PopOdyssey
PopOdyssey was the fourth concert tour by American boy band NSYNC. Sponsored by Verizon Wireless and Chili's, the tour promoted the band's fourth studio album, Celebrity. The tour's name is defined as "an adventurous journey towards popularity, beginning as just a dream and ending in reality". The tour became the biggest production in pop music, beating U2's PopMart Tour. The tour, which visited stadiums, was NSYNC's first to include backup dancers, and is known for its elaborate audio and visual effects which included lasers, fireworks, animation, and suspension wires.
The 2001 tour earned over $90 million, becoming one of the biggest tours of the year. It was also nominated for "Most Creative Stage Production" for Pollstar's "Concert Industry Awards". The tour primarily visited North America.
Background
While promoting their performance at Rock in Rio in 2001, the band stated production was underway on their forthcoming tour. Following the performance, SFX Entertainment announced the band was planning a summer concert tour to promote their upcoming album. Band member Lance Bass said the inspiration for the tour's concept was the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, saying, "We wanted to do 2001: A Pop Odyssey and pay tribute to pop icons. So the whole tour revolves around the meaning of pop and what was popular from the '40s til today." Initially, the tour was expected to begin May 12, 2001 at the Pro Player Stadium in Miami, with English pop group BBMak slated to be the opening act. PopOdyssey was considered "the largest production for a pop concert", as the stage was five stories tall and included three video screens and five mini-stages. The tour was then postponed to May 23, 2001, to ensure that the crew was able to complete the stage construction. NSYNC's third studio album Celebrity was initially planned to be released on June 26, 2001, but was moved to July 24, 2001. As a result, NSYNC decided to perform new songs from Celebrity on the tour before the album was released. Additional tour dates were cancelled due to weather conditions in the South. However, PopOdyssey was one of the most anticipated tours of 2001. Two months into the tour, the band expressed hopes of later bringing their shows back to Europe, where they first toured before their American breakthrough, in addition to Australia; this did not come to fruition.The opening of PopOdyssey was held at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida to positive reviews. They were joined on tour by several pop acts including: Christina Milian, Samantha Mumba and Deborah Gibson. During the show, public service announcements were shown for an anti-drug campaign with the Office of National Drug Control Policy, along with promotional spots for On the Line, a film starring band members Bass and Fatone which was to be released theatrically in the fall of 2001. The band also partnered with the Candie's Foundation to help prevent teen pregnancy. The tour also opened the newly built Heinz Field. Celebrity peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, setting the second-highest record for first-week sales after their previous album No Strings Attached. The tour ended in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos.
Synopsis
The show begins with a short film that spells out the definitions of the words Pop and Odyssey on a typewriter. The words are combined to form PopOdyssey: "an adventurous journey towards popularity, beginning as just a dream and ending in reality.” Joey Fatone, dressed as a professor in a classroom, appears in the video and plays a montage that details NSYNC’s journey from their origins to the present. Fatone then scrawls the phrase Dirty pop on a chalkboard. Hooded figures appear on the main stage in a nod to NSYNC’s previous tour entrances. This turns out to be a misdirection, as the band instead emerges from a midfield stage which connects to the main stage by a long ramp. After kicking off with “Pop," they perform a mash-up of old favorites from their debut album.After performing newer song “The Two of Us”, a film segment of Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick in cowboy attire prefaces “Space Cowboy.” The video directs the audience to look upwards, and the guys appear on the rafters of the stage. Harnesses take them flying above the crowds and to the midfield stage. They return to the main stage and each guy rides a futuristic-style mechanical bull.
The guys transition to the ballad “This I Promise You,” accompanied only by guitar, piano, and saxophone, and ending with a new harmony by the guys. A 1920s-style film segment titled “There Was Once a Flower” has Justin Timberlake playing a Charlie Chaplin-esque figure trying to give a flower to his love interest, only to be rejected. The camera zooms in on Timberlake with a tear rolling down his face, saying, “I just can’t believe she’s gone.” The band, dressed in Prohibition era costumes, sing “Gone” while sitting on steps on the main stage. As Timberlake is the main singer in this song, he moves downstage solo to the catwalk and engages in theatrical displays of heartbrokenness.
As Timberlake concludes singing, bandmate Kirkpatrick joins him onstage and the two humorously fight. While both guys spar, the other band mates swarm the stage on go-karts, wagons, and an oversized teddy bear, accompanied by dancers. To the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel", the guys spray silly string and squirt water guns at the audience. They perform “It’s Gonna Be Me” with a toy theme, referencing their music video.
They segue into “See Right Through You,” singing and dancing atop moving conveyor belts. For “Up Against the Wall,” the guys are bounced onto Velcro walls brought onstage. A short film plays of JC Chasez stuck in a phone call with his gold-digging girlfriend, a phone call that is interrupted by his band mates. Chasez asks the girlfriend “Wait a minute. Do you want me, or what I can buy you?," and the band performs “Celebrity.”
On the midfield stage, the guys shift into a downtempo segment as Fatone reads letters written by fans in the audience. The guys perform a trio of ballads, “Something Like You”/“Falling/“Selfish”. They switch to the uptempo “No Strings Attached”; there is a gag at the beginning of Timberlake’s verse about him “losing his touch.” After his fruitless attempts to summon his touch, Timberlake finally joins his hands together to form a fireball effect that sets off a row of fireworks on stage.
The high-tech villain figure Mobius 8 appears midfield playing remixed snippets of NSYNC songs. The guys shoot out onto the main stage from unseen elevators and sing “The Game Is Over,” with the screens showing video game effects. The group engages in a video-game “battle” with Mobius. The show ends with “Bye Bye Bye.” Each band member goes inside a cage that is covered in drapes. The drapes are then dropped, revealing the cages to be now empty.
Personnel
NSYNC
- JC Chasez – Lead Tenor Vocals
- Justin Timberlake – Lead Tenor Vocals
- Chris Kirkpatrick – Backing Countertenor Vocals
- Lance Bass – Backing Bass Vocals
- Joey Fatone – Backing Baritone Vocals
Band
- Kevin Antunes – Music Director, Keyboards
- Troy Antunes – Bass
- Billy Ashbaugh – Drums, Percussion
- Greg Howe – Lead Guitar
- Ruben Ruiz – Rhythm Guitar, Keyboards
- David Cook – Keyboards
- Paul Howards – Saxophone, Percussion, Keyboards
- Juan Sepulveda – Percussion
Dancers
- Kristin Denehy
- Chantal Robson
- Annalisia Simone Fergason
- Diana Carrendo
- Michele Martinez
Opening acts
- Not So Boy Band
- BBMak
- Christina Milian
- Dante Thomas
- Debbie Gibson
- Dream
- Eden's Crush
- Li'l Johnnie
- Meredith Edwards
- Samantha Mumba
- 3LW
- Tony Lucca
- Lil' Romeo
- Amanda
- Tonya Mitchell
Setlist
- "Pop"
- "Tearin' Up My Heart" / "I Want You Back"
- " A Little More Time on You"
- "The Two of Us"
- "Space Cowboy "
- "This I Promise You"
- "Gone"
- "It's Gonna Be Me"
- "See Right Through You"
- "Up Against the Wall"
- "Celebrity"
- "Something Like You" / "Falling" / "Selfish"
- "No Strings Attached"
- "The Game Is Over"
- "Bye Bye Bye"
Tour dates
| May 12, 2001 | Miami, Florida | Pro Player Stadium | Rescheduled to August 2, 2001; later cancelled |
| May 15, 2001 | St. Petersburg, Florida | Tropicana Field | Rescheduled to July 31, 2001. Moved to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida |
| May 18, 2001 | Jacksonville, Florida | Alltel Stadium | Rescheduled to May 23, 2001 |
| May 20, 2001 | Jackson, Mississippi | Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium | Rescheduled to August 24, 2001. |
| May 22, 2001 | Charlotte, North Carolina | Ericsson Stadium | Cancelled |
| May 24, 2001 | Atlanta, Georgia | Georgia Dome | Rescheduled to August 11, 2001 |
| May 30, 2001 | Foxborough, Massachusetts | Foxboro Stadium | Cancelled |
| June 10, 2001 | Plattsburgh, New York | Plattsburgh Air Force Base | Cancelled |
| June 26, 2001 | Green Bay, Wisconsin | Lambeau Field | Cancelled |
| June 29, 2001 | Pontiac, Michigan | Pontiac Silverdome | Moved to Comerica Park in Detroit |
| July 31, 2001 | Las Cruces, New Mexico | Aggie Memorial Stadium | Cancelled |
| August 2, 2001 | Miami, Florida | Hard Rock Stadium | Cancelled due to the effects of Tropical Storm Barry |
| August 7, 2001 | Birmingham, Alabama | Legion Field | Cancelled due to the effects of Tropical Storm Barry |
| August 11, 2001 | Vancouver, Canada | BC Place Stadium | Cancelled |
| August 18, 2001 | Memphis, Tennessee | Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium | Cancelled |
| August 20, 2001 | Lexington, Kentucky | Commonwealth Stadium | Cancelled |