NEW YORK — “We’re a real boy band, what do you guys think?” Zachary Sobania shouted from the stage of the Bowery Ballroom, flanked by two bandmates, all wearing light-pink velour track suits and lemon-yellow sneakers.
The crowd cheered. The venue was completely full, with hundreds more lined up outside holding out hope that they could see Boy Throb’s first-ever live show in a concert venue.
“I said, do you think we’re a real boy band?” Sobania asked again. The diverse audience — mostly in their mid-20s and early 30s, many wearing light pink that matched the signature track suits of the young men onstage, screamed even louder — hoisting handwritten signs, cellphones and light sticks.
But on Tuesday, Boy Throb’s star vocalist wasn’t at the Bowery Ballroom. Darshan Magdum, who regularly goes viral online for his falsetto pop covers in front of a green screen, was at home in India. In his place stood a cardboard cutout of the singer holding his hands in the shape of a heart.
Cheers erupted every time a prerecorded video of Magdum singing faded onto the screen onstage. Late in the set, Magdum appeared live via Zoom. “As soon as I get my visa, we can go on a big road trip,” he said with a wide grin. The crowd cheered and broke into a chant: “Viiii-sa! Viii-sa! Viiii-sa!”
It’s hard to imagine ‘N Sync performing with a Justin Timberlake cardboard cutout onstage. Or picturing the Backstreet Boys getting their fans riled up about their work visas. Or any boy band — even Boyzone or 98 Degrees — asking an audience to confirm that they existed.
But Boy Throb is not like other boy bands.
Unlike the factory-assembled boy bands of the past, all four members met online. Each of the boys — Magdum, Sobania, Evan Papier and Anthony Key — had been posting videos of their songs and dances for years. It all started with Papier, who got in touch with Key after realizing that they both auditioned for “American Idol” in 2021. The pair decided to form a band, reaching out to Magdum and Sobania after seeing their TikToks.
It wasn’t long before Boy Throb took off. In November, the quartet started posting parodies of pop hits, such as “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter or “Back to Friends” by Sombr. They wore matching pink tracksuits in the videos, designed to make users stop scrolling, and crowdsourced their name by asking viewers for suggestions. Later that month, a video of Boy Throb uncoordinatedly dancing in a nursing home to “What Dreams Are Made Of” by Hilary Duff went viral on TikTok. The video, which now has 2.8 million likes, made social media users wonder if the boy band was for real: A subsection of the internet is convinced that because of the quirky videos and parodies of pop songs, Boy Throb is an elaborate ruse, organized by Nathan Fielder or a performance artist.
There’s another wrinkle in Boy Throb’s quest for pop stardom: Magdum, the most popular of the individual members, needs an O-1 visa, which is designated for individuals for extraordinary ability or achievement, to join his bandmates in Los Angeles. Boy Throb immediately worked this problem into the band’s story, sharing a plan on social media to get a visa for Magdum. But after immigration officials responded with a request for evidence, the band pivoted away from talking about Magdum’s immigration status and toward original music. (For the boy band’s TikTok videos and few original singles, he records his vocals from Mumbai and is edited in.)
The solution? Tuesday’s packed show, which was designed to irrefutably demonstrate to the government — and their critics — that Boy Throb is here to stay. “It’s also the people showing up and making some noise,” Key said in an interview Monday at the New York offices of Air, a creative operations software company that sponsored the Bowery Ballroom show. “That’s only going to prove to the government that, look, we’re real.”
Social media users aren’t the only ones who have taken notice of Boy Throb. New Kids on the Block invited the band (without Magdum) onstage at a Las Vegas show, while Zara Larsson made a cameo in one of their TikToks. Their latest song, “Number One Boy,” was co-written by a handful of professional songwriters, including Michel “Lindgren” Schulz and Melanie Fontana, who have worked on songs for “KPop Demon Hunters” and Dua Lipa.
“Being in the room with those people, that level of producers, makes it all worth it for me,” said Sobania, the boy band’s designated bass vocalist. “That’s what I want to be doing.”
Before Boy Throb’s debut, each of the bandmates had hoped to break out online. Papier, Magdum and Sobania had viral moments because of their dance videos and covers of pop songs, while Key released a solo album last July. But they believe Boy Throb is a more sustainable vehicle for success.
While posting on social media, all four have received harsh comments and criticisms. Neither Papier nor Key made it far in the “American Idol” process: The former’s audition wasn’t aired, while Key didn’t make it past the first round. “From a lead-vocalist point of view, out-front guy, I don’t know,” Lionel Richie said, after complimenting Key’s choreography to “Dynamite” by BTS. Boy Throb touches upon those rejections on their first single, “Finger,” which now sits at over 1.8 million streams on Spotify.
“When I say the line, ‘When I win a Grammy, I’ll make sure to say thanks,’ it’s a nice little vindication moment,” Papier said. “There’s so many people who tell you to stop going in life.”
Magdum’s attempt to join his bandmates in the United States is a central piece of their social media presence. But the band insists that their appeal is fueled by more than that. Maybe it’s the outfits: flashy, fuzzy, hot pink. “These tracksuits feel like a magnet,” Papier said, noting they’ve been stopped on the street during their trip to New York. “When we have our tracksuits off, it gives us a little bit of a shield.”
It’s still an open question if the show, plus more original music, will help Magdum get a visa. Brian Taylor Goldstein, a lawyer focused on artist immigration, thinks that Boy Throb is going to struggle after making the visa central to their goals as a band.
“They need to focus on having an existing notoriety as a group, having something they could point to as themselves, [to] take the focus away from one guy,” Goldstein said, suggesting that Magdum should withdraw the application and reapply. “Re-key this as an existing group that’s already distinguished coming into the U.S.”
For their encore Tuesday, Boy Throb played a new track called “Turn it Down” featuring the pop star Kesha, who was not at the show but whose vocals appeared on the backing track. “This club is way too loud,” Kesha intoned. “DJ, turn it down.” (A representative for Kesha did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.)
You read that right: Boy Throb’s newest single asks its audience to calm down. The “Throb Mob” would not abide.
Correction: A photo caption in a previous version of this article transposed the names of two band members. Evan Papier is at center, and Anthony Key is on the right.
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