While some musicians have been taking it easy this year, other musicians definitely haven’t and nobody seems to have been busier than DNCE. The band, which is made up of Joe Jonas, Cole Whittle, Jack Lawless, and JinJoo Lee, has literally travelled all over the world in 2016. We’re exhausted from just thinking about where they have been and what they have done!
So what have they been up to in 2016?
The band surprised their fans by going back to the 1950’s on 31st January to star in a live adaptation of the classic movie, “Grease,” which was televised live on Fox. They appeared as Johnny Casino and The Gamblers and after watching their performance, we couldn’t think of anyone who fitted the role better. During the broadcast, they covered the songs, “Maybe, Baby,” “Born To Hand Jive,” and, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here To Stay,” as well as putting a new spin on their own hit, “Cake By The Ocean,” which you can listen to right here. The day before the live event aired, they posted the following picture to their Instagram account and it had us swooning for days.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBL0ENeEBzc/?taken-by=dnce
The band then spent a few weeks playing shows here, there and everywhere before they landed back at their base in California for the 2016 Kids’ Choice Awards. They performed their smash hit, “Cake By The Ocean,” on the show and received a lot of praise for their great stage presence.
On 25th March, the band featured in the official music video for singer and friend Hailee Steinfeld’s single, “Rock Bottom.” The foursome looked amazing in the video and definitely gave it the push it needed, but what really blew fans away were Joe’s vocals on the song as he harmonized with his label-mate.
On 3rd April, DNCE attended the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards where they performed a mash-up of their song, “Cake By The Ocean,” and Chic’s 1978 classic, “Le Freak,” with surprise guest and legendary musician Nile Rodgers. The two songs seemed to blend together effortlessly and overall the performance was the epitome of funky, which is what DNCE are all about.
Next, the band were announced as the opening act on Selena Gomez’s Revival tour which ran from 6th May to 13th August. The tour started in Las Vegas and ended in Auckland in New Zealand. They seemed to love being part of the tour as it was the first time that they had played for sold-out crowds in big arenas since they formed in 2015.
DNCE released the official music video for their second single, “Toothbrush,” on 17th May and even though it had a lot of work to do to catch up to the success of their previous hit, it received incredible reviews for its positive message. The video starred plus-size model and total beauty Ashley Graham who acted as Joe’s love interest. Her casting earned DNCE a lot of respect from not only their fans but also from non-fans and people who weren’t familiar with the band before.
The band completely smashed yet another award show when they performed at the Billboard Music Awards on 22nd May. Their performance of, “Cake By The Ocean,” was a complete party including red balloons and confetti (no, not funfetti…), and it was dubbed one of the best performances of the night by numerous sources afterwards. You can check it out here on Vevo.
On 31st July, the band won the ‘Choice Music: Party Song’ award at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards for their single, which at this point you should be able to guess the name of. It’s everywhere!
After spending a couple of weeks overseas promoting their work, DNCE hit the two-day V Festival in the United Kingdom. They performed a killer set on Day 1 at the Hylands Park in Chelmsford before smashing it once again on Day 2 at Weston Park in Staffordshire.
Here is a video of them singing, “Cake By The Ocean,” on Day 1 of the festival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0r-DqXdX9I
The band had a big win at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards when they won the Best New Artist award, and to say that they were super happy and grateful to win would be an understatement. Just look at the smiles on their faces as they accepted their trophy! Insert bursting heart emoji here.
You can check out one of their interviews after winning the Best New Artist award in the video below but we probably should issue a warning before you watch it because you might just fall madly in love with them if you haven’t already…
On 5th October, the band released the unofficial video for their single “Body Moves,” which doubled up as an advertisement for a new line of Victoria’s Secret underwear. It was a steamy video to say the least but their fans weren’t at all prepared for the sexiness of the official music video for the song which premiered a week later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR8s4UOfEgY&t=5s
The thumbnail says it all, really.
On 6th October, the band’s official game came out on iTunes and you if you are looking for hours of frustrating fun then you can download it here. The game, simply titled, “DNCE,” was released after a new collaboration was announced between Philymack Games and Joe’s older brother, Kevin who is essentially a technology wizard. It was one of the first releases to come from the collaboration and it proved its credibility right away by quickly becoming the number one game in the App Store.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLRJPTQhMH-/?taken-by=dnce
The band travelled to the United Kingdom once again on 23rd October to perform at the BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards and as expected, they slayed it. You can watch them performing their singles here, here, and here.
They added another award to their growing collection on 26th October when they won the Best New Artist: International award at the MTV Video Music Awards: Japan. While they weren’t able to travel to Japan to receive their award, they did manage to make it to the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6th November when they won the award for Best Push Act.
It was a good day to be a DNCE fan on 18th November when their self-titled debut album was finally released through their label, Republic Records.
They performed at Capital FM’s annual Jingle Bell Ball on 4th December and completely smashed it with their singles, “Cake By The Ocean,” “Toothbrush,” “Body Moves,” and an awesome mash-up of TLC’s, “No Scrubs,” and Drake’s, “Hold On, We’re Going Home”. You can rock out to their covers by watching the video below, and videos of the rest of their set on the night can be found here.
DNCE stayed in the London area for a couple of days following their performance at the Jingle Bell Ball, and on 6th December they appeared on the Royal Variety Show in front of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
On 7th December, they joined the official Jingle Ball line-up and began performing at venues all over the United States as part of iHeartRadio’s annual festive celebrations.
Phew, we’re tired after just writing this article! DNCE have been all over the map in the last twelve or so months and it seems that they have no plans to slow down anytime soon because they have just announced another tour for January and February, which we are definitely going to get tickets for!
We love their dedication and their love for what they do and we are fully behind them in their mission to become the biggest band in the world, but we really hope that they can have some downtime over the holiday season in preparation for another huge year.
What was your favourite DNCE moment of 2016? Let us know on Twitter, at @CelebMix.