The Backstreet Boys keep their fans happy at the Compaq Center on Monday night, Feb. 28.
::Click in photo for bigger size::
Source: Houston Chronicle
The Backstreet Boys are the main men
By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle
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Photos by James Nielsen/Special to the Chronicle
The Backstreet Boys keep their fans happy at the Compaq Center on Monday night, Feb. 28. ::Click in photo for bigger size:: |
If you don't believe it, ask the 18,000-plus who filled Compaq Center on Monday (and no doubt will again tonight) with screams that would make the King's appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show seem like a wake. Better yet, ask the parents who accompanied their teens and sub-teens to the show and are suffering this morning from high-range hearing loss.
There hasn't been frenzy like this in Houston since ... well, since Enrique Iglesias played the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last week. But this was even bigger.
The Boys are no longer just entertainers, like Iglesias, or even just a boy band, like N'Sync and 98 Degrees. The fivesome are a marketing machine. Before a note of the albums Millennium or Backstreet's Back was performed, they had sold enough shirts ($25-30), programs ($20) and glo-sticks ($6) to keep them in hair gel for months (days anyway).
And the machine is well-oiled. For more than two hours they harmonized and danced like break-boys who had learned it on the modern theater assembly line. This wasn't any Disney on Ice festival, this was "The Matrix: The Musical."
On a pizza tin the size of a crop circle in the center of the basketball court, the group announced its presence with authority. To an overture of the Star Wars Theme, and in a haze of laser fire, fog and futuristic tiki torches, the five levitated into the arena on what could only be described as flying skateboards.
Dressed in Universal Soldier suits, the Boys marched and moonwalked in formation around the stage to the bass plunges of Larger Than Life. Inside the circle was a full band of guitars, drums and percussion players dressed in white casuals, but the players were lost in the cacophony of the Backstreet back-up dancers dressed in silver-and-black mechanic's outfits.
Not to worry. They played proficient pop loops all night, but no one came to see the band.
"You guys notice anything different?" asked blond heartthrob Nick Carter. "I cut my hair. Am I going to grow it back or leave it this way?"
The fans expressed their approval of both options.
It's hard to concentrate on any one aspect of their show for too long. Besides numerous outfit changes from trenchcoats to leather jackets to black T-shirts, the guys have more toys in the box than most children of privilege.
On Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) the boys hovered over the crowd on gymnast safety wires. And on Don't Want You Back, they popped metal ladders into the stage and climbed them as gracefully as a Cirque du Soleil act.
The midshow highlight was a medley Everybody (Backstreet's Back), We've Got It Goin' On, and That's The Way I Like It done as a high-energy Stomp number without the trash cans.
They left briefly and returned in pinstriped tuxes, spats and silver vests for a romantic Spanish Eyes. Sitting on bar stools arranged in a circle, they took turns singing verses and harmonizing in Spanish looking like the world's most GQ barbershop quintet.
The boys have bells and whistles galore and they have some shouts and steps, but the question for the future is can they survive without the laser show and exploding confetti finale? More to the point, can they survive together? On this night, anyone thinking such thoughts would be a killjoy.
For now they came and conquered Houston with Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely, I Want It That Way and every other hit from their millions of albums sold. In the process they left a lot of young Texans with a memory of a lifetime.
Fans express devotion to Backstreet Boys in many ways
Source: Houston Chronicle
By MELISSA FLETCHER STOELTJE Copyright 2000 Houston Chronicle
Katie Schindler, 13, her mom, Luane Schindler, and her sister, Lynde Nunes, 16, thought they had the perfect spot scoped out.
A full six hours before the Backstreet Boys concert at the Compaq Center was scheduled to start, the three perched on a darkened stairwell next to a line of humming tour buses. The fleet was said to contain the precious cargo they drove all the way from Columbus to see.
"See there?" said Katie, pointing to a striped object hanging inside one of the bus windows. "That's A.J.'s hat! He's famous for his hats!"
Welcome to Backstreet Boys mania.
"Their voices sound like angels, like voices from heaven," said Mera Afifi, 21, stationed outside the center before the show. "They're the reason why I smile. It doesn't hurt that they're cute."
The five-boy band -- A.J. McLean, cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough and Nick Carter -- performed the first of two sold-out concerts Monday night.
Fans -- most of them hyper-excited girls wearing BSB buttons and fake tattoos -- started lining up outside by midafternoon. (The Houston Independent School District helpfully held an in-service day Monday.) They were hoping to get picked for a "fan press conference" -- a question-and-answer session with the Boys themselves.
About 45 concertgoers got to spend 40 minutes with the annointed ones, after first agreeing to some ground rules -- no autographs, no hugs, no kisses, no gift-giving.
Question: "If you could put something in a time capsule, what would it be?"
Brian: "I'd put every CD we ever made, and then just very sentimental things -- a wallet with family photos, fan photos."
Swoon!
Question: What would you be if you weren't singers?
Nick, a college basketball player; Brian, a teacher; Kevin, still in music; Howie, an actor; A.J., a Broadway actor.
Question: Did you expect to be so famous?
Brian: "I never thought in a million years I'd be where I am today. ... God has blessed me many, many ways."
Question: Are the Spice Girls your girlfriends?
Answer: No.
Question: What will your third album be like?
Kevin: "We're planning to take a trip together, just to see what comes out as far as our own writing and producing. We're going to try to keep making good pop music."
Question: Nick, why did you cut your hair?
Nick: "I don't know. It was just something I wanted to do. I've had my hair the same length since I was 10."
And so on.
Before the conference, many fans spoke of a personal connection they feel with their idols, one that goes far beyond a mere appreciation of their vocal harmonies.
"My father died the same way his father died," said Philys Johnson, 15, of group member Kevin Richardson. "To see him be strong, to make it through, has really had a great impact on my life."
"I have a heart problem, just like Brian," said Jessica Guerrero, 20, of songster Littrell. "It's not exactly the same kind, but it helps me connect with him."
The fans knew the various tragedies that have befallen the noys -- Kevin's father, Brian's heart surgery, Howie's sister's ordeal with lupus -- struggles that only further inflamed their youthful worship.
Not all the fans were young. Sharon Merchant, a 63-year-old grandma with spiky silver hair, showed up for the fan conference with a denim jacket bearing the logos of rock bands Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and Bon Jovi.
"I'm a hard-rocker, but I'm in sort of a lull," Merchant said, explaining her BSB fan-dom. "They're tight, their harmonies are great, there's just a maturity about them that other boy bands don't have. They really proved themselves at the Grammys."
Her family has nothing but approval for her BSB fetish, she said.
"My granddaughters, who are 15 and 19, think I'm absolutely the coolest," said Merchant.
All the young fans clustered outside mentioned the fact that Brian, as well Kevin, recently became engaged -- a development that didn't dissuade their loyalty.
"We should be happy for them," said Lisa Nally, 16, who attended the concert with her mom, Melissa, who shelled out more than $100 for two tickets. "I've been on chat boards where fans are saying, `We should jump to 'N Sync,' but that's not a true fan."
BSB vs 'N Sync
I was looking trough my magazines and finds 2 quotes from Chris in 'N Sync.
You all know that 'N Sync and BSB are not the best of friends right now. Well, here are the quotes:
"We picked him a little, but he was really nice" - Chris "bully" 'N Sync on going to high school with Howie D.
"There´s always a little bit if, 'Man they´re doing that, I wish I could do that.'" - 'N Sync´s Chris admits he´s a little bit jealous of the Backstreet Boys!
St. Petersburg Times Review: 2/24/00, St. Petersburg, FL
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Energetic Boys met with 45,000 screams
By GINA VIVINETTO
published February 25, 2000
ST. PETERSBURG -- Those lucky fans who caught one or both of the Backstreet Boys sold-out Ice Palace shows last December weren't in for any surprises if they attended Thursday's Tropicana Field show. The Boys gave a nearly congruent concert. Not that that's a bad thing.
Again things kicked off with the Boys descending from the ceiling into the arena on wired surfboards to the Star Wars theme. The nearly 45,000 fans screamed so loud they nearly drowned out A.J., Brian, Kevin, Nick and Howie, clad in futuristic warrior uniforms, singing Larger Than Life.
The Boys, who performed at the 42nd Grammy Awards the night before, kept up the energy level. For the record, yes, they really do sing. Yes, they dance very well. And yes, they make their love for fans well-known in sweet between-song banter.
The stage for the Boys' Into The Millennium tour is pentagon-shaped and sits in the middle of the arena, which could be awkward for a less energetic act. But some drama teacher somewhere taught the Boys about utilizing space. The five dance and groove all around each point. Five video cameras above show close-ups of the Boys and their superb back-up band, which features St. Petersburg native Mindi Abair on sax, percussion and keyboards.
There were a few different things at Thursday night's show, namely Nick Carter's short new 'do, for which he solicited praise from the audience.
"I've been taking votes all around the country, but the one that counts the most is from my hometown," Carter said. (He grew up in Tampa.)
Fans cheered throughout the Boys' renditions of hits such as The One, As Long As You Love Me and Quit Playing Games With My Heart, during which all five Boys were wired back above the crowd, dangling, twisting, turning, tossing stuffed animals to fans.
Critically acclaimed rap duo the Jungle Brothers opened the show smartly. Peers of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, the Brothers have a new album, V.I.P., out this year, but they opted to keep the crowd's energy high, encouraging them to dance while they gave shout outs to the Backstreet Boys.
Stan Lee's Youth Portal to Go Live Tuesday Night, Feb 29
Monday February 28, 6:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Stan Lee's Youth Portal Web Site, Stanlee.net, to Go Live Around the World Tuesday Night, Feb 29, With Star Studded Hollywood Webcast
Dick Clark To Host Launch Party with Tributes From White House, Larry King and The Backstreet Boys
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2000-- With the click of a golden mouse, superhero and pop culture icon Stan Lee will premiere his first EVER, GLOBAL superhero team, and launch his youth portal site, www.stanlee.net, at a celebrity-packed Hollywood gala in his honor tomorrow night, Tuesday, February 29, 2000.
The 7th Portal, the first episodic animation series completed by Stan Lee Media (OTC BB: SLEE - news), an Internet entertainment content creation and marketing company founded by Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee, will be the first global entertainment franchise created specifically for the Internet. It's debut on shockwave.com will take place at The Hollywood Media Convergence Gala, an event hosted by Dick Clark and developed by Stan Lee Media and produced by dick clark communications, inc.(NASDAQ: DCPI - news).
The more than 200 luminaries from the entertainment, publishing and Internet communities joined by 400 other guests who are scheduled to attend this Hollywood ``premiere style'' global event will celebrate the convergence of film, television, music and publishing with the Internet. A Multimedia spectacle and live performances by musical legends Jerry Lee Lewis, Chaka Khan and Ray Charles will cap off the event, which will include a number of tributes from political, business and media figures including President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Larry King, The Backstreet Boys, Academy Award-winning director James Cameron, Macromedia chairman Rob Burgess and others. The event will be offered as a free satellite broadcast to a global television audience as well as teleconferenced to partners in Japan and India interacting with the gala. In addition, IBM will webcast the event, available to the world at www.stanlee.net. Also, revelers assembled at more than 100 iGames and CyberCafe venues worldwide will and shockwave.com will debut 7th portal for its 11 million subscribers and its universe of 200 million Flash enabled Internet users throughout the world.
``I can't wait for the global housewarming of www.stanlee.net, our new millenium House of Fun on the Internet,'' said Stan, chairman and chief creative officer of Stan Lee Media. ``We hope it will the `The Happiest Place in Cyberspace' for kids around the world. I am really excited that my first webisodic animation series, the 7th Portal team of global superheroes, may validate the Internet as a true global entertainment medium for 28.8 modem users today.''
``We now intend to demonstrate how our converged team of 100 creative and technical talents from TV, feature, music, online, and comic book media staffing Stan Lee Studios will define and advance the Internet as a compelling entertainment medium for a global audience with 28.8 modems,'' added Stan Lee Media co-founder Peter Paul. ``The 7th Portal is the first of a number of original and co-created Stan Lee entertainment franchises that will be debuting on www.stanlee.net and www.shockwave.com, its first distribution partner, over the course of the next year.''
About Stan Lee Media
Stan Lee Media (http://www.stanleemedia.com) is an Internet-based, multimedia content production, marketing and licensing company founded by pop/pop culture icon Stan Lee to extend his globally recognized brand name, signature style of content and character creation to all niche markets of the global popular culture.
Using the Internet to launch new branded superhero, science fiction and fantasy related content while building the largest global online youth community, the company will pioneer the full integration of all ancillary entertainment and marketing media with the World Wide Web.
This release contains statements that constitute ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of Section 21E of the Exchange Act and Section 27A of the Securities Act. The stockholders of Stan Lee Media are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in this release resulting from the following reasons (among others): the impact of the ongoing economic conditions and situation in the Asia Pacific region and South America, the level of available sales in the rest of the world, the timing of sales and deliveries under existing contracts, costs of sales and the ability of the company to maintain pricing levels necessary to maintain gross profit margins, the level of selling, general and administrative costs, the performance by the company under existing purchase contracts and the ability to obtain new contracts, the success of the company's owned and operating strategy, the success of the company's film software and the effects of competition. In addition, the company's shareholders are urged to carefully review the risk factors discussed in the documents the company files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact:
Hill and Knowlton
Tony Panaccio or Joy Capps
Representing Stan Lee Media
813-221-0030
Their One Desire
Source: St. Petersburg Times
By stealth (and parental wealth), the girls behind the Backstreet Boys follow their hearts and the fumes of tour buses, camping out in hotels and chatting up the Internet. It's where the girls are.
By DAVE SCHEIBER
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 22, 2000
ATLANTA -- It is hours before downtown will tangle with more traffic than the Super Bowl spawned, hours before shrieks from 70,000 Georgia Dome fans will greet the Backstreet Boys in their biggest stateside show ever.
At this moment, in the posh lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel, all is strangely quiet.
Out of view of the front desk, trying their best to look like happy hotel guests enjoying a morning chat, 16-year-olds Jennifer Walker and Lindsey Barlow sit in an elegant marble nook, discreetly scanning the entrance and elevators.
Jennifer and Lindsey are on a mission. They are tracking the Backstreet Boys. The quest is well-known to many young female fans around the world, and one that will undoubtedly unfold Thursday in St. Petersburg before, and after, the big concert at Tropicana Field.
At the very least, the goal in this game of wiles and wits is to catch a glimpse of any of the five teen idols -- Nick Carter, A.J. McLean, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough and Kevin Richardson.
The payoff might be a simple wave from one of the Boys, maybe a smile, or perhaps the dream scenario -- a chance to get an autograph and actually talk to the pop mega-stars, to tell them how much they love their music, love them.
That's why Jennifer and Lindsey set their alarm clocks for 4:30 a.m. Saturday, and drove in the predawn darkness into midtown Atlanta. Lindsey, a relative newcomer to Backstreet mania, is home from France on a two-week break from private school. Jennifer, her best friend, is the ace strategist.
She has been down this backstreet before.
The night before the Boys brought their record-setting "Into the Millennium Tour" to Atlanta in November, Jennifer's father drove her to their show in Birmingham, Ala. Afterward, they waited by the highway to tail the convoy of black Backstreet buses leaving the arena.
Her father, a former cab driver and now a taxi company supervisor, managed to keep up with a pair of the elusive buses for two hours. "But it turned out those two buses were just decoy buses, and they turned off, but then, right out of nowhere like at 95 miles per hour, these other buses come zooming by," Jennifer says. "I knew it was them, because I could see Nick, with his foot propped in the window, and the side of Kevin's face! I was freaking out, and we just followed them all the way into Atlanta."
She may have been the first fan in Atlanta to learn that the Boys were staying at the Four Seasons during their November tour stop. Her heart raced when A.J. stepped off the bus and waved to her, then sank when hotel security made her leave.
"So I went home, and I made this video and I said, "Hey guys, I'm really, really, really sorry for showing up at your hotel, I love you a lot,' " she says. Then she took shots of the 10 giant Backstreet posters plastering her bedroom wall, and her CD collection that includes 35 Backstreet imports, (just two of their CDs are widely available in American stores) and raced back to the hotel with the 3-minute tape. She met one of the group's dancers, who promised to deliver it to the Boys. Jennifer went home euphoric.
Last Saturday, she played a hunch. The two girls pulled into the Four Seasons parking lot just before 6 a.m. Bingo. The black buses with the gold swirls were there. It looked like the Boys had checked in. So the girls hurried home to change and fix their hair, then returned at 9 a.m. to begin their vigil.
Now, at just after 11 a.m., the lobby is starting to stir with several clusters of teenage girls.
One level up, in a balcony restaurant, a father and his daughter sit nonchalantly at a table overlooking the lobby. Hotel guests? Not a chance. Mark Jacobs, a professional fundraiser from Roswell, Ga., sips another cup of coffee, while 13-year-old Lauren peers over the railing to the activity below.
Lauren has flown in from her home in Cincinnati where she lives with her mother. She has been to three Backstreet concerts with her mom, and two with her dad. But she has never come face to face with the Boys. Her contacts on the Web tipped her off to the hotel. Maybe now she'll hit the jackpot.
"I think their music is so good, and they're really cute," she says. "I love them so much, I just want to get to see them or hopefully even meet them!"
Father and daughter plan to keep ordering food -- salad, soup, snacks -- for the next few hours so Lauren can keep a look out. "The concerts I went to were the Rolling Stones and ZZ Top, but I've been to a couple of Backstreet Boys shows now, and they really put on a good show," says dad. "Even though you can't hear for a week after."
Out of nowhere, a grim-faced security woman arrives. She is unyielding -- Jennifer and Lindsey must leave. But that's okay. They retreat to Jennifer's red Chevy Cavalier, with six Backstreet CDs tucked into a visor, and kill time in the parking lot.
They had planned to leave at 2 p.m. anyway to get their hair styled at the salon where Jennifer works as a cashier, earning money to buy her Backstreet tickets (she even treated Lindsey) and pay for all those CDs and posters.
After getting the new 'dos, they will head for the concert, joining the sea of fashionably attired females that fills all Backstreet shows. Tight pants, short skirts and bare midriffs will be plentiful in the mid-teen to 20-something age bracket, while colorful Backstreet Boys T-shirts and band buttons will dominate the preteen set.
Even if Jennifer and Lindsey can't get too close to the Boys on this night, they will have another shot next week at the Super Dome in New Orleans -- Jennifer's dad is driving them there for her 17th birthday and picking up the tab for the tickets, too.
Meanwhile, three Atlanta teens, accompanied by a pair of moms, stroll through the lot, pondering their next move: There's a rumor the Boys may head to the Georgia Dome for a press conference, another that A.J. is getting a new tattoo nearby. What to do? Brittany Felton, 16, Andrea Williamson, 14, and Jessica Green, 16, sidle up to the Backstreet Boys' bus and playfully draw their names on a dusty side of the luxury coach. They had second-row seats at the last Atlanta show, and Brittany actually heaved Jessica over the first row at one point so she could touch Howie's hand.
"We all ended up in this big pileup with the people in front us," says Andrea with a laugh, "and then Brittany pulled me back into my seat, like she had gotten this superhuman strength or something."
Upstairs, in his room on the 11th floor, Backstreet Band keyboardist Tommy Smith is getting ready to check out with the rest of the entourage. Nobody knows more about Backstreet Boys fans than Smith. In 1998, he started up the Backstreet Band Web site (http://www.bsbband.com), a homespun site to run as a complement to the group's site (http://www.backstreetboys.com). Smith serves as writer, photographer and webmaster for his site, which averages 30,000 hits a day. He is also helping out on a fan-club site launching next month (http://www.bsbfunclub.com).
Smith has seen followers use endless ploys to get to the Boys. He hears constantly from fans who say they have friends and relatives with grave illnesses and want to meet the group backstage (the band does meet such fans, but only after management screens them); he is often approached by fans pleading with him to deliver a teddy bear to one of the Boys ("I can't," he says, "because if I do it for one, I'd have to do it for all.")
Still, Smith is impressed by their determination. "They are very smart and crafty," he says. "The thing about Backstreet Boys fans is that they often know information before I know it. They know the tour dates, sometimes which hotels we're staying in before I do."
They definitely know the Four Seasons. By 3 p.m., about 30 excited fans have amassed outside the hotel, many bundled up and some shivering in weather plunging toward the 40s. Polite security staff and Atlanta police keep them a healthy distance from the Backstreet Boys' bus. Female faithful, accompanied by parents and little brothers, hold flowers, posters, photos, cameras -- poised to scream as soon as one of the Boys appears.
Nick, sporting his new short haircut, steps into view. Amid deafening screams, he waves and disappears into the bus. But the Nickelodeon-generation fans are suddenly enraptured by a twist in the Nick-load-in show.
The blond Backstreet boy steps back out of the bus and walks toward the crowd, bodyguard close behind. This is not in the script. The group seems momentarily dazed, then delirious with joy as he begins to mingle. While the rest of the Boys wave and board the bus, Nick signs autographs, poses for photos and makes small talk for nearly 10 minutes. But before he can meet everyone, his bodyguard ushers him away.
He did not get to Lauren, who breaks down crying. Fans hug her. A woman who has flown in from Seattle for the show offers to e-mail Lauren a digital photo she just took. That softens the blow, but the tears still flow.
At the other end of the pack, the scene is much different. Christine Marzouca, a 24-year-old real estate agent, had driven her younger sister Natalie, 13, mother Janette Mazouca, 48, and with 14-year-olds Tala Ayyad and Lana El Tarazi from Spartanburg, S.C.
They caught the Boys the night before in Raleigh, N.C., then drove through the night to Atlanta, trailing the tour bus to the Four Seasons. "I never went to a concert when I was young, so I wanted my little sister to have this chance," Christine says.
But even this determined bunch seems amazed to have scored Nick's autograph. They beam, exulting in the moment, as the black bus carrying the Boys slowly churns off to another stop on the heartthrob circuit.
How they get their men
Here's how the experts keep tabs on the Backstreet Boys:
BE GENTLE: If you see the Backstreet Boys' black bus with the gold swirl, and are lucky enough to spot one of the Boys, do not scream and rush toward him. "I can't imagine them wanting to talk if you're running at them screaming,' says Jennifer Walker, 16, of Atlanta. Be patient and polite.
BE COOL: If you're in a hotel where you think they may be, act casual. There's less chance you'll be asked to leave. And don't tell lots of people -- a crowd could force everyone to have to go outside.
BE INFORMED: Get on the Internet and converse with other fans to check information.
BE CAREFUL: And one word of caution from an insider, Backstreet Band member Tommy Smith. On his site, http://www.bsbband.com, Smith tells fans to be aware there are Backstreet Boys impostors who go online to chat with unsuspecting girls. "If you've been chatting to someone who says he's one of the Boys, repeatedly, for a length of time, it's not them," says Smith, "Not that the guys don't get online, but they simply don't have time to do it every day with the schedules they keep. So be careful."
'N Sync On Backstreet Boys
Source: Philippine Star
Funfare had a brief phone chat with Joey (as spokesman) last week while the N'SYNC was in United Kingdom for a promo tour. Here are excerpts:
Ricky Lo: How does your group feel about being compared to the Backstreet Boys? How are the two groups similar to each other?
Joey: (Laughs) They're five guys and we're five guys. That's the similarity! (Seriously now) That's true. We've been compared to the Backstreet Boys but at this point, I guess people can tell which music is N'SYNC and which music is Backstreet Boys. As far as performance is concerned, I should say that our shows are very high-energy-packed and very theatrical as well. How we dress is totally different from how they do."
RL: Are you N'SYNC guys friends of the Backstreet Boys?
Joey: "Oh, yeah. We've known them for quite sometime. We say 'Hi!' to each other. But because of our busy schedules, we don't get a chance to be the best of friends. (Sounding very humble) (I bet! - sorry) The Backstreet Boys are definitely bigger than our group but we're doing our best to give our fans the best music and the best performance we're capable of. The competition is non-existent, actually. It's only the press sometimes which makes it look bigger than it really is. Chris and Howie (a BSB member) know each other because they studied in the same school; they were members of the same choir."
About Other Boybands
Source: Philippine Star
The Backstreet Boys are soaring into new highs as music artists but fans of the most popular boy band today are in deep mourning. This is because two members of the group have revealed marriage plans and the sound of hearts cracking up still echoes from everywhere in the world. Kevin Richardson got engaged last Valentine's day to dancer Kristin Willits, while his cousin Brian Littrell also admitted that he is going to marry actress Leighann Wallace within the year. The news left three BSB members available for the fantasies of their pubescent followers but as the most casual pop music observer knows, not even the Beatles managed to survive such a "catastrophe."
Truth to tell though, the Back-street Boys have reached the sort of enviable stature and income bracket that makes "retirement" logical. The album Millennium is a huge seller. The boys have transcended their toothy pop idol image and have become serious artists with their own worthwhile contribution to pop music. If you caught the Grammy Awards rites on TV last Thursday, you were doubtless impressed with the fact that the BSB was the only act assigned to do two numbers and special ones at that. They performed a medley of Grammy winning songs by groups and another one with Legend awardee Elton John. They are now in the kind of position wherein they can have their pick of what to do next. They can begin work on another album, act in the movies, write songs, produce, go into business or like Kevin and Brian plan to do, get married.
It is a fact that teen idols grow up and become husbands and fathers. Eventually grandpas too. So take heart all you BSB fans out there. If it is a must that the boy band of your dreams should have single members, then you can switch your allegiance to others. Obvious choices are N'Sync and 98 Degrees. But if you are not keen on either of them, here are other boy bands to choose from.
Westlife: This is the bestlooking one among the recent batch. It is made up of Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Patrick Feehily, Bryan Ni-cholas McFadden and Kian Egan. Like Boyzone, these lads hail from Ireland. Their first gig ever was as curtain-raiser for the Dublin concert of the Backstreet Boys. Audience reaction was so enthusiastic that Westlife became the object of a heated bidding war among several record labels who wanted to put the boys under contract. Winner was RCA and the first album also titled Westlife was released last year. This one contains Forever, one of the most romantic tunes in the airlanes these days.
Source: Houston Chronicle
| Unless they plan on joining the scream squad, parents should pack plenty of earplugs for the Backstreet Boys' shows Monday-Tuesday at Compaq Center. |
Goin' to the Chapel
Source: People Magazine (March 6, 2000)
Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell pop the question just days apart
It isn't the sort of behavior usually associated with pop stars, but then, Backstreet Boys heartthrob Kevin Richardson has always had a romantic streak. Backstage in Kansas City, Mo., last November, during the pop quintet's Millenium tour, Richardson took the father of his girlfriend, Kristin Willits, aside. "He asked my permission to ask Kristin to marry him," recalls John Willits. "I told him I'd be honored." At the time, Kristin, 29, was touring with Cher in Europe. Shortly before Christmas, Richardson, 28, took her to the Florida bed-and-breakfast where he'd first professed his love and popped the question. Before lovesick fans could shriek "Unfair!" fellow Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell, 25, followed suit on Christmas night. Like his cousin Kevin, Littrell also sought permission from the parents of his intended, actress Leighanne Wallace, 30, who received a canary yellow diamond as an engagement ring. "He proposed on Christmas night at home in [Marietta,] Georgia," says Wallace. "It was really sweet. I have this peace about me now." Having one of the world's most eligible pop stars and the object of millions of teen fantasies declare his eternal love for you will do that. MTV correspondent John Norris, who broke the news of the dual betrothals on Feb. 16, admits he was caught off guard a day earlier when the Boys casually mentioned their engagements. "We just asked each one, 'Who do you think is going to be the first in the group to get married?' and Kevin said, 'Well, the fact is that Brian has set a date.'" Within 24 hours of the scoop, Internet chat boards teemed with thousands of messages ranging from "Brian, how could you do this to me?" to "The best of luck to them." So just who are these Backstreet Girls? Littrell first spotted Wallace in June 1997 when she was an extra on the L.A. set of the Boys' video "As Long as You Love Me." A casting director had sent her over. "I had no clue who the Boys were," Wallace recalls. Littrell asked her out for Italian food the next night-"I couldn't eat," she confesses-and the two have been together ever since. When Littrell had open-heart surgery in May 1998 after a congenital hole had enlarged, Wallace stuck close. "She wanted to be there, and he wanted her there," says her mom, Shirley Tolbert, 53, a former beauty salon owner. Last December the couple were spotted in Orlando, Littrell's home base, when Wallace was shooting the low-budget Olive Juice, in which she stars. Richardson also met his fiancée on the job. In 1993, Willits was dancing in Beauty and the Beast at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in Orlando when Kevin, then working the park as a Ninja Turtle, noticed her in the employee cafeteria. He promptly asked her out. "She walked into the cafeteria," Richardson told People last November, "and it was like someone turned a light on." Willits, whose parents-chiropractor John Willits and Susan Patton, an auto dealership employee-are divorced, had attended Oklahoma City University before landing the Disney gig. After their initial six-month idyll in Orlando, Willit's amusement-park stints kept the pair apart. Once the Backstreet Boys caught fire in Europe five years ago, Richardson lived his life mostly on the road. "It's hard, real hard," said Richardson, who is based in Orlando while Willits keeps a place in Los Angeles. "We've broken up quite often because of the traveling." For now, Littrell is keeping his wedding date a secret, and Richardson hasn't set one yet. Whether fans will buy the Backstreet Husbands is an even bigger unknown. "It doesn't hurt their image at all," says Seventeen editor Heidi Sherman. "It may even enhance it." Maybe so, but Howie Dorough, 26, admits that not every Backstreet Boy wants it that married way. "Howie's single," he reassured his fans during a recent radio show, "and always lookin'."
article written by: Jill Smolowe Pamela Warrick Jeff Truesdell Pam Grout Lori Rozsa Sona Charaipotra
Nominees for Nickelodeon's 13th Annual Kids' Choice Awards
Source: Nickelodeon
The Boys are nominated in the following category:
Favorite Musical Group
Kids will have the opportunity to cast their votes both on and off air in a total of 25 categories. Voting kicks off on February 28 at participating BURGER KING® restaurants nationwide, where kids can cast their votes through March 12. From March 13 through March 27, kids can go to nick.com to choose their favorite stars, including 10 categories that will be exclusive to online voting. Kids can also vote by calling a toll-free number Nickelodeon will be flashing on air during programming from March 20 through 24 and on Saturday night March 25 during SNICK.
The Kids' Choice Awards area on nick.com will include nominee bios, Kids' Choice Awards instant win postcards and a ticker with up to the minute updates. The nominee area will also include streaming audio and kids can campaign for their favorites online by sending Kids' Choice postcards in support of their favorite nominees. By sending a postcard, kids automatically have the chance to instant win hundreds of Kids' Choice prizes.
I watched a serie called 'Popular' and it was a girl and a boy who was running around in a shopping mall with a video camera asking people what was popular and one question was: Backstreet Boys or 'N Sync? One girl answered: Backstreet Boys, absolutley, 'N Sync are soooo booring! =))
Boys Up for a Nick Award
Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, 98 Degrees, and TLC are all in the running for favorite musical group at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The event will air from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on April 15 from 8-9:30 p.m. ET/PT. Kids will have the opportunity to cast their votes both on and off the air across a total of 25 categories. Voting kicks off Feb. 28 at participating Burger King restaurants nationwide, where kids can cast their votes through March 12. Voting has not opened up yet!!!
Backstreet, Britney, Ricky, And Others Come Up Empty
Source: MTV
2.23.00 23:25 EST
Don't count your Grammys before they're hatched.
Such is the lesson learned by the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, and other artists who learned Wednesday night that multiple nominations (and Grammy performances, for that matter) do not guarantee victory.
The Backstreet Boys entered the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards with five nominations under their collective belt, including nods for Song Of The Year, Album Of The Year, and Record Of The Year. However, after Carlos Santana was done feasting at the Grammy buffet, there wasn't anything left for the Boys.
Ricky Martin went into Wednesday night's ceremony with five nominations, including Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year for his "Livin' La Vida Loca." The Latin sensation would see his nominations go for naught as Sting and the aforementioned Santana grabbed up most of the awards Martin was up for.
Spears came up empty as well, despite nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The teen queen would see those honors go to Christina Aguilera and Sarah McLachlan, respectively.
Hip-hop wildman Busta Rhymes also had to like his chances going into Wednesday night's event, as he had scored nominations in all three rap categories. However, Busta had to relinquish Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group to The Roots and Erykah Badu and both Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Album to Eminem.
Critical fave Macy Gray also came up with a donut despite nods for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, while brothers-in-rock Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock both went home empty-handed despite two noms apiece.
Perhaps those discouraged by this year's Grammy results could learn a thing or two from Black Sabbath. More than 30 years after getting together, the heavy metal godfathers finally landed their first Grammy nomination this year... for "Iron Man," a song the band first recorded in 1970. Patience proved to be a virtue as the band won this year's Best Heavy Metal Performance Grammy. However, when the award was handed out, Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne was still outside on the red carpet.
Source: MTV news! (Europe)
I looked at MTV news and they had about the Grammy Awards and Sir Elton John showed some real Backstreet Pride and I´m quoting:
"What about the Backstreet Boys? (he looks at a reporter) Yeah, they make videos, but these boys can sing **** (I think he swores here so it was no sound, I couldn´t hear what he said!) You heard them tonight, they´re brillint. Everyone slaggs them off. Those boys can sing. They have my ultimate respect. They are great!"
Source: The New York Times
02/20/00
YET another chapter in pop's latest bout with adolescence unfolds this week at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards. The nominee list, as undependable as ever in predicting music's real history-makers, does crackle with one present conflict, between the parent figures who run the event and the kids now paying their allowances. Those kids get on adults' nerves with their obvious commercial music, but these hit makers, sometimes unwittingly, are pointing toward pop's future.
A likely sweep by the night's deserving front-runner, Carlos Santana, will reassure those baby-boomer voters far too old to really understand the chart-topping teenage nominees like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and those ever-present Backstreet Boys. Of course, even Mr. Santana needed a boost from the singer Rob Thomas, a modern-rock heartthrob who doesn't have many years on Kevin Richardson, the Boys' senior member. The image Mr. Santana's collaborative album presents is of acolytes honoring a master, but the commercial reality is that the patriarch needed a boost from the youngsters.
It's not that Grammy's babies don't give their progenitors respect; Ms. Aguilera gushed appropriately at being pitted against her role model, Madonna, in the best female pop performance category. But this youth brigade doesn't seem to need mentors. It is forcefully peer-oriented. Like the fans they have enabled to become the most powerful force in entertainment, most adolescent stars (and faux-adolescent ones like the 27-year-old best new artist nominee Kid Rock) don't go beyond lip service in acknowledging their elders, either as an inspiration or a burden.
Less than a decade ago, Nirvana and the other titans of alternative rock felt the need to scream out their differences with the boomers who had long overshadowed them. Kurt Cobain famously wore a T-shirt on which he had scrawled a motto obscenely deriding corporate magazines when he posed for Rolling Stone.
This year, the Backstreet Boys dropped their pants on that magazine's cover, but more audacious was their reason for being there at all. They had won the annual readers' poll because the contest had been entirely overtaken by high-school-age voters who used their experience manipulating the charts of MTV's "Total Request Live" to hijack this organ of rock's establishment. David Cassidy graced Rolling Stone's cover, in a tasteful nude pose, in 1972. But he was trying to transcend a teeny-bopper image he found confining. The Backstreet Boys have far saucier fans, who spin tales of much more than trouser-dropping on their "fan fiction" Web sites. Such groups don't have to pretend to not be sexual, because most teenagers now frankly and fairly comfortably express their desires.
Nor do the teenage artists appear worried about their chances of graduating into the ranks of adult stars. Now the more seasoned ones want control of their careers; both the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync have publicly wrestled with Svengali-like management. Yet the Grammy-nominated album designed to show the Backstreet Boys' maturation, "Millennium," did not shy away from the teenage sensibility: it aimed directly at it, with songs like "Larger Than Life," which expressed the group's utter dependence on its fans, and the year's likely best song winner, "I Want It That Way," a gorgeous and surprisingly sophisticated ode to adolescent confusion.
Ms. Spears and Ms. Aguilera more easily welcome comparisons to older artists. Unlike the usually quick-fading male teenage heartthrobs, the diva lineage the y're claiming is characterized by precocious beginnings that lead to long careers. Yet Mariah Carey, the big sister these two artists most closely resemble, orchestrated a brazenly public rejection of a mentor. When Ms. Carey left her marriage to the record executive Tommy Mottola, she not only turned away from his baby-boom sensibility, which had her focusing on sweeping ballads, but she turned toward hip-hop. The 29-year-old singer also began an early second adolescence of her own, showing off her nubile body in photo spreads and her dating record in the press. This embrace of youth gave her credibility she had long lacked.
For all their confidence, which will certainly dominate the mood of this year's Grammys, today's teenage stars cannot forever stave off the end of their golden moment. Yet this inevitable next phase is precisely what holds out the most promise for popular music. Accepted wisdom dictates that acts like the Backstreet Boys will fizzle out before truly maturing, but their own music shows they have a chance. Their songs are already stronger than any teeny-bopper music since the 1950's (with one telling exception: Michael Jackson). Pull out an old Shaun Cassidy or Bobby Sherman album; it won't compare to "Millennium."
It is likely that, within the next few years, each Backstreet Boy will take his next step. Brian Littrell will likely succeed in country or as a Christian rocker. A. J. McLean could work his renegade image to experiment with hip-hop. Nick Carter, already known for his sarcasm, might rebel against his heartthrob status and become another skeptical pop star, like Robbie Williams or George Michael.
Such developments will be diverting. But the real story belongs to those fans who make this moment of teenage glory so singular. They will soon enter young adulthood and assert their own tastes and opinions, even more than they have as active participants in the mass-marketed teenage pop world. If they're anything like the baby-boomer parents they're busy ignoring, they just might beget a new counterculture. The 45th or 48th annual Grammy Awards might not simply reveal a story of intergenerational conflict; by then, we may witness a genuine passing of the guard.
Grammy Guide: Who's Performing What
Source: WALL OF SOUND
February 22, 2000
LOS ANGELES — The Backstreet Boys singing backup for Elton John. Britney Spears with a short new hairdo. A Latin medley with Marc Anthony, Buena Vista Social Club, and Ricky Martin. Santana performing with Rob Thomas, and Bob Dylan presenting with Lauryn Hill. This is what you can expect at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards Wednesday night, to be held at the Staples Center and broadcast on CBS.
The show is heavy on medleys, such as Britney doing "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" with "… Baby One More Time." That's because Grammy producers didn't want to hit viewers one more time with the songs already seen on the Billboard, MTV, and American Music awards, says a Grammy spokesman. A total of 10 awards will be handed out during the broadcast, which will be hosted by Rosie O'Donnell.
Here is the lineup of the performing artists, in order of appearance:
Backstage at the Grammy's: Boys In The House
Source: Grammy.com
Backstreet Boys In The House
The Backstreet Boys have been hanging around Staples Center all night long. A couple hours ago they were backing Sir Elton John on a hot rendition of "Philadelphia Freedom." Now, they just got done taking a turn through their own performance, a kind of medley that ends with a smooth version of "Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" from their smash Millennium album.
The Boys' performance will kick off with an a cappella tease of the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love," which they deliver with grace and style before segueing to a full-band snippet of the Temptations' classic "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone." They then brake into their own song with the signature vocal harmonies that have made them a worldwide phenomenon.
The Backstreet Boys are up for GRAMMYs in the Album of the Year (Millennium), Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group ("I Want It That Way") GRAMMYs.
--David Konjoyan
Elton Takes The Backstreets To The Grammy's
Source: Grammy.com
Hot on the heels of his tribute at the MusiCares Person of the Year dinner last night, Elton John hit the practice stage at Staples Center for a high-octane rendition of "Philadelphia Freedom," on which he'll be joined by teen singing sensations the Backstreet Boys.
Elton's take on the soulful "Freedom" brought back memories of when John was one of the few non-black performers invited onto the "Soul Train" stage, where he performed the song in the mid-'70s. In the '90s, John and his band are so tight that one run through the song was enough. But they were happy to give another take for camera blocking and sound.
While waiting for take two, Elton playfully began plunking out the Backstreet hit "I Want It That Way" -- a song on John's personal favorite list -- and the Boys chimed in with some quick vocals on the tune.
In addition to the Person of the Year honor, John will receive a GRAMMY Legend Award tomorrow night on the big show.
--David Konjoyan
Backstreet Boys Address 'NSYNC's Shadow
Source: MTV
Given the familiar ground that they have seemed to share throughout their careers, it is perhaps no surprise that rumors of negative feelings between the Backstreet Boys and 'NSYNC have dogged the Boys for some time.
The Boys have long been rumored to have some negative feelings regarding the encroachment of 'NSYNC on their boy band turf, especially since both bands were created by teen pop guru Louis J. Pearlman and they briefly shared manager Johnny Wright. 'NSYNC even jumped ship to Backstreet's Jive Records in September of last year.
The Boys have remained quiet in the past about any conflict, even during 'NSYNC's recent legal woes with Lou Pearlman (who Backstreet waged their own legal clash with in 1998). However, the Boys addressed the issue with MTV News' John Norris last week and talked about the 'NSYNC shadow that always seems to fall across their own limelight.
"It's more frustrating on the creative side, like, who you choose to write music with, who you choose to work with and produce your record, who you choose to direct your videos," Backstreet's Kevin Richardson told Norris. "I mean, it's like, 'Find your own identity.'"
"If we talk about things and communicate ideas we want to do, we turn on the TV and it would be done, because of the fact that at that moment in time of our careers, we were being represented by the same people," Backstreet's Brian Littrell added. "We remember, at the Billboard Awards in Vegas, that time when Garth [Brooks] flew out and we turned and we said, 'We want to do that,' and then somebody else is doing it."
"We just... we try hard to be different," Backstreet's Nick Carter said. "We try to have a straight path. Then we see something happening, then we try to go the other way, then all of a sudden somebody starts following us, you know what I'm saying?"
While the topic is a bit of a sore subject, the Boys say they try not to dwell on it. "What we want to do is not look at other people," Richardson said. "We want to look forward and onward towards what we want to do, and that's what we've been doing in the past, and we're not worried about anybody else and what they're doing. We're focusing on us." [RealVideo]
For now, that focus falls on the Boys' current U.S. tour as well as Wednesday night's Grammy Awards, where the group is up for five Grammy awards, including Album Of The Year, for "Millennium."
MTV News will be on hand at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards on February 23 providing complete coverage. The action starts on-air next Wednesday at 7 p.m. with MTV News' "Backstage At The Grammys" and continues throughout the night online, where we will be providing coverage and giving you the chance to share your thoughts on the proceedings as well.
On Wednesday, MTV News will also roll out much more from our interview with the Boys during our Grammy pre-show as well as right here at MTV News Online.
-- Kara Manning
Source: CDNOW Allstar News
Nothing like waiting until the 11th hour, but another slew of performers has been announced for Wednesday's (Feb. 23) Grammy Awards.
Will Smith, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Sisqo, Diana Krall with Erykah Badu, Joshua Bell, Edgar Meyer, and -- get this -- Elton John and the Backstreet Boys have all been added to the A list of performers for the 24 annual awards. Although both had been previously announced as performers, John and the Backstreet Boys have only now revealed that their performance will be together.
Added to the presenters list at the last minute are Bob Dylan, Moby, Dr. Dre, Ruben Blades, Clint Black, Lauryn Hill, Cher, and Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik, among others.
Additional performers previously announced include Ricky Martin, Santana, TLC, Dixie Chicks, Britney Spears, Faith Hill, Kid Rock, Whitney Houston, Sting, Marc Anthony, Pancho Sanchez, Chucho Valdes, Cheb Mami, and Buena Vista Social Club's Ibraham Ferrer (allstar, Feb. 14). Previously announced presenters include 'NSync, Busta Rhymes, Phil Collins, Macy Gray, Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, Neil Diamond, Gloria Estefan, and Vince Gill.
-- Kevin Raub
Where do BSB sit?
 | Placards marking the seats of Grammy nominees "The Backstreet Boys", Sarah McLachlan and Britney Spears are shown February 20 during a rehearsal of the Grammy Awards show at the Staples Center, February 20 in Los Angeles. The Grammys will be telecast from Los Angeles February 23.
::click for bigger size:: |
The GRAMMY Webcast Continues
Tuesday, February 22
Source: GRAMMY.com
On Tuesday, the excitement continues at GRAMMY.com. We've been publishing backstage at Staples Center since Saturday, and there's only one day to go before the biggest night in music! We've had chats, rehearsal coverage, backstage reports, video, audio and tons of photos -- and the fun is far from over. Tuesday's rehearsal coverage kicks off with Will Smith, Elton John with the Backstreet Boys, Sting with Cheb Mami, even more from the Backstreet Boys, and ends with Faith Hill and her orchestra. You'll have an inside view of the stage with our GRAMMYcams, plus our crack staff of writers will be publishing a slew of backstage reports.
On Tuesday we'll also be posting exclusive video highlights from the 2000 MusiCares Person of the Year event honoring Elton John. This VIP event includes performances from Elton John himself plus Phil Collins, Sting, Melissa Etheridge, Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Tony Bennett and more.
Here at WebCentral we've got chats lined with producer Rob Cavallo, the Dust Brothers, John Tesh, Ice-T, the Chris Perez Band, Steve Vai, Steven Curtis Chapman and more. (Check out the complete chat schedule for Tuesday.)
Coming by WebCentral for live interviews: Crystal Method, Henry Rollins, Bret Michaels, Ratt, George Clinton, Save Ferris plus surprise guests. The live audio stream launches at 2 p.m. and will include interviews with GRAMMY performers and presenters, as well as conversations with other key players responsible for creating the year's biggest night in music.
So stay online for all the buzz and activity right here at GRAMMY.com.
Grammy Award 2000
Soure: MTV
The 42nd Annual Grammy Awards are less than 36 hours away, and presumably the last group of performers and presenters were added to the show's line-up yesterday, as organizers confirmed that Will Smith, Jazzy Jeff, Sisqo, Erykah Badu, and Elton John would be among those hitting the stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Elton John, who will receive the evening's Grammy Legend Award from Billy Joel, apparently plans to perform twice at the Grammys -- once by himself and once with the Backstreet Boys, who will be vying for five awards, including Album of the Year for "Millennium."
Other Grammy pairings include Canadian singer-songwriter Diana Krall with Dallas R&B maven Erykah Badu, and Will Smith re-teaming with his old partner, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Dru Hill frontman Sisqo for a medley performance of "Wild Wild West."
Bob Dylan, Lauryn Hill, Dr. Dre, Moby, Cher, and Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik will help hand out awards in the Grammy Awards' 98 categories, joining such previously named presenters as Jennifer Lopez, 'N SYNC, Christina Aguilera, Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Macy Gray, and Phil Collins.
Last week, the Grammy Awards announced that Sting and Marc Anthony would perform at the show, along with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Kid Rock, Santana, TLC, Ricky Martin and Whitney Houston.
The 42 Annual Grammy Awards will be presented during a gala, three-hour ceremony held in Los Angeles on Wednesday at 8 p.m. (ET/PT).
-- David Basham
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Miriam Longino
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
It had been a weekend of extreme highs.
For Renee Poisson, Saturday night's bouyant Backstreet Boys concert was a time of closure and healing.
Eleven weeks after losing her mother, Sheila, in a car accident following the group's Dec. 5 show in Florida, the Dahlonega 17-year-old was showered with hugs and condolences by the singing idols in an emotional meeting backstage before the show.
| LEVETTE BAGWELL / AJC photo
Renee Poisson of Dahlonega gets a hug from Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys. |
Saturday's meet-and-greet lasted about 10 minutes as all five Backstreet Boys - dressed in the action-hero bodysuits and microphone headsets they wore in the opening number - chatted with Renee and a small entourage of family and friends. The group included Kim Gatewood and Jamie Brown, the mother and daughter who were riding with the Poissons when the accident occurred.
"We were shocked when we heard about it and wanted to do everything possible to make it up to her," said Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell, after posing for a picture with Renee. "I told her I had prayed for her."
The mood was mostly upbeat as the singing stars mugged for pictures and signed autographs.
"It was really exciting, what I expected and more," Renee said after the encounter. "You could tell they actually cared."
Jive Records promotion man James Heathfield, who was with the contest winners the weekend of the accident in Florida, arranged the meeting and also provided 10 fourth-row tickets.
The Backstreet Boys, he said, "absolutely wanted to do this. It was a priority for us."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Concert Review: 02/19/00 Atlanta, GA Georgia Dome
Photos by Levette Bagwell / AJC
Backstreet Boys bring flashy show to frenzied fans at Georgia Dome
By Miriam Longino
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
| The Backstreet Boys performed at a packed Georgia Dome on Saturday night. They effusively thanked Atlanta fans for making this the most massive audience in the group's history. |
The five baby-faced members of the syncopated singing group seemed like high schoolers who had just won a school election as they effusively thanked Atlanta fans for making this the most massive audience in the group's short but phenomenally lucrative history.
"We've never played in front of this many people before," gushed the youngest member of the group, Nick Carter. "Hotlanta knows how to party!"
Fans even spotted a couple of Backstreet Boys videotaping the scene through a backstage curtain, as if to gather evidence that it was really happening. When the exhausted members of the group finished their two-hour set, Atlanta R&B heavyweights Usher and Jermaine Dupri were backstage to give them high-fives.
The dark Georgia Dome, holding one of its largest crowds ever, looked like a bowl of exploding firecrackers as the group made its entrance in a scene off the cover of Marvel Comics. The Boys, dressed in superhero bodysuits molded like Batman's most recent wardrobe, flew in like a formation of Blue Angels riding neon boogie boards suspended from the ceiling.
| The Boys, dressed in superhero bodysuits molded like Batman's most recent wardrobe, flew in like a formation of Blue Angels riding neon boogie boards suspended from the ceiling. |
But watching a Backstreet Boys show isn't mainly about music. Like a well-trained marching band, this group is all about showmanship. In fact, the evening felt more like a halftime show than a concert, as the group danced nonstop around the huge stage, surrounded by nearly a dozen dancers who entered carrying lighted poles.
The special effects were nearly as dazzling as a "Star Wars" movie come to life -- red plumes of fire spitting from the floor, green light-saber lasers forming a fence around the stage. At the end of one of the group's biggest hits, "Quit Playing Games With My Heart," the Boys even strapped the aerial wires back on, and hydraulic cranes swept them no more than 20 feet over the grasping hands of fans, who tossed roses and teddy bears up to their heartthrobs.
Contrived? Absolutely. Entertaining? You bet.
Their Brides Want It That Way
Source: VH1
From News From The Wire
Two of the Backstreet Boys are getting married. And not to each other. Kevin Richardson, 27, and Brian Littrell, 24, both made their happy announcements to MTV News. No, they're not getting married to Kurt Loder, either.
"I just got engaged over the holiday," said Kevin, referring to Valentine's Day. Clearly the bouquet of flowers VH1.com sent him must have been undelivered. "It's kind of like the jumpstart of getting on with life, so I'm looking forward to it," chimed in Brian.
Those Backstreet Boys fans who believe they have been unfairly thrown over in favor of two interlopers should read this before loading any ammo into their shotguns. Kevin has known his betrothed for seven years. He first met her in a cafeteria at Disney World during the days when one of pop's hot commodities was just the guy sweating inside a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle suit.
"[We've been together] seven years, off and on," Richardson said. "We've been through a lot together, but she knew me when I was a Ninja Turtle. I met her in the cafeteria at Walt Disney World. We were both working there. She was a dancer. She's been on Broadway, done lots of things ..."
Kevin believed that the future Mrs. Richardson would help anchor him as an individual amidst the madness that is being a Backstreet Boy. "Being in the business, she definitely has an appreciation for it," he said. "I mean, I'm not necessarily gonna say that you need somebody in the business, but you need somebody that can understand a lot."
His cousin Brian was a little more reticent about being drop-kicked through the goal posts of love, only observing that "There's a right time for everything, I guess." Kevin told MTV's John Norris that the macaroni-and-cheese loving Brian has already set a date for the wedding. So he has two reasons to celebrate. Brian turns 25 on Sunday, meaning he is now old enough to rent a car in Israel. We think.
Although there was some of the traditional rending of garments over the announcement, many of the Backstreet Boys fans are dealing with the crisis with unexpected maturity.
A fan calling herself Jewls told MTV.com, "I was at the concert in Albany, New York on Tuesday, and I gotta say it was so awesome, but anyway, while we were there, we met Brian's fiancée. She is such a sweetie! When we saw her, she was so nice and she was really pretty. ...But she had to go backstage, because she was getting attacked by all of the teenyboppers that hate her." Well, some fans clearly still have a few issues.
The ending of a first love came hard to others. FL was busy picking pieces of her most vital organ off the floor as she wailed to MTV.com, "Heartbroken! Totally heartbroken!" Backstreet fan Stephanie also delivered the band some hard truths. "What is this gonna do to them?" she pondered. "They probably won't be number one or number two on TRL, I'll tell you that!"
At the Backstreet Boys' own Web site, many a tear had to fall. "I have to admit I did cry," wrote fan BCLittrell (no relation). "Not because of what he is doing, but because of me! It was a selfish thing. I just love him so, so I guess I was crying because...he would make a life with another woman, and I would never be a part of it."
A fan called B-rockismyhero confessed, "I always thought I would always be Mrs. Littrell, but I am sure your lovely lady loves you even more I will. ...I pray for you every night, always. Since the day I heard the name Backstreet Boys I started praying for your whole group to succeed and for you all to have a great and safe life. Even if I never get to meet you, I will always have that one special place in my heart for you all and especially you, B-Rok." Please bear with VH1.com a moment as we get out our handkerchief.
Fan Julia Webber put it all in perspective for the posters on the Backstreet Boys message board. "Just because you're not the one making them happy in their PRIVATE lives does not mean they don't care, because they DO tell us about 30 times in one concert." Meanwhile, outside the VH1.com offices, a self-professed Backstreet Boys fan asked for fifty cents to buy a cup of coffee.
Fans should keep their eyes peeled for engagement rings when the Backstreet Boys attend the Grammy Awards next Wednesday. And if the Boys don't bring their mothers with them, you might even get an eyeful of the lucky girls at VH1's Grammy pre-show, beginning at 6 PM ET on February 23.
Backstreet Fans: Ain't nothin' but a heartache
Source: The Lexington Herald-Leader
Girls cope with engagements of the group's Ky. members
By Heather Svokos
HERALD-LEADER POP CULTURE WRITER
If their concerts produce a tsunami of screams from fans, news of the engagements of the two Kentucky Backstreet Boys spurred a colossal, collective wail of cybergrief.
In interviews with Mtv News on Wednesday night, cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson broke many a middle school heart when they announced the end of their bachelorhood.
"I just got engaged over the holiday," Richardson told Mtv, with Littrell following suit in a later interview.
Littrell, 24, a Tates Creek grad, will marry Leighanne Wallace, 29, an actress he has been dating for two years.
Richardson, 27, of Estill County, has not publicly named his fiancee, but fan Web sites identify her as Kristin Willits, a dancer for Cher. "(We've been together) seven years, off and on," he told Mtv. Fans yesterday were coping the best they knew how. Devotees at Lexington's Morton Middle School took it better than fans on Mtv Online's message board, some of whom threateded to abandon pop music's No. 1 act and run into the arms of its rivals, 'NSync.
"I won't," said Mallory Bradley, 13, an eighth-grader at Morton. "I don't like 'NSync," She found the news "sort of, good and sort of bad. If they get married, the group could break up."
That seemed to be the shared fear among the school's fans, including 13-year-old Gina Christensen, who said she started crying when she read abut the engagemetns. "I love Brian so much," she said. But, in the end, she says, "I wish them the best of luck."
Littrell met Wallace on the shoot for the As Long as You Love Me. "It's like with any other relationship," Littrell told the Herald-Leader in November. "There are ups and downs, but we respect what one another does. We prepared ourselves" for a long-distance relationship.
"It's kind of like the jump-start on getting on with life, so I'm looking forward to it," Littrell told Mtv.
Wedding plans were not disclosed. Littrel and Richardson could not be reached for further comment yesterday.
Richardson told Mtv that his fiancee "knew me when I was a Ninja Turtle. I met her in the cafeteria at Walt Disney World.
"We were both working there. She was a dancer. She's been on Broadway, done lots of things-being in the business, she definitely has an appreciation for it. I mean, I'm not necessarily gonna say that you need somebody in the business, but you need somebody that can understand a lot."
Whitnie Bauer, 14, understands. "If they're true Backstreet Boys fans," she said, "They're not going to forget them just because two of them are going off and getting married."
Jana Simons and Brittany Lark, both 12, joined Morton's chorus of long faces. "It's kind of upsetting," Simons said, "because they're the two cutest, and both of them are from Kentucky. You Can still like them..."
"But you can't like them for their cuteness," Lark said, "because they're gonna get married."
The careers of pop idols have survived marriages, but they have sparked ugly scenes: Linda Eastman faced a scourge of angry female fans when she married Beatle Paul McCartney in 1969.
"It's a rather interesting phenomenon," said Tim Scheurer, a pop culture scholar and humanities professor at Franklin University, in Columbus, Ohio. By gettin engaged, Scheurer said, "(Littrell and Richardson) are undermining the fantasy element of group and their image."
"There is always resentment," he said. "I keep thinking that's going to do something to that group. There's a thing with these groups. They're a male cornucopia. You kind of go to a concert and just pick one. 'Wooo, he's mine!' All of a sudden you just cut two out. Girls are gonna be going: 'Yeah right-he's married. As if,'
"I think it's going to be absolutely fascinating to watch this play out."
Jackie Allen, 12, is just relieved it wasn't A.J. McLean. "I truly believe I'm going to marry him some day," she said.
If a fan is a true fan, she said, she wouldn't dump Backstreet for 'NSync. "You wouldn't care, because they're really sweet guys who deserve No. 1 no matter what."
Depot.com Preview: 2/20/00, Greensboro, NC
Source: The Depot
Backstreet Boys 101: What's all the fuss about?
02/17/00
By JERI ROWE, Staff Writer
Music critics call it the Sound of Young America.
The Backstreet Boys, a supergroup coming Sunday to the Greensboro Coliseum, has tapped an international longing for innocent boy-meets-girl pop with ultraslick production, G-rated lyrics and a powerful hip-hop backbeat.
The Boys' popularity is Texas-huge. The group is raking in enough awards, money and accolades to make even the toughest critic admit that they have lasted far longer than a lunchbox season, the usual lifespan for other youth-oriented acts.
Boymania has officially gripped the country, even the Triad.
So, what is all the fuss about? We at City Life try to help you understand.
The Boys are born
It all started in 1993, in Orlando, Fla. High school students A.J. McLean and Howie Dorough and junior-high student Nick Carter started running into each other at local acting auditions, became friends and decided to form a singing group.
Enter Ron Pearlman, a Florida businessman nicknamed Big Poppa because of his large girth. The Washington Post has likened him to a teddy bear. Pearlman decided to get into the boy-group business after leasing New Kids On The Block a plane and seeing a way to make some money. Pearlman held an open grab talent. He found McLean, Dorough and Carter.
The trio picked up Kevin Richardson, who at the time was performing at Disney World. Then, after looking unsuccessfully for a fifth member, Richardson recruited his cousin from Kentucky, Brian Littrell. Littrell relocated and joined the group.
The five-member group took their name from the Backstreet Market, a place where they performed in Orlando. Within six months of forming, they became one of Florida's hottest live acts. They performed at high schools, Grad Night at Sea World and an opening slot for Brandy.
The Boys' buzz starts
The Backstreet Boys first went to Europe and Canada, two places where youth-oriented acts were more popular. In 1996, the Boys released their self-titled debut CD. They sold out a 57-date European tour and sold out 32 Canadian dates in less than 20 minutes.
Their debut CD sold 6 million copies in Canada. In 1997, the debut album was released in the United States and spawned five hit singles.
The Boys' grow up
In May 1998, the Boys sued Big Poppa and claimed he and his company had pocketed about $10 million in recording and touring revenue since 1993. He contested their claims. The two parties settled the lawsuit out of court; details weren't disclosed.
In spring 1999, the Boys released their second CD, "Millennium." The CD sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and produced two hits, "I Want It That Way" and "Larger Than Life."
In August, the Boys sold out an entire tour -- 53 shows, 765,000 tickets worth $30 million -- in one day.
The Boys resign with their record company, Jive Records, for $60 million after threatening to leave. That contract put them into the same big-money league as The Rolling Stones.
McLean's ex-girlfriend has written a book called "Loving A.J.: My Six-Year Romance with a Backstreet Boy." Littrell's prom date from Kentucky has written a book called, "What You Wanna Know: Backstreet Boys' Secrets Only a Girlfriend Can Tell."
In four years, the group has sold more than 40 million CDs and grossed $900 million inrecord, video and merchandise sales.
The awards continue to build. The group received our awards from Billboard magazine last year, including Album of the Year and Artist of the Year.
he group also grabbed everything in the 1999 readers' poll from Rolling Stone magazine: artists of the year, band of the year, album of the year, single of the year, best video, best dressed, best Web site, best tour and biggest hype.
Boymania grabs Greensboro
The Boys sold out the Greensboro Coliseum faster than any other show in the building's40-year history. Fans bought 20,300 tickets in 78 minutes. Sunday's Backstreet Boys show at the Greensboro Coliseum will be the arena's best attended and highest grossing show ever. The show is expected to gross more than $1 million.
Fans listening to WKZL (107.5 FM) go goofy to get tickets for the Boys' Greensboro Coliseum show. One eats worms, another sucks honey off someone's toes and another scales a fish as she holds it in her mouth. The winner is Dawn Larkins from Kernersville, who allowed three chickens to eat chicken feed off her honey-covered body.
For the Greensboro show, three 17-year-old students from Winston-Salem's Bishop McGuinness High School plan to wrap themselves in white Christmas tree lights and wear T-shirts with glow-in-the-dark letters that read BSB. Yes, they want to get onstage.
Lauren Armstrong bought a ticket because the Boys are her world. Just step into her bedroom. Posters and pictures obscure every speck of paint. On every available space inside -- a dresser, a shelf, a spot on the floor -- there is something Boy-related.
"Oh my gosh, they are the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to bed at night," says Lauren, 13, a seventh-grader at Kernersville Middle School. "Backstreet Boys rule. You know they'll never break your heart."
Two local stations, WKZL and WMAG (99.5 FM), are giving away tickets to Sunday's show. Both have given away nearly 300 tickets. Says WKZL's Jeff McHugh: "It's like the phone never stops ringing. People are always asking, 'When are you going to give away another pair?'"
It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's Superboys
According to the Los Angeles Times, each member is an archetype of boyish masculinity.
McLean, 22, is the tattooed and tenderhearted B-boy with a street-tough attitude; Dorough, 26, is the earnest, shy romantic; Littrell, 23, is the Southern heartthrob; Carter, 19, is the talented pretty boy; and Richardson, 28, is the dark Adonis whom People magazine named 1999's sexiest pop star.
The Boys will bring into Greensboro Coliseum the largest show the arena has ever seen: 24 tractor-trailers that will lug in loads of equipment, including a pentagon-shaped stage and rigging for the Boys to fly onto the stage.
According to USA Today, the show starts like this: The lights go down, geysers of smoke shoot up and the Boys sail through the air on lighted boogie boards to the stage in the middle of the arena while the theme from the movie "Star Wars" plays.
Time magazine says the Boys' popularity has led to the group's own online comic book from Marvel Comics, home of Spiderman and The Hulk. In the comic, all the Boys have their own super powers. Littrell, for instance, can jump "higher than a dozen Michael Jordans."
Now, a final word from the oldest Boy. "Everybody's trying to preach," Richardson told Rolling Stone magazine. "All we're trying to accomplish is to make pretty love songs for guys and girls to slow dance to, up-tempos to make you dance and midtempos for in your car, to make you forget about the traffic. It's entertainment. It's fun."
Source: The Albany Times Union
First published: Wednesday, February 16, 2000
Albany -- Fans gather at hotel in hopes of an up-close-and-personal brush with their idols
At noon Tuesday, 16-year-old Ashley John's life became complete.
"My life's complete,'' the Long Island teenager told her friends, long white nails fluttering across her mouth. "I just met Leigh Anne.''
When you've been waiting hours to meet a Backstreet Boy, you'll settle for just about anything: a member of the back-up band, a bodyguard, a roadie -- or even Leigh Anne, girlfriend of one of the members of the hottest teen act since, well, who can keep track anymore?
On Tuesday afternoon, nearly a hundred young ladies in waiting spent hours on their feet at the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel just to catch a glimpse of their favorite Boy.
"It's addicting,'' said 21-year-old Kelly Hanlon of Boston, who came here for the two shows. "It's so much fun to meet them.''
The Backstreet Boys -- Nick, Kevin, A.J., Howie and Brian -- played the second of two sold-out shows at the Pepsi Arena Tuesday night. And for many fans, there was little else to do but wait in the lobby of the hotel where the Boys and their huge entourage occupied more than 80 rooms.
Inside the lobby, more than 75 people stood behind velvet ropes, waiting. Some looked at photos of the band taken the night before -- "Do you have any Brian pictures?'' "Hang on, who wants Kevin?'' -- while others kept a watchful eye out for anyone walking by with long hair or wearing a "BSB -- Millennium 99-00'' tour jacket. When the band's drummer comes out to hand a pair of drumsticks to a 7-year-old boy, the crowd "oohed'' with appreciation.
Dana Burnham, 13, and her friend, both from the Utica area, saw their first Backstreet Boys concert Monday night. On Tuesday, they woke up at 4:20 a.m. to camp out in the hotel lobby, just in case a Boy should happen to walk by. At noon, Burnham was tired and hungry, but had no intention of leaving her spot in front of the velvet rope.
"I love A.J.,'' she said. "I'm A.J.'s wife. You can put that down.''
Some fans tire of such drippy fawnings -- especially when unrequited poster love fuels actions like, according to what one fan witnessed Monday, putting a teenage ear to the door of a room in which it is suspected a Backstreet Boy might be sequestered. "As a guest of the hotel, I have to say it was a little disturbing,'' said 23-year-old Emilie Duggan-Hicks of Boston. "There were probably 200 people in the lobby. There was fights and screams and yelling. They all think they own a piece of each Boy.''
One band official, dealing with a three-page bill in the front lobby, said the hotel was "a mess.''
"It's been a challenge,'' said the representative, declining to give his name. He added: "It's understandable, since they don't want people staying out in the cold.''
Carrie Hillenbrandt, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, said even she was surprised by how many people came to catch a glimpse of Backstreet fame. Though the band had its own security, she said, it was sometimes hard to tell which fans had rooms in the hotel and which were just there to gawk.
"We certainly didn't have any problems,'' she said. "They're a very nice crowd.''
Outside, a group of fans watched four black buses in the hopes the Fab Five might board. Some of the more seasoned fans, who have seen the band 10 or 12 times, are able to recognize the band's girlfriends, and are on a first-name basis with the bodyguards.
Courtney Morrison, a 22-year-old Tampa woman who works three jobs to pay for her Backstreet Boys addiction, still talks about the time A.J. got on the elevator with her.
"It was cool,'' she said. "He was like, 'Not you guys again.' ''
"You can put in there he smells good,'' added her friend, Faith Hatch of Rome. "He smells like Jute.''
Grammys Reveal New Generation Gap
Source: Associated Press
By DAVID BAUDER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Barring an upset of major proportions, rock veteran Carlos Santana will walk to the podium at next Wednesday's Grammy Awards to accept an armload of trophies for his best-selling comeback album, "Supernatural."
He will look out at several fresh-faced Grammy nominees - the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera - who have no memory of when Santana's scorching guitar work on songs like "Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman" was fresh.
None of them had been born at the time.
The Baby Boomers who once vowed never to trust anyone over 30 are now part of another generation gap - this time with their children. That musical schism will be exposed on the Grammys the way it never has before.
The three-hour ceremony at Los Angeles' new Staples Center, with Rosie O'Donnell as host, will start at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
Bob Jamieson remembers taking Santana's first record to a party three decades ago. He played the music over and over through the night. Santana's musical resurrection brings back nothing but good memories.
"It's what makes this business exciting," he said, "that a fiftysomething-year-old can be making a great, vital statement that touches so many people right along with an 18-year-old."
Now president of the RCA record company, Jamieson is rooting for someone a lot younger on Wednesday night. RCA's 19-year-old singer Aguilera is a Grammy nominee for best new artist.
Just try to imagine Aguilera and her young rival, Spears, watching Santana from the audience. For them, it must be like their dad being up for an award. Or, in the case of nominee Cher, their mom. They'll be polite, they'll respect their elders, but they know what's cool.
THEY'RE cool.
They're the heroes of a new generation of music buyers, the ones who come home from school and check out Carson Daly on MTV's "Total Request Live," and whose emergence was the most important story of the past year in music.
Teen pop accounted for three of the four best-selling albums in 1999, by the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and Spears. Shania Twain was the exception. Four other albums in the top 10 - by Ricky Martin, the Offspring, Limp Bizkit and TLC - were hits because they appealed to the same audience.
Even Carlos Santana can attribute much of his new success with "Supernatural" to a willingness to work with younger artists on the album, including singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 on the hit single, "Smooth."
Baby boomers have been baffled by new music before, when Generation X embraced grunge and it seemed like so much noise to their older brothers.
This is different. These are their kids.
The young musicians have to overcome a deep-seated suspicion that none of them are built to last like Bob Dylan or the Beatles. The feeling is that the new stars are known more for their dance steps and photogenic looks than an ability to write songs or play instruments.
Tom Calderone thinks that's unfair. The senior vice president of music programming at MTV said that whenever a new crop of artists becomes popular, there's an older group to claim they are shallow.
"Anytime there's an evolution in music, no matter what genre it goes into, you are always going to find people who are not open to change," he said.
You might expect Calderone to say that; young viewers have sent MTV's ratings soaring. Less expected is the attitude of his counterpart at VH1 - the music station for post-teens - where the Backstreet Boys, Aguilera and Spears have made the video playlist.
Back-to-back albums that each sold more than 10 million copies have put the Backstreet Boys on stronger footing than many teen acts in the past, said Wayne Isaak, VH1's executive vice president of music.
"You know what? Their songs are good," Isaak said. "The songwriting is good, the production is well done. These songs could be hits for other people."
Certainly the Backstreet Boys' album sales indicate it's not just teen-agers buying.
The downside of the teen-dominated marketplace is the ruthless rule of hit songs. The way the music business is set up now, without a top 40 hit it's difficult for any music to be heard, and hard for people who don't make hits to sustain a career.
Music fans over 40, in particular, have to really pay attention to know what's going on.
"It's gotten to the point where everybody knows about the top five artists who are big, and nobody knows about anybody else existing very much," said rock singer Matthew Sweet.
Sweet made the best-reviewed album of his career last fall, "In Reverse." But since it is a form of melodic rock 'n' roll that's not particularly fashionable right now, he's struggling to get it heard beyond a small audience of critics.
Isaak is encouraged, though, by what he sees as a greater degree of musical open-mindedness in the last several years.
You can see it every day on "Total Request Live." Teen pop mingles with the rap of Jay-Z and Dr. Dre, or the metallic rap of Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, or the punk rock of Blink 182. Kids listen to it all.
And while their parents, when they were teen-agers, might have been horrified to listen to the music of their own parents, that's not necessarily the case today.
Just like in the 1960s, it's the Baby Boomers who feel the gap's effect more than the generation on the other side.
"I've heard that the way the music rules apply, only 17 to 27 years old is cool. Well, surprise," Carlos Santana said on the day he received his Grammy nominations. "You know, there's a reason why teen-agers listen to '60s music, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Santana: They need to pass through us to get to their thing."
Artists for Grammy performances set
Source: Infobeat
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Sting, Marc Anthony, Cheb Mami, Chucho Valdez, Pancho Sanchez and Buena Vista Social Club's Ibrahim Ferrer have been tapped to perform at the 42nd Grammy Awards, to be broadcast Feb. 23 live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Among the artists who have already been confirmed to perform are Santana, TLC, Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin, Kid Rock, Faith Hill, Britney Spears, Dixie Chicks and Whitney Houston. Santana earned 10 Grammy nominations, including record of the year and album of the year, for his Arista set "Supernatural." TLC earned six nominations, Backstreet Boys garnered four and Ricky Martin chalked up three. Beginning Friday, the Grammy official Web site at Grammy.com will begin Webcasting artist chats, rehearsals and backstage reports live from the Staples Center.
Source: MTV
If you were hoping to make a Backstreet Boy your valentine this week, your chances recently got a bit slimmer.
Two of the Boys are now engaged to be married, as they told MTV News' John Norris on Tuesday night when the group's "Into the Millennium" world tour hit Albany, New York.
"I'm engaged now. I just got engaged over the holiday," Backstreet's Kevin Richardson told MTV News before taking the stage at Albany's Pepsi Arena. "[We've been together] seven years, off and on. We've been through a lot together, but she knew me when I was a Ninja Turtle. I met her in the cafeteria at Walt Disney World. We were both working there. She was a dancer. She's been on Broadway, done lots of things… being in the business, she definitely has an appreciation for it. I mean, I'm not necessarily gonna say that you need somebody in the business, but you need somebody that can understand a lot."
After Kevin's bombshell, Backstreet's Brian Littrell delivered similar news during an interview later that same day. "There's a right time for everything, I guess," Brian told MTV News of why he's planning a trip to the altar. "It's kind of like the jumpstart on getting on with life, so I'm looking forward to it."
The now-engaged Brian and Kevin are cousins, making the impending wave of nuptials a true family affair. Richardson said that Littrell has set a date for his ceremony, but Brian wouldn't disclose his plans.
The partially betrothed Backstreet Boys will be in Charlotte on Thursday and Raleigh on Friday. The Boys will also have their eyes on Los Angeles next Wednesday when this year's Grammy Awards are handed out. The group is up for four Grammy awards, including Album Of The Year for "Millennium."
MTV News will be on hand at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards on February 23 providing complete coverage. The action starts on-air next Wednesday at 7 p.m. with MTV News' "Backstage At The Grammys" and continues throughout the night online, where we will be providing coverage and giving you the chance to share your thoughts on the proceedings as well.
-- Kara Manning
Look at Realvideo from MTV:
Backstreet Wedding Bells!
by Marcus Errico
Feb 16, 2000, 4:00 PM PT
Source: E! Online
Cupid wreaked havoc on the Backstreet Boys this Valentine's week.
Backstreeters Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell have confirmed to MTV that they're both engaged to be married.
A nation of teen girls mourns.
Kevin, 27, tells the music channel that he got engaged on V-Day to his longtime (and unnamed) gal-pal. "[We've been together] seven years, off and on. We've been through a lot together, but she knew me when I was a Ninja Turtle. I met her in the cafeteria at Walt Disney World. We were both working there. She was a dancer. She's been on Broadway, done lots of things...
"Being in the business, she definitely has an appreciation for it. I mean, I'm not necessarily gonna say that you need somebody in the business, but you need somebody that can understand a lot."
His cousin Brian (who turns 25 on Sunday) also dropped the marriage bomb to MTV, saying, "There's a right time for everything, I guess...It's kind of like the jumpstart on getting on with life, so I'm looking forward to it."
Neither Boy would give up the name of his honey, but a look at the official BSB Website reveals what each looks for in his "ideal lady."
Brian describes his dream babe thusly: "Eyes are very appealing to me. I also like somebody who is interested in a career for themselves and can treat me like a normal person." (The site also lets us know that his favorite color is midnight blue, his fave food is macaroni and cheese, and he is afraid of heights.)
As for Kevin, he's "attracted to girls who accept him as he is." (His favorite foreign country is Sweden, and, like his cousin, he is a big fan of blue.)
The Boys were also mum on when the actual aisle-walking would take place, but the ceremonies don't figure to go down anytime soon. The Boys have been plenty busy of late--kicking off the new leg of their sold-out tour last Friday, announcing a new Backstreet comic book and preparing for next week's Grammys, for which they're up for four awards, including Album of the Year for the megaselling Millennium--and they won't have any real time off for months.
For the record, girls, the three other Backstreeters--AJ McLean, Howie D. Dorough and Nick Carter--are still available.
Source: Albany Times Union
Backstreet Boys' performance perfect Valentine's Day fantasy
The Backstreet Boys on Valentine's Day. Can Albany get any luckier than that?
On Monday night, the Pepsi Arena was throbbing with the anticipation of 16,000 teenage girls (give or take a couple of parent-chaperones). Hand-lettered placards were everywhere, along with giant heart-shaped valentines designated for the favored Boy.
"I love you, Nick.''
"Kevin, will you marry me?''
"Howie rules.''
"You're a stud, AJ.''
"Brian, I want it your way.''
Let's face it, regardless of their musical talent -- and once they took the stage, their vocals were drowned out by the screams of their fans -- what the Boys deliver isn't all that bad. Sure, it's not art, but they offer a 13-year-old girl a place to incubate her junior-high school fantasies. It's a place where your boyfriend will never be unfaithful. A place where promises will never be broken. A place where love will never die.
In other words, it was a perfect Valentine's Day concert.
Sporting more hand-lettered placards than a presidential convention, the jam-packed crowd hung on every word from the apt opener, "Larger Than Life,'' to the final encore, "I Want It That Way.''
The quintessential quintet of new millennial boy-pop did it all -- singing, dancing and looking cute. What more can you ask from a boy-toy band? Of course, they had plenty of help -- a six-piece band and a tireless nine-member dance troupe -- but nobody was really looking at anybody but the Boys, who went through at least as many costume changes as Cher during the course of their two hour extravaganza.
The music? Well, really, who cares? In fact, it was nearly impossible to tell if the five cuties were actually singing at all during the show, but that's not really the point.
We've become so accustomed to lip-synching and "audio-enhanced live performances'' that it really isn't a determining factor anymore, is it? What we're talking about is the show, and the Backstreet Boys dished up a spectacle worthy of three or four Super Bowl half-time shows.
Favorite moment? Well, how about "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart),'' during which the Boys flew out over the audience on Peter Pan-like wire apparatuses, tossing teddy bears to the faithful fans?
Although they changed from motocross blues to black leathers, the high point of the costume parade was undoubtedly the delicious white, gray and salmon colored zoot-suits that they sported for the show-closers, beginning with "No One Else Comes Close.''
Then, of course, there was the big entrance as the guys boogie-boarded over the heads of the crowd as they made their way to the pentagram-shaped stage in the middle of the arena.
And when they settled into "The Perfect Fan'' (Brian's ode to his mom), they paraded five mother-and-daughter teams around the stage as though it were the Miss America pageant. And you can bet that those kids won't ever forget that experience -- at least until the sixth grade.
By the end of the night, most of the moms were singing along with their daughters on the final encore of "I Want It That Way.'' And if they weren't, you can bet that they were silently -- and very joyously -- giving praise that their daughters' bedrooms were shrines to the Backstreet Boys instead of Marilyn Manson.
 | A very happy Kevin with girlfriend on a movie premiere.
::click for bigger size:: |
Centre Daily Times Review: 2/11/00, University Park, PA
Source: Centre Daily Times
The Backstreet Boys wow 'em
By CHRIS KREWSON
Centre Daily Times
UNIVERSITY PARK - Their every move - projected on immense TV screens - drew screams of glee from the largely young, largely female crowd.
Even a promotional video 15 minutes before showtime was enough to cause ushers to don their earplugs.
And when Backstreet Boys member Kevin Richardson's face appeared on one of those screens, a lift of his eyebrow was all it took to set off waves of cheers.
Larger than life, indeed.
By the sound of it, the crowd that came to see the Boys for the beginning of their 2000 tour wasn't disappointed with their performance Friday night at the Bryce Jordan Center.
The sold-out show relied heavily on pyrotechnics, fancy lighting, an entourage of dancers and quick costume changes.
And oh yeah - they sang, too, opening the show with "Larger Than Life," the chart-topping single from their album Millennium.
Fans eager for a glimpse of the Fab Five waved signs and limbs emblazoned with the names of their favorite singer. That included 13-year-old Amy Wargo from Johnstown, who had painted her favorite - "Brian" (last name Littrell) - on her cheek.
"I was on the phone for four hours to try to get tickets," Wargo said. "This was my Christmas present."
Becky Pollina, an 11-year-old Ebensburg resident, said she likes the Backstreet Boys "because they're a good band and they're cute."
Mary Louise Wargo, Amy's mom, said she was happy to see her daughter and her friends so happy.
"It seems like a dream come true for them," she said.
Penn State student Julie Saccenta, 20, said she became a fan after hearing the "Millennium" CD. She said the band's clean-cut image is good for the legions of adoring fans.
"It's good for little kids to look up to them," Saccenta said, "like we looked up to the New Kids On The Block. They're role models."
Nine-year-old Jordan Sterrett had eyes only for Nick Carter, and said she was waiting to hear "Larger Than Life" and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" at the Friday night show, "because they're loud and they're just my favorite songs."
Her mother, Rhonda Leiter of Howard, said her daughter's love for the band isn't surprising. After all, she had a similar infatuation years ago - for the Osmond Brothers.
"I had their posters, everything they had out. It was great," Leiter said before the show. "I told her she's a very lucky girl."
Industry suits sound off on who's gonna win and who DESERVES to win
Source: Entertainment Weekly (February 18, 2000)
Grammy voting is a bit like the New Hampshire primary: Its outcome is hard to predict, it's full of partisan politics, and Gary Bauer doesn't stand a chance. But unlike in a primary, Grammys are determined almost exclusively by biased insiders, and record-company voting blocs--large groups of employees who vote according to a party line--usually play a major role. To find out what's really going on in key categories of this year's Grammys, we surveyed industry execs, who traded their insights and ire for anonymity.
RECORD OF THE YEAR
-Backstreet Boys, "I Want It That Way"
-Cher, "Believe"
-Ricky Martin, "Livin' La Vida Loca"
-Santana, "Smooth"
-TLC, "No Scrubs"
Survey Says: Santana. "TLC's out because [Arista chief] Clive Davis will swing all the BMG and Arista votes to Santana," says one BMG insider. "With Ricky you've got the entire Sony voting bloc. But 'Smooth' is a phenomenon.
And in picking Santana, the older voters can actually vote for somebody they feel like they know. Right now Santana's riding the wave." An exec at a rival label is more blunt: "This will be just another way to pacify Clive Davis by the folks who almost fired him. You'd think a guy who's got a couple points on every Whitney Houston record ever recorded wouldn't need a pity vote." And what about the Backstreet Boys? "Even the most hardened, elitist music cynic knows that's a great pop song," says another bizzer. "But [Grammy voters] will never forget Milli Vanilli, EVER, and if there's even a whiff that they're manufactured, that's gonna be a factor."
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
-Backstreet Boys, Millennium
-Dixie Chicks, Fly
-Diana Krall, When I Look In Your Eyes
-Santana, Supernatural
-TLC, Fanmail
Survey Says: Santana. "This is probably the easiest one to predict. Santana makes the older voters feel good." "Santana is like the biggest f---ing wet dream ever for the Grammy voters. It's gonna make Bonnie Raitt look like nothing. He's gonna clean up." What about Diana Krall? "Diana who? Nobody cares. No Grammy for you!" As for TLC: "I'd love to see them win just so we can see 'em claw each other's eyes out on stage. But too many voters are trying to kiss Clive's ass, and Santana will get it."
SONG OF THE YEAR
-"Smooth," Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas (songwriter)
-"Livin' La Vida Loca," Desmond Child and Robi Rosa
-"I Want It That Way," Andreas Carlsson and Max Martin
-"Unpretty," Dallas Austin and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins
-"You've Got A Way," Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Shania Twain
Survey Says: a toss-up between "Smooth" and "I Want It That Way." "God, this really could be a Santana sweep. In reality, Backstreet should win this category. It was a pretty phenomenal song throughout the entire year. But this looks like Santana." On the other hand: "I actually think this may be a place where the Backstreet Boys have a shot. This category is different because there are more songwriters involved. It's less about record company politics and more about the art of making the record."
--Rob Brunner, with additional reporting by Laura Morgan
He Wants It That Way: BSB Singles on Billboard
Source: Billboard (Chart Beat)
Hi Fred,
I love reading your column every week and have a quick question. Can you give me the chart position for all Backstreet Boys' singles? I noticed that recently they have not been releasing them as commercial singles, but instead have to rely on airplay to chart.
Are they using the "not releasing singles spurs album sales" method or what?
Thanks for your time,
Brad Turner
Dallas
Dear Brad,
The last commercial Backstreet Boys single in the U.S. was "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," back in the spring of 1998. That helps to explain why they haven't had a No. 1 hit yet. There have been no commercial singles from "Millennium," and that album is 10x platinum, so the label probably believes their strategy is working. Here's a summary of the Backstreet Boys' Hot 100 action:
"We've Got It Goin' On," No. 69 (1995)
"Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)," No. 2 (1997)
"Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," No. 4 (1998)
"I'll Never Break Your Heart," No. 35 (1998)
"All I Have To Give," No. 5 (1999)
"I Want It That Way," No. 6 (1999)
"Larger Than Life," No. 25 (1999)
"Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely," No. 10 (2000) *
*as of the Feb. 19, 2000 chart
Backstreet to the Rescue!
Source: Yahoo News
Saturday February 12 11:05 PM EST
The Backstreet Boys are getting booked. Comic-booked, that is.
The "Larger Than Life" boy band, already superstars for their poppy tunes, are about to become superheroes, thanks to comic god Stan Lee, the mastermind behind the likes of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men and Fantastic Four.
This time, the fantastic Backstreet five--Howie, AJ, Nick, Kevin and Brian--will don capes, super-charged weapons and show off their superpowers in an upcoming comic series published in print form and on the Web.
"I'm ecstatic to be involved with Stan Lee," says Nick Carter, who is cocreating the series with Lee and whose comic alter ego will boast amazing ninja powers. "A comic book is something I've always wanted to do and we've finally made it happen."
The series kicks off February 19 with comic books sold exclusively at Backstreet Boys concerts and online at www.backstreetproject.com.
The plot of the comic series, according to Lee, involves aliens, babes and plenty of action. The setup: a spaceship crashes down during a BSB concert. Ever the heroes, the Boys rush to rescue "beautiful alien creature." The "curvaceous" visitor tells them they must protect Earth from an impending alien invasion. She gives them each an amulet that changes their DNA, empowering each Boy with superhuman skills--Nick becomes a fierce martial artist; Kevin gains incredible strength; Brian has amazing leaping ability; AJ turns into a weapons whiz; and Howie gets "mind-blowing" telepathic powers. (No word yet on whether BSB will use said powers to blow away their boy band rivals, 'N Sync.)
"We will use the comic book to introduce the superhero story to fans, so those fans not yet connected to the Internet can share in the excitement that is created by the animated Webisodes," says Lee. Adds Carter: "There are a lot of females in our audience. [Comics are] a really cool way to get guys involved."
And comic experts think the Backstreet Boys' marketing power could be a boon to the entire industry. "I think any comic that comes out that has the potential for bringing in new people is a good thing," says Andy Helfer, an editor at DC Comics, one of the industry's biggest players, whose signature character Superman can be seen online in animated Webisodes at Entertaindom.com.
Of course, making comic strips featuring celebs isn't really groundbreaking news. The grandfather of them all, says Helfer, is the original KISS comic that bowed in the late '70s. The story is that KISS went to the printer and dripped their own blood into the ink before the comc went to press. Hence the infamous tagline: "Printed with real KISS blood." Says Helfer of the monster rockers, "They are superheroes anyway."
Since then, DC Comics has had a Muhammad Ali and a Prince (before he was The Artist Formerly Known As) strip; Marvel made Alice Cooper a two-dimensional character; Todd McFarlane, Spawn's creator, has an updated KISS quarterly and a one-shot Ozzy Osbourne book; and Image Comics publishes a Wu-Tang Clan series.
But not all acts translate into comic hits. "A lot of [these kind of] comics only work if the act is at the top," Helfer says. "You need to be sure the band will still be at the top when the comic comes out."
And BSB certainly fit the profile. Arguably the biggest pop group on the planet, the Backstreet Boys' latest release, Millennium, has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and has spent 36 weeks (and counting) on Billboard's Top 200 chart.
Source: Infobeat
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Backstreet Boys are collaborating with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee on a series of print comics and online cartoons, according to Time magazine. The online episodes, dubbed by Lee as "Webisodes," will run between three and five minutes in length. Says group member Nick Carter, "There's a lot of females in our audience, and (comics are) a really cool way to get guys involved." Backstreet Boys' North American tour kicks off Friday in State College, Pa. and wraps March 15 in Toronto. The group's most recent Jive disc, "Millennium," which is up for a Grammy for best pop album, is No. 10 on The Billboard 200 this week.
Blockbuster Awards
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Whitney Houston earned nominations for favorite female R&B artist, favorite song from a movie ("When You Believe," from "Prince of Egypt") and favorite single ("Heartbreak Hotel") in this year's Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, to be held in June at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The event, which presents awards for film and video games in addition to music, will be broadcast live on Fox. Christina Aguilera, Cher, Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit, Britney Spears and Ricky Martin each garnered two nominations. Fans can now cast their votes in 23 categories via the Blockbuster.com Web site. Backstreet Boys (favorite CD, favorite pop group) and Shania Twain (favorite single, favorite female country artist) took home two awards each last year.
Source: Wall Of Sound
To some fans, the Backstreet Boys are already superheroes. Now it appears that the Boys will don capes and tights for real — at least in the world of comic books and on the World Wide Web.
The Backstreets have teamed up with comic book mogul Stan Lee to create a Web-based franchise, which will follow the animated adventures of the Boys as superheroes.
The project will kick off Feb. 19 with comic books sold exclusively at Backstreet Boys concerts and online. The comics will send users to the project's Web site (www.backstreetproject.com), where they will be able to experience the story line using Flash animation. The episodes will begin sometime over the summer.
"We will use the comic book to introduce the superhero story to fans, so those fans not yet connected to the Internet can share in the excitement that is created by the animated Web-isodes," Stan Lee, who is creating the series with Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, says in a statement.
"I'm ecstatic to be involved with Stan Lee," says Carter. "A comic book is something I've always wanted to do and we've finally made it happen."
Fans may be wondering how the Backstreet Boys, whose album Millennium was the best seller of 1999, become superheroes. Good question. According to the Web site, the Boys rescue a "beautiful alien creature" from a crashed spaceship, and the alien tells them that the Earth is in danger of invasion and "gives each of the boys an enchanted amulet embedded with mystic crystals. When our lyrical lads wear the amulets, their DNA gets twisted by a virtual genetic cyclone that gives each of them astonishing superpowers." Like you had to ask.
Doing REALLY well in Sweden
I´m listning to 'Rix top sex' right now, it´s a swedish radio chart when the people vote, and I´m hearing BSB right now, and they are at #1! They were at #1 yesterday too! They are still at #2 at the Swedish single chart, but I think they are gonna be at #1 soon!
Source: Billboard
Billboard Bits
Edited by Jonathan Cohen / February 7, 2000, 4:00 p.m. EST
Backstreet Boys are collaborating with Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee on a series of print comics and online cartoons, according to Time magazine. The online episodes, dubbed by Lee as "webisodes," will run between three and five minutes in length. Says group member Nick Carter, "There's a lot of females in our audience, and [comics are] a really cool way to get guys involved."
Backstreet Boys' North American tour kicks off Friday (Feb. 11) in State College, Pa. and wraps March 15 in Toronto. The group's most recent Jive disc, "Millennium," which is up for a Grammy for best pop album, is No. 10 on The Billboard 200 this week.
Backstreet Boys, Stan Lee To Launch Super Hero Comic
Source: MTV
The Backstreet Boys are teaming up with legendary comic book editor/writer Stan Lee to create a new comic book and Web-based series detailing the music and super-hero adventures of the platinum-selling Orlando boy band.
Lee and the Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter will serve as co-creators of "The Backstreet Project," and a special edition comic book introducing the series will be available for sale at the group's concerts beginning on February 19 in Atlanta, Georgia.
That comic book will establish the heroic premise for the Internet animated series, which will incorporate Flash technology and is due to launch on the Web this summer. A Flash version of the initial comic book will also be made available via Stan Lee Media's site www.stanleemedia.com.
"I'm ecstatic to be involved with Stan Lee," Carter said in an announcement heralding "The Backstreet Project." "A comic book is something I've always wanted to do and we've finally made it happen."
"The Web-isode series will be derived from 'The Backstreet Project,'" added Lee in a statement. "We will use comic book to introduce the super-hero story to fans, so those fans not yet connected to the internet cam share in the excitement that is created by the animated Web-isodes."
Lee is best known as a seminal figure in the creation of some of Marvel Comics' most endearing characters, including Spider-Man and the Silver Surfer, to name just a few.
As for the Backstreet Boys, the group is scheduled to launch the next leg of its North American tour with a two-night stand on February 11-12 at Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
-- David Basham
The latest edition of the Elton fan magazine "East End Lights" reported that the song, "Someday Out of the Blue" featuring the Backstreet Boys on backing vocals - is expected to be the first single from Elton's "El Dorado" project, his next album. The song is scheduled for a mid to late January release and, like the album and the movie, will receive a mammoth promotional push.
The soundtrack is for the animated DreamWorks movie, "The Road to El Dorado," which will be coming to theaters March 31, 2000. The soundtrack will also be released at that time. It may be possible that Elton and the Boys may do some promotional appearances regarding the single/movie, but no confirmation had been made regarding appearances, as the Boys will be touring during this time.
Jessica Simpson on Backstreet
Question : Who would you like to tour with next?
Jessica Simpson : I'd like to tour with the Backstreet Boys because I love them so much, or maybe Christina Aguilera.
Question : What are your favorite CDs that are out right now?
Jessica Simpson : Brian McKnight, Backstreet Boys' Millennium and Celine Dion's Greatest Hits are my favorites.
Question : I heard that you are opening for Backstreet boys on the next part of the Millennium tour. Is this true?
Jessica Simpson : No. Not true.
SMTMOBL is doing extremly well In Sweden. It's currently number 2 in the chart over the most selling singles in Sweden And this is only their second week in the chart! They entered last week at #6 wich is really good. It´s not that common a single debutes in the top ten! SMTMOBL also climbed from #19 to #7 in the music control airplay chart. SMTMOBL kicked butt in the swedish music tvshow, "Voxpop" where there are 10 videos you get to call in and vote for, a video can only stay in this chart 3 times= 3weeks, and SMTMOBL was at #1 all 3 times in a row. The other 9 videos didn't even get close to the % of votes SMTMOBL got.
#1 on Tracks
I just listened to Tracks and Backstreet Boys was #1 with Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonley for the second week! Way to go, boys!
Backstreet Boys "Show Me...." + 2 new songs !!
Source: Onlinepop
The Backstreet Boys new single "Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely" (from the Millennium album) is issued in the UK on Feb 21st.
The song is back with 2 new songs - "I'll Be There For You" and "You Wrote The Book Of Love". All three songs are ballads. The video for "Show Me...." is very moving, and shows some of the loss' in the boys' lives. Kevin is seen against a backdrop of home video footage of his father / there's a tribute to Howie's sister, who died last year / and even erstwhile BSB producer Denniz Pop gets mentioned (he died in 1998)
The BSB's next album, provisionally entitled "Jive" will be issued in the UK in the autumn. OnLinePop had exclusive audio preview of three tracks from the band's Millennium album (weeks before release) and hopes for a similar exclusive this time.
Source: Aftonbladet
Translation by Katarina ::Editor of Larger Than Life: Backstreet Boys::
Their latest album is dedicated to Denniz Pop.
Now the Backstreet Boys have done a tribute-video to the memory of the legendary producer.
That Backstreet Boys have Denniz to thank for their succes they are more than willing to admit. But he was more than a friend at work for the boys in BSB. He was a also a close friend on the side of all the hard work.
| A.J. on the bus that it says Denniz St. on, note that the bus driver looks a little bit like Denniz. |
Climbing on the singlechart
- Denniz was an amazing person. So charming. I hope that he is up there in heaven following us, said Nick Carter to Aftonbladet in May.
The groups grief is what their latest single
'Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonley' is about, who today is climbing to the single chart's second place.
In the video for this song is Denniz importance to the boys more clear. A street have been named after him and the bus that they are in goes to just 'Denniz Street'.
Past away in cancer
Other parts of the video is in a hospital who also can leads the thoughts to Denniz Pop, who so tragic past away in cancer in August 1998.
Howie Doroughs sister also past away that year. BSB themselves have named 1998 to the year of hell.
- Millennium is abot loose someone you love and care about, said Kevin in Aftonbladet a few months ago.
In the CD book for the album the teenage idols have also said: 'Denniz will live on through our music and will forever be in our hearts. Denniz, we will miss you.'
Backstreet Boys; TO LOUD!
When Backstreet Boys were here and Sweden and played at Scandinavium in Gothenburg they played to loud!
BSB, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Cher, Alanis Morisette and Kiss were the five groups who had to loud sounds on their concerts.
Well, everyone who is on a BSB concert maybe actually wanna go and here the music and not girls screaming! That´s why they have to have their great music so loud, because other whise you just hear screaming and that is NOT great ((=
Source: Infobeat
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Following up on recent briefs, Ricky Martin, Santana, TLC and Backstreet Boys will perform live at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards, to be broadcast Feb. 23 on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Elton John, who will also perform on the broadcast, will receive the Grammy Legend Award in honor of his career in the music industry. Santana earned 10 Grammy nominations, including record of the year and album of the year, for his Arista set "Supernatural." TLC earned six nominations, Backstreet Boys garnered four and Ricky Martin chalked up three. Beginning Feb. 18, the Grammy official Web site at www.grammy.com will begin Webcasting artist chats, rehearsals and backstage reports.
Source: Sonicnet
The readers have voted. And what they have voted for, in a big way, are the Backstreet Boys.
Do I hear a sigh, a sad sigh?
Hey, what the readers want, the readers get. So not only did the Backstreet Boys win in seven categories, including "Artist of the Year," but Christina Aguilera won "New Artist of the Year."
Meanwhile, some artists with, shall we say, a tad more cred are also winners: Fatboy Slim, Eminem, the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the legendary Dr. Dre.
Our poll, as usual, has a few light moments. Britney Spears not only landed in first place for "Lamest Artist of the Year," she also won for "Most Overrated Album of the Year."
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.
Anyway, we're sure you'll have loads of fun checking out all of the results.
Go for it.
Our Boys won;
Artist of the year — Backstreet Boys
In a year of "year of's" (Latin pop, teen stars, etc.), the Boys swept all before them with their 11 million-selling Millennium. But the real vitality of the scene came from its artistic breadth and range. Thus, our runners-up couldn't be more different, from the rap-metal antics of Limp Bizkit to the industrial angst of NIN.
Album of the year — Backstreet Boys "Millennium"
Cynics could see this as a victory of bucks over brains, and they could be right. But the Boys' sleek pop kicked hips (and teen hearts) into gear; just as NIN's intense, complex rock and Rage's iconoclastic rants and thrashings set minds — and consciences — in motion.
Video of the year — Backstreet Boys "Larger Than Life"
The Backstreet Boys cavort in space while dodging the slings and arrows of intergalactic playa haters. Shiny suits that look like they could have been rejected by TLC for their latest video and an opening battleship shot that bites the intro to "Star Wars." I kept waiting for 'N Sync to swoop by and knock them off those slick space skateboards.
Tour of the year — Backstreet Boys
The Backstreet Boys win the poll; but other voters — casting their ballots with ticket bucks in 1999 — preferred the hoary likes of the Stones and the Boss. Family Values seemed more popular than family values in the culture at-large; and that Little Ol' Band From Athens Who Could ... did.
Song of the year — Backstreet Boys "I Want It That Way"
In fact, the Backstreet Boys had it their way all year, so this win is perhaps no surprise. But Santana's "Smooth" — with the help of Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas — was arguably smoother. And Limp Bizkit's "Nookie" had to be, hands down, the most memorable song title of the year.
Artist Website of the year — Backstreet Boys
With its romantic pastel color scheme and Millennium TV episodes that feature "exclusive and personal scenes" with the Boys, this site is a fan's dream come true. Sample teaser: "Howie TV! Sweet-D talks about the new video, acting and his sister. Some incredible dance moves too!" Also worth checking out are the Boys' bios, full of fun and occasionally startling factoids. For instance: did you know that Kevin spent eight years of his life living in a log cabin? Well he did!
Live Band or Artist of the year — Backstreet Boys
The slick and the shiny meet the dark and the ranting. It's a stretch from the preening Boys to Metallica's rock-heavy flirtations with symphony orchestras and Rage's outrageous onstage rages. But the pop scene of 1999 somehow encompassed all of that and more.
Sourece: CD Now All Star News
All the usual suspects are lining up to perform on the 42nd annual Grammy Awards telecast on Feb. 23 in L.A. The Backstreet Boys and Ricky Martin are the latest superstars to join the previously-reported Santana, Elton John, and TLC (allstar, Jan. 27) from last week.
The Backstreet Boys are up for four awards, including Album of the Year for Millennium, while Martin earned three nominations, including Song of the Year for "Livin' La Vida Loca." Expect more announcements about performers and presenters in the coming weeks.
-- Carrie Borzillo
Santana, Backstreets, TLC, Martin to Perform at Grammys
Source: Wall Of Sound
The first performers for this year's Grammy ceremony have been announced, and Santana, who leads the pack with 10 nominations, is among them. Santana, whose Supernatural was named Favorite Album at the American Music Awards in January, has been tapped for Album and Record of the Year. Aside from the 10 nods for Santana, Supernatural's hit single, "Smooth," earned a Song of the Year nomination for songwriters Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20.
The Backstreet Boys, whose Millennium, nominated for four awards, was the best-selling album of 1999, will also be taking the stage at Los Angeles' Staples Center Feb. 23. TLC's Fan Mail was given six nominations, and the group will also perform, along with Ricky Martin, who earned three nominations.
Rosie O'Donnell will host the ceremony for the second straight year. CBS will broadcast the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards live for East Coast viewers, while West Coast residents will see a tape-delayed version.
GRAMMYs Announce First Wave Of Telecast Performers
Tuesday, February 1
Source: Grammy.com
As the excitement continues to build toward the 42nd Annual GRAMMY Awards, the Recording Academy has announced that Santana, Backstreet Boys, TLC and Ricky Martin will appear on the show airing February 23 on the CBS television network. The four join Elton John, who, as previously announced, will perform in conjunction with receiving the GRAMMY Legend Award. These artists are only the first wave of reported performers. More will be announced in the coming days The newly-announced GRAMMY performers are among the hottest acts of the year. Santana continues to reign at No.1 with his album Supernatural. He's the top nominee this year, having earned 10 nods. Backstreet Boys, TLC and Ricky Martin are all multi-nominees as well. Martin brought down the house at last year's telecast with a riveting performance that springboarded him to fame and helped launch a wave of Latin crossover successes. Backstreet Boys have been the most popular young vocal group of the year and TLC mounted a noteworthy comeback with Fanmail after some downtime since their last album.
"The telecast is shaping up to be a terrific showcase of the year's music," said Academy President/CEO Michael Greene. "These performers speak to the many musical points of view recognized by Academy voters during the nominations, and are providing the foundation on which to build an exciting show."
The GRAMMYs generally feature eight to 12 musical performances, and the remaining slots will be filled over the next two to three weeks.
#1 in Canada
The Backstreet Boys went from #2 to #1 on the Canada single chart 'The Hits Chart' with 'Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonley this week.
