(CelebrityAccess) – Reunited, and it feels so good! American R&B group and “boy band” New Edition have announced a 30-city tour to kick off 16 February in Columbus and will hit cities such as Baltimore, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and of course, Boston. New Edition highlighted some of what to come at the American Music Awards in the “Battle of Boston.” Ricky Bell, Ronnie DaVoe, Michael Bivins, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant and the most notorious member of the band, Bobby Brown went head-to-head with fellow Boston group, New Kids on the Block. If audience reaction was any indication, this tour won’t experience slow ticket sales.
New Edition, which means the “new edition” of the Jackson 5 was put together by boy band mastermind, Maurice Starr in the Roxbury section of Boston in the late 70’s. The first member was Bobby Brown with the original line-up. Once gaining stardom, Bobby left the group to begin a solo career and Johnny Gill joined the quartet in 1988. Just two short years later, Johnny and Ralph became solo acts as the three remaining members formed hitmaking group, Bell, Biv, DaVoe.
Charlie Wilson, former lead singer of the Gap Band will join the tour along with R&B chart-toppers Jodeci. Wilson, the recipient of 13 Grammy nominations and a BET Lifetime Achievement Award has remained active in the industry as a singer, producer and songwriter. In 2018, Bruno Mars produced, co-wrote, and sang background on Wilson’s song, “Forever Valentine”. As recently as 2020, Wilson collaborated with Nas, Amine and Brockhampton. Jodeci will bring back the original four members, DeVante Swing, Mr. Dalvin and famous duo, K-Ci and JoJo, who got their start under then intern, Mr. Sean Combs (aka Puffy, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, & Diddy). He helped develop the band after hip-hop artist Heavy D overheard their label audition and signed them to Uptown Records. They released their debut album, Forever My Lady that year which spawned hits such as the “Come and Talk to Me” and “Stay”.
This isn’t New Edition’s first attempt at a reunion as they came together in 1996 after recording Home Again, their most successful album as a group. However, after an intoxicated Brown attempted to extend his solo set, a fistfight broke out on stage with DaVoe. This led to Brown and Bivins quitting the tour as the remaining members finished it off as a quartet. Egos and tumultuous relationships between Brown and the other members have been heavily documented in the media over the years. Newly signed to Creative Artists Agency (CAA), they will be representing the group for tours, theatre, literature, TV/Film, production and composing, according to a CAA press release. Here’s to new beginnings and finishing what they’ve started this go-around. You can find their full tour itinerary below:
