New Edition announces Las Vegas residency dates

LOS ANGELES (AP)

R&B group New Edition will bring their New Jack Swing tunes to Las Vegas starting February 28, 2024. On Monday, the Grammy-nominated group confirmed six residency shows at the Wynn Las Vegas’ Encore Theater.

“We just caught lightning in a bottle,” said Ronnie DeVoe, a founding member of New Edition – which includes Michael Bivins, Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant and Ricky Bell. Monday’s announcement came after days after the group performed a tribute to the Spinners at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York.

DeVoe said the band heard fans countless requests for them to perform in Sin City. After two consecutive North American tours, New Edition has planned for a more intimate setting at Encore, which seats 1,480.

New Edition, which was founded by childhood friends in a Boston housing project, became one of the originators of the modern-day boy band. The group released their debut album Candy Girl in 1983 and rejuvenated the teen music scene with hit singles like Candy Girl, Mr. Telephone Man and Cool It Now.

Maintaining success after puberty, they laid the foundation for groups such as the Backstreet Boys and Boyz II Men. But New Edition faced plenty of conflict, including Brown’s behaviour on concert tour, which resulted in him being replaced by Gill.

Brown found success as a solo artiste with the 1988 hit, Don’t Be Cruel. Gill and Tresvant had their own solo careers, while Bell, Bivins and DeVoe created their own group and released their 1990 debut album, Poison, which went quadruple platinum.

Eventually, all six members reconciled, reuniting for their 1996 studio album, Home Again. Having toured in the past couple of years, Bell said the tours helped build cohesiveness. “We have each other, we have our health, we have our families. Everybody’s still here,” he said.