Backstreet Boys

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

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

 
Formation and early years: 1992–1995

Cousins Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell, both of whom came from Lexington, KY, initially began singing in local church choirs and festivals while they were children. Howie Dorough and A.J. McLean were natives of Orlando, FL, who met each other and later discovered Nick Carter through auditions who joined the two for local commercials, theater, and television. In the course of all this, Lou Pearlman, in early 1992 had placed an add in Orlando Sentinel announcing auditions to compose a boy band. A.J., who was the first to audition for Pearlman in his living room, became the group's first member. the former of whom had previously worked with New Kids on the Block. The Wrights organized performances for the group and invited several A&R representatives to the shows, which resulted in having a contract with Jive Records in March 1994.
European popularity grew and the Backstreet Boys kicked off 1996 being voted the No. 1 international group by TV viewers in Germany, in the meantime, "I'll Never Break Your Heart" reached a Gold status there for selling 250,000 units. The group earned their first platinum record in Germany in 1996 for selling 500,000 units of their debut album Backstreet Boys during which time they began touring Asia and Canada.

The Backstreet Boys began recording their second album Backstreet's Back in January 1997. They also recorded the song, "If You Stay", for the Booty Call soundtrack in January 1997. They released "Anywhere For You" as the last single off their international album on February 17, 1997. The single "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" released on June 10, 1997 for their upcoming U.S. debut album managed to climb as high as No. 2 on Billboard Hot 100 eventually earning them a platinum-award for selling over one million units. While the album Backstreet's Back was released internationally (with an exception of the US market) in August 1997, their self-titled U.S. debut, which consisted of songs from Backstreet's Back and the previous self-titled international version of Backstreet Boys, was released in U.S. on August 12, 1997.

The U.S. self-titled debut peaked at No. 4 on the U.S. album chart, which eventually sold 14 million copies at their home. selling well over five million units in Europe alone. The two self-titled albums, the international version and the U.S. version of Backstreet Boys sold more than 28 million copies worldwide, 14 million of which were sold in U.S.

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

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


Further commercial success: 1999-2001

While in the middle of a lawsuit, they began recording the follow-up to their 1997 releases at the beginning of October 1998. All versions of Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time album released prior to May 18, 1999 featured previews of tracks from their upcoming album Millennium. The worldwide hit single "I Want It That Way" which topped the single-charts in many countries including US, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, New Zealand, made anticipation for Millennium high. Millennium was released on May 18, 1999, on which day the Backstreet Boys made a heavily publicized appearance on MTV's Total Request Live Millennium . The album entered the Billboard 200 at No.1, and managed to sell 1,134,000 copies in its first week of release. Four singles were released from Millennium: "I Want It That Way", "Larger than Life ^{Larger than Life (song)} ", "Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely", and "The One".

Millennium became the best-selling album of 1999 in the U.S., selling 9,445,732 albums. It also holds the record for most shipments in one year, with 11 million shipment. Millennium remained on the Billboard chart for 93 weeks, eventually selling over 12 million copies in the United States and being certified 13 times platinum. As of the end of December 2008, the album stands as the fourth best selling album in the US of the SoundScan era.

A trip to the Bahamas was made by the group members in May 2000 to write songs for their album.
They began recording their next album on July 1, 2000 in Stockholm Sweden, which wrapped recording in the September. A song from the July recording sessions, "It's True", was released on August 28, 2000 to a compilation sold by Burger King. They released the album's first single, "Shape of My Heart", to radio on October 3, 2000. The Backstreet Boys released their next studio album Black & Blue on November 21, 2000, and to promote the release of the album, the boys traveled around the world in 100 hours to Sweden, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and the US; 55 of the hours were spent traveling and 45 were spent making public appearances. It recorded the best international sales in a week for album in history by selling over 5 million copies in its first week of sales. In the United States, it sold 1.6 million discs in the first week making them the first artist since The Beatles to achieve back-to-back million plus first week sales. Despite the initial excellent sales, Black and Blue never matched up to the hype that their first two albums made. The first single off the album was "Shape of My Heart," followed by "The Call" and "More Than That." In the first week of release, Black & Blue's first single "Shape of My Heart" was played on 170 out of 171 of the Top 40 stations in the U.S. and eventually peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. In late February 2001, the album's second single The Call ^{The Call (song)} made it into the Top-10 in the UK and the third single "More than That" made it into the Top-20.

In January 2001, the Backstreet Boys kicked off the first leg of their "The Black & Blue Tour", in which they were to perform on five continents. The tour also had extremely expensive production costs. The second leg of "The Black & Blue Tour" was put on hold when it was reported that A.J. McLean had checked himself into rehab to battle alcoholism, cocaine addiction and depression after Richardson had held an intervention for him at a Boston hotel. Three sold-out shows for Air Canada Centre were postponed until September. On January 28, 2001,
The Hits: Chapter One, released on October 30, 2001 was a collection of the Backstreet Boys's classic hits and a previously unreleased song, "Drowning".

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

In 2002, the band expressed a strong desire to leave their management company, The Firm. Nick Carter chose to remain with The Firm to manage his solo career. It became apparent that this was reason for their lack of resistance to the Backstreet Boys moving on and this unexpected move forced the band to take a break. Jive, according to industry observers, had no choice but to bank on releasing Carter's solo album by the end of the year, ahead of the next Backstreet Boys' album, which was due in early 2003.

The relationship with Jive ^{Jive Records} worsened when the Backstreet Boys filed a $75–100 million lawsuit against Zomba Music Group (Jive's parent company) claiming breach of contract. The group stated the label promoted Nick Carter's solo album Now or Never at the expense of the group who wanted to promote their fourth album. According to the suit, in November 1999, the Backstreet Boys revised their 1994 contract and committed to releasing two further albums for Zomba. In exchange for delivering them on time as part of a predetermined schedule, the group would receive multiple non-returnable payments that would serve as advances against future royalties.

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

The Backstreet Boys entered the studios in January 2004 to start writing the new album and mentioned they had recorded four songs for the album in February. They also started performing together to promote their return to the music scene. In September they kicked-off a small Asian tour, visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Manila. Based on the success of this tour, they announced a Mexican tour, visiting Mexico City and Monterrey and performing all new material.

After a three-year hiatus, their single, "Incomplete ^{Incomplete (Backstreet Boys song)} ", was released to radio stations on March 28, 2005. The album is named after a song on the album which mourns the loss of Kevin Richardson's father. The drastic style change drew negative criticism from magazines such as Rolling Stone, which gave the album one star.3 on the U.S. chart with first week sales of 291,000 copies, and #1 debuts in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Germany, India, Chile, Brazil and South Korea. The Backstreet Boys began the first leg of their The Never Gone Tour in July in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was their first Australian tour. Never Gone was certified platinum ^{Platinum album} in the US and four singles were released from the album. Their first single was "Incomplete", the second single was "Just Want You to Know", and the third singles were "Crawling Back to You" for the US and "I Still..." internationally. Never Gone has sold approximately 10 million copies worldwide.
Backstreet Boys' second single "Just Want You to Know" hit the top 10 in the UK, but was not as successful in the United States. It was one of the group's weakest performing U.S. singles, only peaking at #70 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart ^{Billboard Hot 100} . The third international single "I Still..." debuted at #1 on the Japan International Singles Chart. The third US ^{United States of America} single, "Crawling Back to You" peaked at #15 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts ^{Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks} .

In June 2006, Richardson left the Backstreet Boys to pursue other interests, issuing a statement on band's website on June 23, 2006. While Richardson didn't specify what exactly his next steps in life will be, he stated:

{{cquote|After 13 years of what can only be described as a dream come true, I have decided that it is time to leave the Backstreet Boys. It was a very tough decision for me but one that was necessary in order to move on with the next chapter of my life.


As a four-piece: 2007–present

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

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

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

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

It was announced on the official website that Sony would be releasing a second Backstreet Boys greatest hits album on January 26, 2010. The compilation is titled Playlist: The Very Best of the Backstreet Boys and is part of a series of similar Playlist albums issued by Sony Legacy.Main articles:
*Nick Carter ^{Nick Carter (musician)}

*Brian Littrell ^{Brian Littrell}

*A.J. Mclean ^{A.J. Mclean}

*Kevin Richardson ^{Kevin Richardson (musician)}

*Howie Dorough ^{Howie Dorough} * Backstreet Boys ^{Backstreet Boys (International)} (1996)
* Backstreet's Back (1997)
* Millennium ^{Millennium (Backstreet Boys album)} (1999)
* Black & Blue (2000)
* Never Gone (2005)
* Unbreakable ^{Unbreakable (Backstreet Boys album)} (2007)
* This Is Us ^{This Is Us (Backstreet Boys album)} (2009)* We Wanna Be With You Tour (1995–1996)
* Backstreet Boys - Live In Concert Tour - (1996–1997)
* Backstreet's Back Tour (1997–1998)
* Into the Millennium Tour (1999–2000)
* The Black & Blue Tour (2000–2001)
* Up Close & Personal Tour (March/April 2005)
* The Never Gone Tour (2005–2006)
* Unbreakable Tour (2008–2009)
* This Is Us Tour (2009– Spring 2010)