The Backstreet Boys are making Toronto their home base this winter.
What started as a four-show stint at the Rogers Centre has swelled to 12 concerts over four weekends in February and March, twice as many shows as Taylor Swift played at the stadium two years ago for the Eras Tour.
Toronto holds a special place for the group. Nicholas Jennings, music historian and founding director of Toronto Music Experience, says the band has credited Canada with propelling them to superstardom after their 1995 debut single, “We’ve Got It Goin’ On,” took off here first.
“It broke here in Canada before it did in the U.S.,” Jennings said.
Nostalgia could be part of why the band is playing a dozen shows this coming winter, Jennings said, but so could that “Canadian connection.”
Toronto’s history with residencies
It might not feel like it to some, but Jennings says Toronto has always been one of the music capitals of the world, especially in North America.
“It’s always been a major stop on the concert circuit, and maybe it’s because of its proximity to New York, but it’s sort of … often a favourite spot for international acts to come and sort of warm up (for) an American tour or an international tour,” Jennings said.
In the upcoming months alone, Olivia Rodrigo is performing two shows in October, Doja Cat has a performance in November, Gracie Abrams is performing two concerts in February, and Harry Styles is playing four shows in May (to name just a few).
Though the Backstreet Boys are breaking Swift’s record at the Rogers Centre, Jennings said these are just a couple of the series of residencies Toronto has homed over the decades.
Jazz acts, in particular, went to Toronto for longer periods of time. Ella Fitzgerald played weeks-long performances at the Fairmont Royal York hotel sporadically throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s.
“Nat King Cole was at the Imperial Room at the (Fairmont) Royal York hotel, he would come often for a week-long or two-week-long series of shows,” Jennings said. “Harry Belafonte did the same thing at what was then the O’Keefe Centre. It’s now Meridian Hall.”
Though the Rolling Stones did not have a multi-night concert residency in the traditional sense, Jennings said the U.K. rock band treated Toronto like a “second home.”
“They performed here in the ‘70s. They came back in the ’90s, and they lived here. They rehearsed here. They’ve done secret shows in small venues like El Mocambo,” Jennings said. There secretly organized shows at the Spadina Avenue venue in ’77 were especially memorable for both their music career and for the scandal involving Margaret Trudeau, wife of then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Jennings said acts keep returning in part because of the city’s “hospitable” fans and in part because of the diversity of music that thrives here.
“We at the Toronto Music Experience like to say that the diversity of Toronto is the secret sauce that sets Toronto apart from other … cities around the world because we have this great acceptance for culture of all kinds,” Jennings said.
“From a music point of view, that diversity gives Toronto that unique character, because there’s so much cross-pollination, there’s all these musical styles (that) are kind of bumping up against one another.”
What it could mean for Toronto
Swift played six shows at Rogers Centre, a venue with a capacity of around 50,000, after Canadian fans demanded the Eras Tour stop in Toronto when it appeared the tour would skip Canada.
Roughly 240,000 fans descended on the city bedazzled in glitter and friendship bracelets to see Swift across two weekends in November.
According to the city, it cost more than $3.6 million to host the singer-songwriter’s tour, but officials say the payoff was worth it. It injected $282 million into Toronto’s local economy, with $141 million coming from direct spending from out-of-town visitors. Short-term rental demand rose by 163 per cent compared to the same time in 2023.
“It starts to give you a sense of the magnitude of the economic impact opportunity,” said Kelly Jackson, vice president of destination development at Destination Toronto, when asked about whether the ‘90s boy band could compare to Swiftonomics.
“It’s going to be a major opportunity for the city.”
She noted that the Eras Tour moved through many cities, while the Backstreet Boys announced Toronto as their only North American stadium stop in 2027.
Could Toronto another residency?
In Jackson’s view, Toronto has proven itself over the last few years that it is a consummate host.
Outside of Swift’s tour, she pointed to the Blue Jays’ historic World Series run last year.
“That was a big event to be hosted here,” Jackson said. “And then, of course, earlier this year we hosted the World Cup, and that drew in major international visitation to the city.”
Around 250,000 fans attended a game at the Toronto Stadium (BMO Field), which temporarily increased its capacity to roughly 47,000 seats for the tournament, and more than 350,000 people attended the FIFA Fan Festival.
“We’re so well-positioned in terms of both having the infrastructure, the venues but also the connectivity, and we have the two airports,” Jackson said.
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Catherine Moore, an adjunct professor of music at the University of Toronto, says while Toronto has the capacity to do so, it would depend on several factors on whether they would succeed for an artist, from demand to availability.
“It’s a huge investment, right? I mean, it’s not cheap to rent Rogers Centre, and it’s at a time of year when there’s no baseball going on, so … the venue was available,” Moore said. “On that scale, that size, it’s the only venue in Toronto now.”
Though Rogers Stadium could hold a similar capacity to Rogers Centre, Moore pointed to how the Downsview Park arena is seasonally run and is currently underdoing repairs. Scotiabank Arena, she noted, also has a far smaller capacity than both.
“But certainly, Toronto’s on the map for music,” Moore said.
