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Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band originaly consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. In 2006 Richardson left the group to pursue other interests leaving the band as a four-piece, but the remaining members didn't rule out a possible return of the singer.

The band has released 7 studio albums to date and has sold over 130 million records worldwide, making them one of the biggest selling groups of all time. According to the US Billboard 200, the Backstreet Boys is the first artist since Sade to have each of their albums reach top 10 on the chart.

History

Formation and early years: 1992–1994

Lou Pearlman, who had been inspired by New Kids on the Block in 1989, decided to create his own clean-cut boy band. After newspaper advertisements and auditions from June 1992 to early 1993, he recruited A. J. McLean in August 1992, Nick Carter in October, and Howie Dorough in December, who eventually met each other in several auditions and became friends. Following the departure of three previous members, Burk Parsons (pursued a career in ministry), Sam Licata (later performing as Phoenix Stone) and Charles Edwards, Kevin Richardson came on board in March 1993. He met the other guys through a co-worker, and the four decided to form a group, naming themselves after an Orlando flea market. The group took its final member on April 9, 1993, when Brian Littrell, Richardson's cousin, joined the group after a phone audition. Pearlman had spent around $3.5 million of fraudulently obtained money (he has been convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme during this time frame) on his search to form the group, and then spent more to launch their career. They officially became a group on April 19, 1993.

Afterward Pearlman called on Bob Curiano to write and produce for the Backstreet Boys. Their first concert, on July 8, 1993, was performed for 3,000 teenagers at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Pearlman booked them at grade-school assemblies and shopping malls, and assigned management duties to Johnny Wright and Donna Wright, the former of whom had previously worked with New Kids on the Block. The Wrights organized performances for the group and invited several A&R representatives to the shows, which resulted in having a contract with Jive Records in 1994. Jive introduced the Backstreet Boys with such producers as Veit Renn and Tim Allen who helped them with their first album. The album was released throughout Europe and enjoyed rather big success spending many consecutive weeks on the Top-10 charts in most countries. In the first few months of recording for Jive Records, they worked mainly at studios located in Florida. In June 1995, they were sent to Stockholm, Sweden for a week to record at Cheiron Studios with producers Denniz Pop and Max Martin.

Rise to stardom: 1995-1998

The first single that was chosen to be released was We've Got It Goin' On which was released in September 5, 1995. The song was a minor success in the States peaking at only No. 69, the single; however, enjoyed quite a success in Europe entering the top-5 in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and the Netherlands.. European success sent them on a summer tour there and shifted the Backstreet Boys' promotion being mostly done in Europe. They finished recording their first album Backstreet Boys in April 1996 and filmed their second music video, Get Down (You're the One for Me) in Germany. On May 6, 1996, their debut album was released internationally, with an exception of the US and the Canadian markets. It was later released in Canada on February 1, 1997.

European popularity grew and the Backstreet Boys kicked off 1996 being voted the No. 1 international group by TV viewers in Germany, in the meantime, "I'll Never Break Your Heart" reached a Gold status there for selling 250,000 units. The group earned their first platinum record in Germany for selling 500,000 units and toured Asia and Canada. They became one of the most successful debut artists in the world.

The Backstreet Boys began recording their second album Backstreet's Back in January 1997, releasing the first single "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" in June. They also recorded the song, "If You Stay", for the Booty Call soundtrack in January 1997. While the album Backstreet's Back was released internationally (with an exception of the US market) in August 1997, their self-titled U.S. debut, which consisted of songs from Backstreet's Back and the previous self-titled international version of Backstreet Boys, was released in U.S. on February 1, 1998.

The U.S. self-titled debut peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. album chart, which eventually sold 14 million copies at their home. Meanwhile, the second international release Backstreet's Back had already peaked at No. 1 in Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, selling well over five million units in Europe alone. The two self-titled albums, the international version and the U.S. version of Backstreet Boys sold more than 28 million copies worldwide, 14 million of which were sold in U.S.

In 1997 the band brought a lawsuit against Lou Pearlman, as he was taking an unusually high percentage of the profits made by the band, leaving the Boys barely enough to survive after credits to writers and performers were given separately. The case was settled in 1998. After the band hired a new manager team called "The Firm", they sued Pearlman several more times, until he renegotiated the settlement on terms more favorable to the band.

Further commercial success: 1999-2001

Work on Millennium began in September 1998, with recording taking place from October 3, 1998 to early March 1999 in multiple cities. Millennium entered the Billboard 200 at #1, where it remained for 10 non-consecutive weeks. It sold 1,134,000 copies in its first week of release. Four singles were released from Millennium: "I Want It That Way", "Larger than Life", "Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely", and "The One".

Millennium became the best-selling album of 1999 in the U.S., selling 9,445,732 albums. Millennium remained on the Billboard chart for 93 weeks, eventually selling over 12 million copies in the United States and being certified 13 times platinum. As of the end of December 2008, the album stands as the fourth best selling album in the US of the SoundScan era. In 2003 it was also reported as being the fourth biggest seller for Music Club sales in the US over the past 14 years with sales of 1.59 million. In Canada, the album is seventh biggest selling album since 1995 in the Canadian Soundscan sales era up to end of December 2007.

Millennium was honored with five 1999 Grammy Award nominations including "Album of the Year." Also "I Want It That Way" was rated number three on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's. Also by the end of 1999, the Backstreet Boys faced new problems declaring their current Jive contract null and void, soon striking one of the largest record deals ever valued at $60 million with Jive.

In November 2000, the group released a new album, Black & Blue, that recorded the best international sales in a week for album in history by selling over 5 million copies in its first week of sales, achieving platinum status in over 30 countries and gold certification in 10 regions around the world during its first week of release. Despite the excellent sales, Black and Blue never matched up to the hype that their first two albums made. The first single off the album was "Shape of My Heart," followed by "The Call" and "More Than That." Black & Blue sold 24 million albums worldwide. In the first week of release, Black & Blue's first single "Shape of My Heart" was played on 170 out of 171 of the Top 40 stations in the U.S. and peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.Meanwhile overseas, the song immediately jumped into the Top Five in Sweden (#1), Norway (#1), Canada (#1), Germany (#1), Switzerland (#1), Austria and Holland (#1). Towards the end of 2000, the album's second single "The Call" made the Top 10 in the UK and the third single "More than That" made the Top 20.

In 2001, the Backstreet Boys kicked off the first leg of their "The Black & Blue Tour", in which they were to perform on five continents. The tour also had extremely expensive production costs. The second leg of "The Black & Blue Tour" was put on hold when it was reported that A.J. McLean had checked himself into rehab to battle alcoholism, cocaine addiction and depression after Richardson had held an intervention for him at a Boston hotel.

The Hits: Chapter One, released on October 30, 2001 was a collection of the Backstreet Boys's classic hits and one new song, "Drowning". Originally, the Backstreet Boys didn't want to release a Greatest Hits album feeling it was far too early, but were forced to do so by their management label. The album peaked at #5 in the U.S., #5 in theUnited Kingdom, #4 in Switzerland and Germany and number one in Canada and Japan.The album has sold over 14 million copies to date becoming the biggest selling compilation album by a boy band and the ninth biggest selling boy band album.

Hiatus, comeback and Kevin's departure: 2002–2006

In 2002, the band expressed a strong desire to leave their management company, The Firm. Nick Carter chose to remain with The Firm to manage his solo career. It became apparent that this was reason for their lack of resistance to the Backstreet Boys moving on and this unexpected move forced the band to take a break. The relationship with Jive worsened when the Backstreet Boys filed a $75–100 million lawsuit against Zomba Music Group (Jive's parent company) claiming breach of contract. The group stated the label promoted Nick Carter's solo album Now or Never at the expense of the group who wanted to promote their fourth album. According to the suit, in November 1999, the Backstreet Boys revised their 1994 contract and committed to releasing two further albums for Zomba. In exchange for delivering them on time as part of a predetermined schedule, the group would receive multiple non-returnable payments that would serve as advances against future royalties.

In December 2003, A.J. McLean appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show where he talked for the first time in public about his addiction to alcohol and drugs, and his struggles rising to fame. The rest of the band surprised him by arriving in person to give him support, marking the first time the Backstreet Boys had appeared together in public in almost two years. The band began to reform and reconcile their differences to start recording a comeback album.

In 2004, the Backstreet Boys started performing together to promote their return to the music scene. In September they kicked-off a small Asian tour, visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Manila. Based on the success of this tour, they announced a Mexican tour, visiting Mexico City and Monterrey and performing all new material.

After a three-year hiatus, their single, "Incomplete", was released to radio stations on March 28, 2005. On June 14, 2005, the Backstreet Boys released their comeback album Never Gone, which they spent more than a year recording. The album debuted at #3 on the U.S. chart with first week sales of 291,000 copies, and #1 debuts in Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Germany, India, Chile, Brazil and South Korea. Never Gone was certified platinum in the US and four singles were released from the album. Their first single was "Incomplete", the second single was "Just Want You to Know", and the third singles were "Crawling Back to You" for the US and "I Still..." internationally. Never Gone has sold approximately 10 million copies worldwide. Backstreet Boys' second single "Just Want You to Know" hit the top 10 in the UK, but was not as successful in the United States. It was one of the group's weakest performing U.S. singles, only peaking at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The third international single "I Still..." debuted at #1 on the Japan International Singles Chart. The third US single, "Crawling Back to You" peaked at #15 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.

In June 2006, Richardson left the Backstreet Boys to pursue other interests, issuing a statement on band's website on June 23, 2006.

As a four-piece: 2007–present

The Backstreet Boys' sixth album Unbreakable, was officially launched on October 30, 2007. It was their first effort since Richardson's departure. While the album had received positive reviews, it did not perform as well as its predecessor, Never Gone. Unbreakable opened at #7 on The Billboard 200, selling 81,000 copies in its first week of release. Two weeks after its debut, the album dropped out of the top 100. However, it performed well in Japan, debuting #1 on the Japanese Oricon weekly album charts and staying there for another week.

On July 25, 2007, the first single was confirmed as "Inconsolable," a piano-driven power ballad similar to Never Gone's "Incomplete." It reached #21 on the US Adult Contemporary Charts, but managed only #86 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Helpless When She Smiles" was the next single to be released from Unbreakable. It only managed to reach #52 in the US Adult Contemporary charts and in turn failed to reach the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

The group went on a 45 date World tour to promote Unbreakable in Tokyo, Japan on February 16, 2008. Dates were confirmed for the tour being titled the Unbreakable Tour in Australia, Japan, Mexico, UK, Europe, Asia, Canada and The United States. They recorded a tour DVD in London's The O2 Arena which can be seen on YouTube, but has yet to be released. Richardson rejoined the rest of the band in Los Angeles at the Palladium in Hollywood on November 23, 2008 for the last North American stop of the Unbreakable Tour.

In 2009, the group began working on a new album that was released on October 6, 2009, called This Is Us. and were confirmed to be working with Max Martin,, OneRepublic singer Ryan Tedder, RedOne, Ne-Yo, Brian Kennedy, Pitbull, Claude Kelly, Jim Jonsin, Eddie Galan, T-Pain, Rami Yacoub, Kristian Lundin, many others.

It was announced on the official website that Sony would be releasing a second Backstreet Boys greatest hits album on January 26th 2010. The compilation is titled Playlist: The Very Best of the Backstreet Boys and is part of a series of similar Playlist albums issued by Sony Legacy.

Solo work

Discography

• Backstreet Boys (1996)
• Backstreet's Back (1997)
• Millennium (1999)
• Black & Blue (2000)
• Never Gone (2005)
• Unbreakable (2007)
• This Is Us (2009)

Awards

Tours

• We Wanna Be With You Tour (1995–1996)
• Backstreet Boys - Live In Concert Tour - (1996–1997)
• Backstreet's Back Tour (1997–1998)
• Into the Millennium Tour (1999–2000)
• The Black & Blue Tour (2000–2001)
• Up Close & Personal Tour (March/April 2005)
• The Never Gone Tour (2005–2006)
• Unbreakable Tour (2008–2009)
• This Is Us Tour (2009– Spring 2010)

See also

• List of best-selling music artists
• List of best selling music artists in US
• List of best-selling albums (USA)
• List of best-selling albums worldwide
• Top ten best-selling albums of the Nielsen SoundScan era
• List of most expensive music videos
• Boy Band

References

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2. ^ People.com (2006). Kevin Richardson Leaving Backstreet Boys. Retrieved October 16, 2006. Internet Archive Cite error: The named reference "Kevin" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
3. Backstreet Boys Confident Of Richardson's Return – Starpulse Entertainment News Blog
4. "Backstreet Boys Back in Seoul in February". The Korea Times. 2010-01-05. Retrieved 2010-01-13.
5. Up for DiscussionPost Comment (2005-07-02). "Never Gone – Backstreet Boys". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
6. "The Backstreet Boys Get Their Start". Kidzworld.com, Inc.
7. "BSB Biography". StarPulse.com.
8. Burrough, Bryan (November2007). "Mad About the Boys". Vanity Fair (magazine). {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Backstreet.net: Timeline
10. radaronline.comThe Fat Man Sings
11. "Full Biography". MTV.
12. ^ "Backstreet Boys' Biography on Billboard". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
13. "Backstreet Boys' US singles chart-positions". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
14. "Backstreet Boys' German singles chart-positions". Musicline.de]. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
15. "Backstreet Boys' European chart-positions on We've Got It Going On". swisscharts.com. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
16. "Backstreet Boys' US singles chart-positions". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
17. ^ "Gold/Platin-Datenbank". Bundesverband Musickindusrie (IFPI Germany) ]. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help); Text "urlhttp://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank0/" ignored (help)
18. "Backstreet Boys' US albums chart-positions". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
19. "Backstreet Boys' German albums chart-positions". Musicline.de]. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
20. "Backstreet Boys' European chart-positions on Backstreet's Back". swisscharts.com. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
21. "IFPI (Europe) Certification-awards 1998". IFPI]. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
22. "Backstreet Boys To Tape Concert Special As New Single, Album Prepare For Release". Musicline.de]. 199-04-05. Retrieved 2010-01-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
23. "Britney Scores Second Best Soundscan Week". AllBusiness. 2000-05-24. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
24. Soundscan Annual Report 1999
25. ^ "2009 U.S. Music Purchases up 2.1% over 2008; Music Sales Exceed 1.5 Billion for Second Consecutive Year". businesswire.com. 2000-05-24. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
26. "Search Result: Backstreet Boys". RIAA. 2000-05-24. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
27. Backstreet Boys Pave Golden Road In New Deal With Jive Records >> LiveDaily
28. "Backstreet Boys' Kevin Richardson talks about bandmate A.J. McLean". all pop music. 2001-07-10. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
29. MUSIC; The Lost Boys: How a Pop Sensation Came Undone
30. Backstreet Boys' Backs Are Up
31. SingerUniverse Magazine – Backstreet Boys article
32. Backstreet Boys – the Official Site (2006). Statement to our fans from the Backstreet Boys regarding Kevin Richardson departure from the group. Retrieved June 23, 2006.
33. Billboard.com: Eagles Fly Past Britney To Debut At No. 1
34. andPOP: All Five 'Backstreet Boys' Reunite in L.A.
35. Back Street Boys are back, alright! July 28, 2009
36. Backstreet Boys At Work On New Album, Solo Disks. Billboard.com. July 24, 2008
37. Official New Album Thread at Live Daily

External links

• Official website
• Template:Myspace

• Backstreet Boys
• Musical groups established in 1993
• American dance music groups
• American pop music groups
• Bubblegum pop
• Sony BMG artists
• Musical groups from Orlando, Florida
• Boy bands
• Jive Records artists
• 1990s music groups
• 2000s music groups
• Musical quintets
• Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists
• MTV Europe Music Awards winners
• World Music Awards winners