Before recent years brought R&B residencies from Usher, New Edition and Jodeci, the Las Vegas Strip had legendary chartbusters Boyz II Men, headlining at the Mirage for nearly eight years before the pandemic shut things down. The trio has returned to perform at festivals but now makes a more prominent Vegas comeback with a series of concerts at the Cosmopolitan—just as the group’s blockbuster II album celebrates its 30th anniversary—and the Weekly was lucky enough to talk about all of it with Wanya Morris, owner of the mind-blowing voice with which generations of fans have been attempting to sing along on iconic ballads like “End of the Road,” “I’ll Make Love to You” and “On Bended Knee.”
How does it feel to come back to Vegas?
It feels amazing. In the beginning, when we first came, it wasn’t like this. People weren’t here, Usher wasn’t here, I think when we first started, Britney [Spears] hadn’t come in yet. You just wanted to make your mark and be a staple in Vegas, so to be coming back just means we did something of a good job and Vegas is still willing to accept Boyz II Men. That’s all we want to do, wherever we go, is be memorable and have people want to see us.
Right as things were opening up again after the pandemic, the Netflix documentary series This Is Pop featured Boyz II Men and your Vegas residency in a great episode. Did you guys get a lot of feedback about that?
Yes, we started traveling and everybody was saying they saw it, and the funny thing was I hadn’t seen it yet, so I was, ‘Oh sh*t, what did I say? [Laughs.] But I think there was a lot of information in it that people appreciated—a lot of people don’t know those things. For us to give some more intense, insightful info felt good.
It really showcased the influence of Boyz II Men on pop music and boy bands, which we could also say about your impact on the Las Vegas Strip, where you may have paved the way for other residencies.
I’m glad you said that because I don’t think people are necessarily recognizing it that way. The way entertainment is, sometimes you’re here today and gone tomorrow, and it’s on to the next show. So it’s a beautiful thing to know we helped pioneer an R&B resurgence in Vegas. You would think it might be someone, I guess you would say, more legendary, like Stevie Wonder or Lionel Richie. But we’ll take it. We loved Vegas at the Mirage and we’re ready to show people we still love Vegas when we rock Cosmopolitan.
BOYZ II MEN August 23-24, 30-31, 8 p.m., $69-$369. The Chelsea, ticketmaster.com.
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