5 queer collabs we'd love to see on New Kids On The Block's new album

They’re ‘Still Kids’!

Girls, gays, and theys who lived through the 1980s and fell in love with New Kids On The Block… your time has come!

With singers Danny Wood, Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Jonathan Knight, and Jordan Knight, the NKOTB boyband first exploded in the 1980s and early 1990s with singles like “Be My Girl” and “Step By Step.” In many ways, New Kids On The Block paved the way for the boybands that would dominate the charts in the late 1990s and early 2000s such as Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.

Over the years, Jonathan Knight slowly started to identify himself as a gay man. Unfortunately, though, a gossip report published in 2009 outed Jonathan as gay — removing any choice or agency from him to come out on his own terms. Nonetheless, NKOTB has been reuniting as a band in recent years and even released studio albums like 2008’s The Block and 2013’s 10. Now, 11 years later, the band is releasing a brand-new album 2024’s Still Kids, with the lead single “Kids.”

Given that the group has clearly embraced Jonathan Knight — no matter his sexuality — and LGBTQ+ musicians are all the rage now, we can certainly think of a few exciting names that could collaborate with NKOTB and make some noise in this new era for the boyband.

Scroll through to check out which LGBTQ+ collaborators we’d love to see releasing music with New Kids On The Block.

Lance Bass

As the out gay singer to come out of *NSYNC, Lance Bass is a no-brainer collaborator for new music from New Kids On The Block. Even more specifically, it could be really interesting to have a song with Lance Bass and Jonathan Knight recalling their experiences being gay men in boybands. Like… yes, we’re totally here for it!

Boygenius

In many ways, Boygenius is a radical subversion and reinvention of what we once considered “boybands” and “girlbands,” which makes this such an exciting choice to collaborate with an old-school boyband like NKOTB.

Ricky Martin

Though they’ve had very different trajectories that spun different genres and target audiences, Ricky Martin was also a child of the 1980s in the music industry and remains as relevant and as popular as ever. Ricky Martin could add some Latino spice to new music from NKOTB in a collaboration… and we’d be VERY into it.

Madonna

As an artist who also exploded in the 1980s, was an ally to the LGBTQ+ community at all times, and identifies herself as someone who is queer and sexually liberated, Madonna is another example of a great collab that could level-up the new music coming from NKOTB in this 2020s decade.

Adam Lambert

The unapologetic and powerful queerness of Freddie Mercury paved the way for all bands that came later to be their most authentic selves. While we unfortunately no longer have Freddie Mercury among us, the powerhouse performer and incredibly versatile Adam Lambert has been killing it on tour with Queen. A collab between New Kids On The Block and Adam Lambert sounds nothing but very exciting!