98 Degrees to heat up Desert Diamond Friday

And if you’re sitting there scratching your head and musing aloud, “Why a Christmas album?” let us explain before the quartet brings its “98 Degrees At Christmas” tour to the Desert Diamond Casino on Friday, Dec. 22:

Building on the success of its multiplatinum 1998 sophomore album “98 Degrees and Rising,” the quartet in 1999 tossed its jingle bells into the star-studded Christmas music arena and came back with the platinum-selling album “This Christmas.” It spun off the Top 40 hit “This Gift” and landed them on Amy Grant’s CBS special “A Christmas to Remember,” forever sealing the band’s relationship to the holidays.

Fast-forward to 2017: 98 Degrees in October released “Let It Snow,” its 20th anniversary Christmas album with classics including “Mary, Did You Know?” “Silent Night,” “Away In a Manger,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s classic “River.” And of course they added an original song, the poppy four-part-harmony-rich toe-tapper “Season of Love.”

So you see how releasing a Christmas album on a milestone anniversary actually makes a lot of sense for 98 Degrees.

Just what can we expect from Friday’s concert?

• Dancing: Hello, this is 98 Degrees, one of the top
• boy bands of the 1990s whose calling card was moving, grooving and looking good as they split some pretty remarkable four-part harmonies.
• Singing along: In addition to their Christmas songs, the band dips into its pop hits and, according to reviews of shows held in November, even covers “Let it Go” from “Frozen” and music from “The Lion King.” A review from a show at the Westbury in New York City in late November heralded the concert as “spectacular” by a blogger who goes by the name CathClaire (cathclaire.com).
• Eye candy: Twenty years down the road, the band members still look like they stepped off the cover of Teen Beat magazine. So don’t be surprised if some of their diehard fans on Friday go all fangirl once they hit the stage.