The internet regularly loses its mind, but this time it was for a feel-good moment. On August 10th at MetLife Stadium, the Jonas Brothers kicked off their 20th anniversary tour. That was fine and good on its own, but then Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas shared the stage again for the first time in nearly a decade. That sound you heard was the squee of thousands of shippers getting ooey-gooey watching their favorite (former) teen couple perform together again.
Necessary background time. Demi Lovato was a Disney Channel triple threat who carved her name among the Hollywood stars with her breakout role as Mitchie Torres in Camp Rock. She’s grown into a powerhouse singer and pop star, with hits like “Skyscraper” and “Cool for the Summer.” “Confident” is a personal favorite. Joe Jonas is ⅓ of the Jonas Brothers group. Lovingly dubbed the “brooding one” of the sibling trio, he was yet another Disney teen heartthrob. He played a lead in Camp Rock, and was later the lead singer of DNCE. “Cake by the Ocean?” That was him. The pair dated in their teeny-bopper Disney days, and their devoted fans ate up every moment of seeing the former flames singing together again.
Camp Rock dropped on the Disney Channel in the summer of 2008 and almost instantly became High School Musical’s much cooler cousin. Teen magazines couldn’t get enough of the Demi–Joe romance rumors, fueling the flames behind their young relationship. Both stars went from being devoted to the mouse-ear life to being global stars so rapidly that neither could legally rent a car when they found themselves living in superstar status.
At the concert on August 10th, there was no warning that a reunion would be happening. Demi just walked onstage, and the crowd went absolutely feral. Together they performed “This Is Me” and “Wouldn’t Change a Thing,” causing misty-eyed nostalgia throughout MetLife Stadium. They bantered back and forth onstage, with Joe claiming it’d been nearly a decade, and Demi making a joke about their age by suggesting it had actually been longer. The pair looked and sounded like the grownups they are now, but those Disney Channel core memories were front and center for the duration of their performance. Fans from their tween years have been losing their minds online ever since footage from the concert began making the rounds. There have been TikTok edits, sobbing posts on Instagram, and more meltdowns than usual on Twitter.
It’s not just the fans who have been loving it. Demi’s husband Jutes proudly shared the footage, and the full Jonas family was present that night, reveling in the throwback. The Disney kids have grown up, and if you haven’t felt old yet today, some of them even have kids of their own now. They’re all still making music together, proving that there are some artists in the world who just can’t help but create.
Did the reunion send the Disney+ algorithm into overdrive? Maybe. Do fans have any regrets about making their families watch Camp Rock and scream-sing “This Is Me?” Absolutely not. It may have been 17 years since Camp Rock, but some things — like seeing Demi and Joe onstage together — hit the parts of the soul where teenage dreams still live, just like it’s 2008 all over again.
