What happened to the M&G contest?

:O

I wonder when the winner would be announced...

I found out about the Backstreet Boys in the Spring of 1997 when I was 8 years old. It was one of my first vivid memories. During this time I had been gifted my very first boombox with a state of the art tape player. Needless to say I was feeling larger than life. Each day I would come home and put on Radio Disney to jam out. Then, amongst all the Barbie Girl’s, Mambo No. 5’s, and Mmmbops, emerged this magical ditty. The song had a pure heavenly sound with the power to single handedly transform me from a little girl to a pre-pubescent tween in a matter of 3 minutes 52 seconds. The vocals so smooth and unified. I remember being so wrapped up in the song I completely missed who the artist was or the title of the song. Hoping to hear the song again I decided i had to figure out who sang my new favorite song. Now this was a time far before being able to Google or Shazam so this required quite a bit of work with the little resources I had. The game plan I put into action was to keep Radio Disney on 24/7 in hopes they would play the song again. What felt like months (but was probably more like a weekend) Radio Disney finally played the song. I scrambled to grab a tape to record what I could of the song on my boombox (which turned out to be Quit Playing Games With My Heart which I still have the tape to this day) and was able to also record the DJ saying the artist was a group called the Backstreet Boys. From then on the boombox never left my shoulder as I played what I was able to record of the song over and over again. I carried the boombox through the house (driving both of my brothers crazy), in the backyard, and even in the car as my mom ran errands (somehow she was ok with this).
I can’t recall how long after but I imagine it was a matter of a few days I had the courage to ask my dad to help me log on to the internet with his assistance (for the first time ever I might add) to see if there was any information on this mystery artist called the “Backstreet Boys”. My dad was able to find their website and a picture. They all had on color coordinating outfits, some smiling, some reaching out and pointing towards the camera, one in shades which I remember thinking was intriguing but strange because it looked like there were indoors and couldn’t figure out why he needed shades. It was love at first sight.
As fate would have it my birthday was a few days after all of this occurred and my parents gave me their import album “Backstreet Boys”, and VHS tape of their concert in Frankfurt Germany. That summer I sang and danced to the VHS tape daily. Im still not sure if my parents regret making that decision or not after all the repeated times over the years they have heard and were drowning in Backstreet Boys songs.
Fast forward to today where this past June on my birthday I had the opportunity to finally meet my childhood idols. As I stood in line my family had a group text chat because even though I was the only one meeting them, it felt like we were all meeting them due to my joy emanating through the phone. My mom joked that this felt like it was a bigger day then my wedding is going to be…and I have to agree, it was more than that.

My first memory of Backstreet Boys was the first time I saw them on TV and heard their music.. It was love at first sight!!! I was 10 or 11 years and on vacation in Connecticut by my cousins house. They had access to a Canadian music station called Much Music and we had it on one day while getting ready to leave.. That was the moment the “We’ve Got It Goin’ On” music video came on and my cousin and eye were literally mesmerized!! These 5 young, super cute guys with some amazing vocals hypnotized us and from that moment I became a lifelong fan. I can still remember where I was sitting, and how I felt sitting there with my eyes glued on the tv as these guys played basketball and sang and danced in their hip denim and leather outfit! In the 90’s the internet wasn’t easily accessible as it was today and there was no way of me getting more information bob them.. for days, weeks and months I searched for anything I can find on Backstreet Boys.. went to the library and used the public computers as well.. but information was limited. It wasn’t until Quit Playin Games was released in the US that they became a household name, but my that time they were already well known in my home and among my circles because everything to me then was BSB!!