Taylor Hanson from Hanson Is Competing on Dancing with the Stars at 43, Decades After “Mmmbop” Hit No. 1 in 27 Countries

09 Sep 2026, 10:00 · Thought Catalog

Disney

Updated 5 minutes ago, September 9, 2026

He’s 43, has almost no formal dance training, and just signed up to do it live on national TV. His pitch for why: the show forces you to “face your fears” in front of everyone.

Taylor Hanson is trading the piano for the ballroom on Season 35 of Dancing With The Stars, premiering September 15 on ABC and Disney+.

Zac, Isaac, and Taylor Hanson together at the House of Blues in Los Angeles for the American Society of Young Musicians’ Spring Benefit concert in May 2001. Photo by Gary Livingston / Getty Images.

He’ll compete alongside professional dancer Britt Stewart. Photographers caught him leaving rehearsals in Hollywood on September 8, heading to his car after a training day.

After a September 8 rehearsal session, Taylor Hanson heads to his car outside the Dancing With The Stars studio in Hollywood. Photo by BACKGRID.

The Hanson frontman says decades of live performance and his rhythmic instincts as a musician are already paying off, even if the choreography is new to him. Asked whether he’d dance to “MMMBop,” he stayed coy: “no promises… you got to hang around and see what happens.”

At Cafe Le Deux in Los Angeles, June 2001, Isaac, Zac, and Taylor Hanson gathered for CAA’s post-MTV Movie Awards party. Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images.

That 1997 hit put him on the map at 14, topping charts in 27 countries off the debut album Middle of Nowhere, which pulled three Grammy nominations. In the decades since, he and brothers Isaac and Zac left their major label to build 3CG Records, kept touring past the band’s 30-year mark, and Taylor founded the Oklahoma nonprofit Food On The Move to fight food deserts. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2025.

Brothers Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson gather at the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles for a City of Hope dinner gala on October 11, 2001. Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images.

Now he’s the one being judged on the dance floor.

For ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Taylor Hanson sits for a promotional portrait shoot. Photo by Andrew Eccles / Disney.

Thank you for reading. You can find Thought Catalog on Facebook, and read more over on our website.