They are her fire, the one desire.
Sharyn Gill has rocked her body to the chart-topping US boy band the Backstreet Boys since their golden era in the 90s and early 2000s.
Her fandom is larger than life, with merchandise embellished in her Nelson bedroom including limited edition items from their all-inclusive resort concert in Cancun, Mexico, in 2024, and selfies with band vocalists Brian Littrell and Howie Dorough.
It’s not just Backstreet Boys that cover every spare space of her wall and ceiling, with tees from Ed Sheeran concerts, Five and Fleetwood Mac among others – every spare inch of wall is dedicated to the 13 bands she’s seen live.
Sharyn even entertains her PlaceMakers Nelson colleagues by playing Backstreet bangers from a Bluetooth speaker during her 5am to 8am shifts.
And it’ll be Backstreet’s back for Sharyn as she heads to Las Vegas for another of their shows on 19 July, which also marks the band’s 25th anniversary of its Into the Millennium Tour.
She says the Backstreet Boys’ onstage sweet talk and unwavering enthusiasm at her first live performance of theirs in Auckland in 2023 cemented them as her favourite band and her spot in the ‘Backstreet Army’ - the band’s fan club.
“The whole concert is them having fun on stage and interacting with the audience, which I’ve never seen in a band before,” she says.
“I like it all, most of them are upbeat, they lift [both spirit and weights], and they make you smile.
“I struggle with my favourite song because I just like so many of them. The first song that I liked that drew me to them was As Long as You Love Me.”
Sharyn says prior to the 2023 Auckland concert, she wasn’t able to picture Brian, Howie, and other members Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and AJ McLean.
It was on a Waiheke Island ferry that weekend, unbeknownst to her at the time, she was “one foot away” from AJ.
“This guy fascinated me with his nail polish,” she recalls. “It was only later at the concert that we saw the nail polish and tattoo on the screens and realised who it was,” she says.
“He’s my favourite member probably because of that, and I’ve since started following him as a musician, because he does solo as well.
“I’m excited and looking forward to the day that I do a meet and greet and show him the photo I took of the queue that we were in, and he’s in the photo.”
That incomplete challenge may be reversed in The Entertainment Capital of the World, as Sharyn also has tickets for the band’s official after-party at The Venetian, where “select members” are planned to attend.
AJ gracing the room and schmoozing with her, she wants it that way.
