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| Birth Name(s) : AJ MacLean, Nick Carter, Howie D, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell |
Date of Birth: 1997 |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
N/A |
| Profession:
Musician |
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Full Backstreet Boys Biography
| Formed in Orlando, Florida in the mid-90s and managed by the former New Kids on the Block tour manager, pop music has never seen a quintet quite like this. Chart-topping singles in Germany and mainland Europe quickly exploded as the band achieved North American exposure. Their popularity shows no signs of slowing down with "Millenium" selling over two million copies in a mere three weeks. |
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Additional Backstreet Boys Biography
After a possible Mercury Records deal failed, the band was spotted in Cleveland, Ohio by an executive from Jive Records in February 1994. By June, they were recording their first single; an urban pop song written and produced by Denniz PoP and Max Martin called "We've Got It Goin' On." The single struggled in the US and reached only #69 on the Billboard charts; but it sold well in Europe, later earning the band their first Gold record in Germany. In the summer of 1996, the band's first self-titled album was released in Europe and Canada, going gold within weeks in Europe. Jive and Pearlman kept the band busy overseas for the next two years, sometimes putting on tours for five straight months.
In 1998, Littrell underwent open heart surgery in the middle of their sold-out US 39-city tour, at the insistence of his then girlfriend (and now wife) Leighanne Wallace; he had twice postponed the surgery in the past. He had been struggling with a heart murmur since he was born, almost dying at the age of 4 due to a bacterial infection. Littrell needed about 8 weeks to recover from the surgery. Shortly after, the Backstreet Boys cancelled an appearance in Minnesota after learning that Howie Dorough's sister had died of lupus. In October 1998, the band received the keys to the city from the mayor of Orlando in honor of the tornado relief concert the group headlined in March.
On February 17, 1999, the Boys received their first Diamond award from the RIAA for shipment of 10 million copies of their self-titled album. At that time, they had hired a new manager team called "The Firm", famous for managing bands including Limp Bizkit and Korn. Along with their new management team, the Backstreet Boys sued Pearlman several more times, until he renegotiated the settlement on terms more favorable to the band. Executives of the Firm stated that the Backstreet Boys had bought out Pearlman's stake in the band, but he denied this.
On May 18, 1999, the Backstreet Boys released the album Millennium, which sold over 1.13 million units in its first week, setting, at the time, a record for first week sales, until April 2000, when 'N Sync's second album, No Strings Attached sold 2.4 million units in its first week. The album also recorded the most sales for an album's second and third weeks. Rolling Stone reports that sales might have been bigger if some stores had not run out of CDs. The album dominated the worldwide charts, landing at the #1 spot in 25 nations. It was certified 11 times platinum on December 22, 1999, and went on to sell 40 million copies worldwide. The first single "I Want It That Way" was a significant hit, reaching the #1 spot in over 18 countries. In addition to receiving gold and platinum awards in 45 countries, the band's second album was nominated for 5 Grammy Award's including Album of the Year. In August, the Backstreet Boys sold out a 39-city tour in less than a day, selling over 765,000 tickets in a matter of hours, prompting additional shows in many markets and shattering a number of box-office records selling out all 53 concert dates of their Into The Millennium Tour which kicked off in September. The tour drew over 2 million fans, breaking the record for largest indoor audience.
Impressed by the success of the Backstreet Boys, Sony BMG, which already owned 20 percent of Jive's parent company, purchased a remainder for $3 billion, the most ever paid for an independent record company. In the meantime, The Firm negotiated tens of millions of dollars in advance payments for recordings and performances from Jive and the concert promoter Clear Channel. Also by the end of 1999, the Backstreet Boys faced new problems declaring their current Jive contract null and void, soon striking one of the largest record deals ever valued at $60 million with Jive.
In 2001, the Backstreet Boys kicked off the 1st leg of their "2001 Black & Blue World Tour", in which they were to perform on five continents within the span of 100 hours. The tour also had extremely expensive production costs. The tour was featured on a CBS TV special, The Backstreet Boys: Larger Than Life. To coincide with the special, TV Guide issued six different covers of the boys: five individual shots and one group photo.
In 2002, the band expressed a strong desire to leave their management company, The Firm. Carter chose to remain with The Firm to manage his solo career. It became apparent that this was reason for their lack of resistance to the Backstreet Boys moving on and this unexpected move forced the band to take a break. Starved for a blockbuster album release, Jive, according to industry observers, had no choice but to bank on releasing Carter's solo album by the end of the year, ahead of the next Backstreet Boys' album, which was due in early 2003.
In 2002, Nick Carter's solo album Now or Never was released. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold.
The Backstreet Boys have set an October 30th release for their new album Unbreakable (title confirmed by Brian and AJ during an interview at 104.5 on August 13th). The group's follow-up to 2005's Never Gone is the first effort since the departure of longtime member Kevin Richardson last summer. |
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