The shrieking, cheering and crying crescendoed at the American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, N.J., on Friday when Darshan Magdum waved his arms triumphantly and jumped onstage, into the arms of his fellow members of the boy band Boy Throb.
The foursome, wearing matching pink velour tracksuits and yellow sneakers, launched into synchronized dance steps and sang their latest song, “4GETHER,” a celebration of Mr. Magdum’s arrival in the United States.
Before Friday, Mr. Magdum, a 22-year-old Indian citizen, had never performed in person with his three American bandmates, but his quest to obtain a U.S. visa had been a central theme of the group’s musical output. Now, finally, he was here, celebrating “Darshan Day,” as the band called it.
“Y’all are witnessing history right now!” Anthony Key, one of the band members, shouted as hundreds of fans — known as the Throb Mob — cheered in front of a temporary stage at the mall. Many were dressed in pink and wearing wigs. Mr. Magdum told the crowd: “I’m excited for everything the U.S. has to offer me.”
Mr. Magdum had been a virtual member of Boy Throb, which gained traction on social media over the last year with its goofy, bubble-gum songs, slightly amateurish dance moves and surreal videos.
The band had spliced Mr. Magdum into its music videos, and he sang along from a video screen at Throbchella, the group’s first public concert, at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan in May. At that show’s after-party, Boy Throb propped up a cardboard cutout of Mr. Magdum, smiling and holding his hands together in the shape of a heart.
From its inception, Boy Throb has maintained that helping Mr. Magdum get a visa was one of its main goals — along with the perhaps even more daunting aim of winning a Grammy Award.
For months, the band has released songs and videos about its efforts to bring Mr. Magdum to the United States, just as the Trump administration has been shutting off legal pathways for entry.
“You know I’m talkin’ ’bout Darshan! Comin’ to America,” the group’s three American members — Mr. Key, Evan Papier and Zachary Sobania — sing in “Saving America (The Visa Interlude).” “Darshan! The American dream. Darshan! He’s got a little mustache. Just what America needs.”
In one video titled “How to Get a Visa in the U.S.,” Mr. Key, who declined to give his age, Mr. Papier, 24, and Mr. Sobania, 24, declare: “Stop telling us to marry our fourth boy band member, Darshan, so he can get a U.S. visa.” Then they sing about the visa application process, to the tune of “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
“Our petition’s been submitted and is awaiting its review,” they sing over images of gavels and paperwork. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “will adjudicate in 15 business days. ‘Adjudicate’ means formal judgment. We hope it goes our way.”
In another song, set to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” Mr. Magdum issues a plea: “We need one million followers for me to get a visa so I can sing and dance in America.”
At the show on Friday, Hailey Hanson, 18, of Seymour, Conn., said Boy Throb’s music reminded her that anyone can make a difference in the country, no matter their background. It was fitting, she said, that Mr. Magdum’s first appearance for the fans was at the American Dream Mall.
“It brings back the original reasoning behind America,” she said.
Boy Throb’s absurd sensibility has led to speculation that it is not a genuine band but a satire, or perhaps a sly creation of Nathan Fielder, the genre-bending comedian and filmmaker known for blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The band’s first performance, for example, was at a nursing home in California. Mr. Magdum danced on a video call from a laptop computer placed on a table onstage.
Boy Throb’s members insist they are a genuine act, though they get help from a team of producers, choreographers and writers. They said they met on social media and started posting videos in October 2025. The group now has more than one million followers on Instagram and 1.3 million on TikTok.
“If he was behind it,” Mr. Key said of Mr. Fielder on Friday, “I never met him.”
Mr. Key and Mr. Papier said they had dreamed of putting together a boy band after they tried out for “American Idol” and failed to make it past the auditions. They said they messaged Mr. Magdum first, without knowing he would need a visa.
Mr. Magdum has said he was initially skeptical when Mr. Papier and Mr. Key sent him direct messages telling him they were starting a boy band. But after a Zoom call with his future bandmates, “I was like, Oh, yeah, this is for me,” he told the podcaster Zach Sang this year. “This is meant for me.”
Boy Throb’s rise on social media was not enough to persuade the government to grant Mr. Magdum an O-1 visa, which is designed for foreign nationals with “extraordinary ability” in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics, said Jonathan Grode, an immigration lawyer in Philadelphia who worked on his case.
U.S. immigration officials initially responded to his visa application with a request for more information that would confirm that Mr. Magdum was a bona fide pop star.
So Mr. Grode said he put together a filing that was hundreds of pages long. It cited articles about Boy Throb in major media outlets and the band’s collaboration with the pop singer Kesha. It also included reference letters from “well-known people” in the music industry attesting to Mr. Magdum’s talent, he said.
“It was actually a very fascinating case,” said Mr. Grode, who has been featured in Boy Throb’s videos, including one shown during Friday’s concert. “It’s right on the nose about what’s going on in society today. You’re challenging norms and standards, and for me, that was really exciting from a legal perspective.”
In August, Mr. Magdum announced in a FaceTime call with his bandmates that their hard work had paid off. “I got the visa!” he shouted, as he thrust his fist in the air and one of his bandmates jumped up and down and declared, “Dude, I’m going to freakin’ cry, man.”
Mr. Magdum said his visa allowed him to stay in the United States for three years.
At the mall on Friday, Paula Montgomery, 36, of Fredericksburg, Va., said Boy Throb’s messages of support for Mr. Magdum echoed the lessons she teaches her children: to disregard others’ opinions and to stand up for your beliefs.
“They believed in a cause, and they kept going,” said Ms. Montgomery, who was wearing fuchsia lipstick and a white halter top. Having all four band members together might change Boy Throb’s sound and image, she said. But for die-hard fans, it was the dawn of a new era.
“This is just the beginning,” Ms. Montgomery said.
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