.”
