New York City Subway Commuters Spontaneously Begin Singing The Backstreet Boys

Jun 21, 2019 by apost team

It's not easy to bring New York City subway passengers together. Often, they will keep their heads down and keep to themselves while on their daily commute. Their noses will be in a book or eyes glued to their phone and it's hard to pull them out.

When it's "Showtime" they don't even bat an eye. Recently, a busy subway car united over an unlikely reason: the Backstreet Boys.

Civil rights attorney Joel Wertheimer‏ was minding his own business on the subway when all of a sudden, "some guy walks between train cars, shirtless, bumping a speaker," as Joel tweeted. Like any other New Yorker, he ignored the disruption at first, and "wasn't in the mood for Showtime particularly."

Suddenly, other subway passengers erupted into the Backstreet Boys seminal lyrics for the song that was blasting: The Backstreet Boys' 1999 mega-hit "I Want It That Way."

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Joel just had to join in and began singing as well. Women, men, young, old, black, white, everyone was joining in. Some people even started filming the footage on their phones. They had the same idea as Joel, who began filming as well and later posted his video to Twitter. The viral tweet has racked up 2.19 million views and counting, and there have been many reactions.

Sarah Gray replied to Joel's tweet and said her family was on the train too. Many others shared their reactions to this heartwarming bonding session. Even comedian Andy Milonakis got in on the comment section, responding to one tweet that simply said: "Cringe."

New Yorkers will be excited to know that Howie, Nick, Brian, AJ, and Kevin are on their DNA World Tour right now and will be stopping by Barclay's Center on August 15. Maybe the folks in the video can get their tickets now and join in on the singalong that they've already practiced.

You can watch the subway video below as well the original Backstreet Boys music video for "I Want It That Way," just for comparison's sake.

What do you think of this moment of joy on a drab commute? Is it fantastic or does it make you cringe? Tell us about it and tell your favorite Backstreet Boys fan.