Pleasure Island · first show 22 October 1995 · midnight every night
They first played at Pleasure Island, the Walt Disney World club district whose page says New Year’s Eve came round every night at midnight, with fireworks. So this page is a firing line on the water: light a tube, and every burst is a place you can go.
No good free photograph of the group from 1995–2002 exists, so the opening shows the place; the five appear further down in dated later photographs.
The firing line · 10 tubes · 10 on the map
Each tube is a night that mattered, from Orlando in 1995 to Hollywood in 2018. Light one and its shell bursts into the real place, with its sources and how to visit.
Nothing in the sky yet.
Choose a tube below.
Ten tubes in the rack, none lit. Light one.
Orlando · 1995–1998
1995 · 1000 Universal Studios Plaza, Orlando, Florida
Chris Kirkpatrick formed the group in Orlando in 1995. He had been working at Universal Studios.
He had met Lou Pearlman, who offered to pay for a vocal group if Kirkpatrick could find the other singers. Pearlman had started Trans Continental Records in 1992, after a run of blimp ventures.
A ticketed theme park. Hours change by the day, so check its calendar before you go.
22 October 1995 · The Landing, Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Their first public performance was at Pleasure Island on 22 October 1995. That year they filmed a demo at the Rock ’n’ Roll Beach Club there.
Pleasure Island opened on 1 May 1989. Its page says that every night at midnight it celebrated New Year’s Eve with fireworks, a tradition kept from 1990 to 2005.
All its clubs closed on 27 September 2008. The area is now The Landing, the centre of Disney Springs.
Disney Springs is free to walk round; the old club district is The Landing, in the middle. The clubs have gone, so look for the waterfront.
Lake Buena Vista, Florida · Offers from $120 a night shown
Seven hotels its page says are within walking distance of Disney Springs, where Pleasure Island stood, with an hourly shuttle to the parks (varies by hotel). Pictured: Pleasure Island in 1995.
See the hotels
1989–1998 · Bay Lake, Walt Disney World, Florida
Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez had both been on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club.
In December 1992 Britney Spears joined that cast, alongside Christina Aguilera, Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell and Chasez. The park opened on 1 May 1989 as the Disney-MGM Studios; its three sound stages were used for the Mickey Mouse Club.
On 18 July 1998 the Disney Channel showed NSYNC in concert, filmed here. The Backstreet Boys had been offered the concert first, and declined because Brian Littrell needed heart surgery.
Britney Spears’s time on these stages is in the Britney Spears World.
A Walt Disney World theme park; you need a park ticket. The production stages are not part of the visit.
Last letters
Five first names. Tap one to drop its last letter into place.
Justin Timberlake’s mother, Lynn, said how in sync their voices were. The name also uses the last letter of Justin, Chris, Joey, Jason and JC. Lance Bass was nicknamed Lansten so that the name still worked.
Lou Pearlman, told plainly
In 1999 the band sued Pearlman and Trans Continental, saying he took more than half their earnings instead of the one-sixth he had promised.
Pearlman and RCA countersued for $150 million. The two sides settled in December 1999, and the band was free to release on Jive.
In 2008 Pearlman was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy, money laundering and false statements in bankruptcy. He died in federal custody in 2016.
Kungsholmen · Stockholm · 1996–2000
Fridhemsplan, Kungsholmen, Stockholm (no street number published)
Early on the group was sent to Sweden to record with Denniz Pop, Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson. The Polar Music Prize puts Cheiron at Fridhemsplan, on Kungsholmen.
I Want You Back came out in Germany on 7 October 1996. Their first album followed there on 26 May 1997 and went to number one.
Bye Bye Bye was written by Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze and Andreas Carlsson. The band had asked Cheiron’s team for a harder edge. It had been written for the British group Five before NSYNC recorded it; Schulze describes its layered keyboards.
Carlsson remembers the song changing between Five’s rejected version and NSYNC’s. Cheiron worked with NSYNC in 1998, the year Denniz Pop died, on 30 August. The studio closed in 2000.
The same studio made the Backstreet Boys’ and Britney Spears’s early hits: see the Backstreet Boys World.
The studio has gone and its door is not published, so the pin is the square. Fridhemsplan is a T-bana stop.
Stockholm, Sweden
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Compare toursNew York · 2000
It sold 2.42 million copies in its first week, a record. The record stood for 15 years, until Adele’s 25 sold 3.38 million in 2015.
21 March 2000 · 1515 Broadway, Times Square, Manhattan
No Strings Attached came out on Jive on 21 March 2000 and sold about 1.1 million copies on its first day.
Through most of 1998, 1999 and 2000, videos by NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys held the top of TRL’s countdown. Thousands came to see one band or the other, and Times Square was closed.
The title alludes to puppets and the freedom the band won from its old management. Chris Kirkpatrick thought of it in a car in London.
MTV announced the end of TRL on 15 September 2008.
Look up from Broadway in Times Square. The countdown ended in 2008.
Midtown Manhattan
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27 July 2000 · 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Manhattan
Their Madison Square Garden concerts on the No Strings Attached tour were filmed for HBO. The special went out on 27 July 2000 and drew over six million viewers.
The tour, which began in May 2000, grossed over $70 million.
Above Penn Station on Seventh Avenue. The arena opens for ticketed events; the outside costs nothing.
Tampa · Jacksonville · 2001
28 January 2001 · 4201 North Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, Florida
On 28 January 2001 NSYNC and Aerosmith headlined the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show, The Kings of Rock and Pop, produced by MTV.
The show opened with NSYNC singing Bye Bye Bye. For the finale, Walk This Way, Aerosmith and NSYNC were joined by Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly.
The stadium opened in 1998 for the Buccaneers. A replica pirate ship stands in the north end zone. Britney Spears’s own story is in her World.
Home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You see inside on a game or event day; the outside is easy to see from Dale Mabry Highway.
23 May 2001 · 1 EverBank Stadium Drive, Jacksonville, Florida
PopOdyssey opened at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville on 23 May 2001. The stage was five storeys tall, with three video screens and five mini-stages, and the five flew over the crowd on harnesses.
The tour played 44 shows and grossed $90.2 million.
Celebrity came out on 24 July 2001 and sold 1,879,955 copies in its first week. Chasez and Timberlake said the band worked up almost thirty songs and chose thirteen for Celebrity.
The stadium was Alltel Stadium from 1997 to 2006 and has been EverBank Stadium since 2023.
On the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville, home of the Jaguars. See it from the Southbank across the water.
Brooklyn · Hollywood · 2002–2023
25 August 2013 · 620 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
On 25 August 2013, at the MTV Video Music Awards here, the other four joined Justin Timberlake for Girlfriend and Bye Bye Bye before his Video Vanguard award.
The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2002.
In 2023 all five recorded Better Place for Trolls Band Together; it came out on 29 September 2023.
Over Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station. The plaza is open to all; the arena is ticketed.
30 April 2018 · 7080 Hollywood Boulevard
On 30 April 2018 all five received the 2,636th star on the Walk of Fame, at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.
Ellen DeGeneres and Carson Daly spoke. Thousands packed the pavement, and fans camped out the night before.
It sits near the stars of the Backstreet Boys, Boyz II Men, New Kids on the Block and New Edition. Theirs is in the Backstreet Boys World.
Set in the pavement near La Brea Avenue. Free, at any hour. The Backstreet Boys’ star is a few steps along.
Hollywood, Los Angeles
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Where it is now
Pleasure Island (now Disney Springs), the Disney-MGM Studios and Universal Studios Florida are all in south-west Orlando, a short drive apart. Tampa is a drive west, Jacksonville a longer one north-east. In New York, 1515 Broadway and Madison Square Garden are a walk apart and Barclays Center is a subway ride. Stockholm and Hollywood stand on their own.
10 places you can visit, from Orlando’s parks to Hollywood Boulevard. Cheiron has gone, so its pin is the square it worked from.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Disney Springs is free to walk round; the old club district is The Landing, in the middle. The clubs have gone, so look for the waterfront.
Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A ticketed theme park. Hours change by the day, so check its calendar before you go.
Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A Walt Disney World theme park; you need a park ticket. The production stages are not part of the visit.
The Landing, Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Their first public performance was at Pleasure Island on 22 October 1995.
Disney Springs is free to walk round; the old club district is The Landing, in the middle. The clubs have gone, so look for the waterfront.
1000 Universal Studios Plaza, Orlando, Florida
Chris Kirkpatrick formed the group in Orlando in 1995. He had been working at Universal Studios.
A ticketed theme park. Hours change by the day, so check its calendar before you go.
Bay Lake, Walt Disney World, Florida
Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez had both been on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club.
A Walt Disney World theme park; you need a park ticket. The production stages are not part of the visit.
Stay
Hotels in walking distance of Disney Springs, where Pleasure Island stood.
Lake Buena Vista, Florida · Offers from $120 a night shown
Seven hotels its page says are within walking distance of Disney Springs, where Pleasure Island stood, with an hourly shuttle to the parks (varies by hotel). Pictured: Pleasure Island in 1995.
See the hotelsGo there
Orlando’s parks, and walks in Midtown, Stockholm and Hollywood.
Orlando, Florida
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Live marketplace results for Walk of Fame tours. The NSYNC star is at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard; check each itinerary for where it goes.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No dated NSYNC events were listed on an official page when this was checked.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
The story of Cheiron, and the record of March 2000.
John Seabrook
John Seabrook on how pop hits are made, with Cheiron, Denniz Pop and Max Martin.
Find the bookNSYNC · CD, Jive, 2000
Released 21 March 2000; 2.42 million copies in its first US week.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 15 of 15 Moments
The Landing, Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, Florida
They film a demo at the Rock ’n’ Roll Beach Club on Pleasure Island.
Their first public performance, at Pleasure Island.
1000 Universal Studios Plaza, Orlando, Florida
Chris Kirkpatrick, who had worked at Universal Studios, forms the group in Orlando with Lou Pearlman’s money.
The name plays on the last letters of five first names; Lance Bass becomes Lansten to keep it.
They sue Pearlman and Trans Continental; it settles in December 1999.
Bay Lake, Walt Disney World, Florida
The Disney Channel shows NSYNC in concert, filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios.
Fridhemsplan, Kungsholmen, Stockholm (no street number published)
They are sent to Sweden to record with Denniz Pop, Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson.
Their first album comes out in Germany and goes to number one.
Bye Bye Bye is made with Cheiron’s writers, after Five turned it down.
1515 Broadway, Times Square, Manhattan
No Strings Attached sells 2.42 million copies in its first week.
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Manhattan
Their Madison Square Garden concert goes out on HBO to over six million viewers.
4201 North Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, Florida
They open the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show with Bye Bye Bye.
1 EverBank Stadium Drive, Jacksonville, Florida
PopOdyssey opens at Alltel Stadium.
620 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
The five sing together again at the VMAs.
7080 Hollywood Boulevard, near La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles
They receive the 2,636th star on the Walk of Fame.
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