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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.. After Richardson's departure, the quartet has released two albums, Unbreakable and This Is Us which are considerably different from their classic sound.

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 1998, in the course of their US sold-out 39-city tour, Brian Littrell underwent an open-heart surgery (which he had postponed twice in the past) at the insistence of his then girlfriend (and now wife) Leighanne. Littrell had been struggling with a heart murmur since he was born, almost dying at the age of 4 due to a bacterial infection. Shortly after, the Backstreet Boys canceled an appearance in Minnesota after learning that Howie Dorough's sister had died of lupus.

Further commercial success: 1999-2001

Work on Backstreet Boys album began in September 1998, with recording taking place from October 3, 1998 to early March 1999 in multiple cities. . A sneak preview of the tracks "The One", "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely", and "I Need You Tonight" was released on November 17, 1998 on the A Night Out with the Backstreet Boys concert video, as well as on the All I Have To Give U.S. single in December 1998. Preceded by the worldwide hit single "I Want It That Way", anticipation for Millennium was high. On May 18, 1999, Millennium was released. The day of the album's release, the Backstreet Boys made a heavily publicized appearance on MTV's Total Request LiveMillennium 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..It also holds the record for most shipments in one year, with 11 million shipemts.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. It also set the record for most albums sold internationally in one week with 2.2 million, and was certified at least platinum in 45 countries, and has sold 40 million copies worldwide. Impressed by the success of the Backstreet Boys, Sony BMG, which already owned 20 percent of Jive's parent company, purchased the remainder for $3 billion, the most ever paid for an independent record company. In the meantime, The Firm negotiated tens of millions of dollars in advance payments for recordings and performances from Jive and the concert promoter..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.To promote the release of Black & Blue, the boys travelled around the world in 100 hours to Sweden, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and the US; 55 of the hours were spent traveling and 45 were spent making public appearances.. It recorded the best international sales in a week for album in history by selling over 5 million copies in its first week of sales..In the United States, it sold 1.6 million discs in the first week making them the first artist since The Beatles to achieve back-to-back million plus first week sales.. Despite the initial 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." 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 eventually peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile overseas, the song entered the Top-5 in Germany (No.2), Switzerland (No.1), Austria (No.4), the Netherlands (No.3), Sweden (No.1), Norway (No.1), Finland (No.3), Italy (No.1), Australia (No.5) and New Zealand (No.1). Towards the end of 2000, the album's second single The Call made it into the Top-10 in the UK and the third single "More than That" made it into 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..Three sold-out shows for Air Canada Centre were postponed until September.In 2001, the Backstreet Boys performed the American national anthem, in front of an audience at the Super Bowl XXXV at the Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida.

The Hits: Chapter One, released on October 30, 2001 was a collection of the Backstreet Boys's classic hits and one new song, "Drowning". While the album entered the top-5 in the U.S. (No.4), United Kingdom (No.5), Germany (No.4) and Canada (No.1), it managed to enter the top-10 in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and New Zealand. In US, The Hits: Chapter One was certified platinum for selling over one million units. Similarly, the album was certified platinum by IFPI (Europe) also for selling over one million units there.

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. Jive, according to industry observers, had no choice but to bank on releasing Carter's solo album by the end of the year, ahead of the next Backstreet Boys' album, which was due in early 2003.

In 2002, Nick Carter's solo album Now or Never was released. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold.

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 November 2002, Brian's wife Leighanne gave birth to the couple's first child, Baylee Thomas Wylee Littrell.. 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. The album is named after a song on the album which mourns the loss of Kevin Richardson's father. The drastic style change drew negative criticism from magazines such as Rolling Stone, which gave the album one star.l 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. The Backstreet Boys began the first leg of their The Never Gone Tour in July in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was their first Australian tour. 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 26, 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

Main article

Nick Carter

• Nick Carter was the first to have an attempt at a career as a solo artist in 2002, when he released his debut album Now Or Never. The album reached #17 on Billboard 200 and was certified gold. The singles released by him during this period were "Help Me" and "Do I Have to Cry for You" both released in 2002 and "I Got You" which was released early 2003.

• In autumn 2009 Carter worked with singer Jennifer Paige and their single, "Beautiful Lie" will be out November 20, 2009.

Main article

Brian Littrell

• On May 2, 2006, Brian Littrell released his first solo album Welcome Home with the title track as the first single. Both album and single made the top 3 on the Billboard Christian Charts.

Main article

A.J. McLean

• In April 2008 A.J. McLean announced plans to kick start his own solo career, he performed some of his own solo material while on the Unbreakable Tour, some of the most noteworthy material included "London" and "Drive By Love". Long time Backstreet Boy producer Kristian Lundin worked on both of these tracks as well as many others.

Main article

Howie Dorough

• In 2007/2008 Howie Dorough began work on his first solo album. His new material was first performed on the Backstreet Boys Unbreakable tour in 2009, where he sang a new solo song entitled "She's Like the Sun". On 2008, he recorded the song "I'll Be There", a duet with Filipina singer Sarah Geronimo.

Discography

Studio albums

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

Compilation albums

• Backstreet Boys "For the Fans" (2000)
• The Hits: Chapter One (2001)
• Playlist: The Very Best of the Backstreet Boys (2010)

Awards

Recognition

In October 1998, the band received the keys to the city from the mayor of Orlando in honor of the tornado relief concert the group headlined in March that raised over $250,000.

Legal issues

In 1997, Brian Littrell brought a lawsuit against Lou Pearlman and Trans Continental claiming that Pearlman has not been truthful about the earnings made by the group. In the following year, McLean, Richardson and Dorough joined the lawsuit which eventually resulted in number of settlements.

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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55. "Backstreet Boys Sue Pearlman, Trans Continental". Billboard. Retrieved 2010-02-10.

External links

• Official website
• Template:Myspace

External links

• Backstreet Boys Official International Website

• 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