Entertainment

Bust Out Your '00s Outfits, Because A1 Are Reuniting To Impress The Same Old Brand New You

by Sophie McEvoy

Forget Westlife and Boyzone — a1 are reuniting to mark their 20th anniversary. Releasing a statement via Twitter, the band revealed they are officially heading back on the road for a reunion tour for the first time in 15 years. Sadly, those late '90s/early '00s outfits probably won't be making a comeback in the UK — I know, I'm as disappointed as you are — but the Norwegian-English boy band will be following in some pretty illustrious footsteps by reuniting.

Fellow '00s juggernaut Steps recently went on reunion tour with the Vengaboys — remember them? — while there are some of us who are still reeling from the McBusted tours in 2014 and 2015. A1's reunion also comes a few days after U.S. boyband the Backstreet Boys released a new single out of nowhere — and it's a bop.

Posted on Mode Entertainment's Facebook page, it looks as though a1's reunion tour will be full of their classics (obviously), and as The Sun reports, it will be the first time the four members have performed together since 2002. The first date of the tour will be on Oct. 20, 2018 in Singapore's MES Theatre.

There's no word as to whether they'll be making their way over to Europe yet, but the band have teased on Facebook that the tour is starting with Singapore, and that there's "more to follow." Who knew that Singapore loved a1 as much as Europe did in the '00s.

Formed in 1998 and disbanded by 2002, a1 were short-lived. But that didn't stop the frenzy that surrounded the band in their heyday where they received two number ones (their cover of A-ha's "Take On Me" and "Same Old Brand New You") and multiple top ten hits.

Paul Marazzi, Christian Ingebrigtsen, Mark Read, and Ben Adams performed for a successful four years, until as the Daily Mail reveals, Marazzi decided to leave the band due to "personal reasons." These were never discussed with his band mates, according to Adams, who discussed the split in ITV's reality-documentary series The Big Reunion in 2013. In the end, the band decided to split soon after Marazzi's departure.

That wasn't to say that the members of the band didn't find success soon after the split. Marazzi, Adams, Ingebrigtsen, and Read all went on to have solo careers, and Adams also appeared in Celebrity Big Brother in 2009.

When you think about it, it's pretty astounding that these groups have found a way to benefit from the nostalgia that a lot of young adults feel for the '90s and the '00s. The era of bootcut jeans, curtain bangs, and butterfly clips might not be making a return anytime soon, but the girl and boy bands that inhabited it sure are.

I mean, Grazia published an entire article on why Millennials might be the most nostalgic generation ever, and its definitely not going unnoticed. We might not have invented the ability to go back in time yet, but we sure as hell have mastered bringing the past into the present via a reunion tour or two.

Maybe the late '90s and early '00s were a simpler time, but it's probably just the kids in us talking. We're all adults now, sadly. As exciting as these reunions and triumphant returns are, it just isn't the same. We aren't innocent kids obsessed with boy bands anymore. We're adults with memories and longings to a time that was just so, so cool.

God, that sounds depressing. At least with every reunion of a band like a1, there is a resurgence of their most popular tracks being played everywhere — forget the nostalgia and the longing, just remember those carefree days of being kids who knew all the dance moves to "S Club Party" at the school disco with dare I say it ... terrible fashion sense.