Backstreet's Back to Stage

BSB (Backstreet Boys) fans get ready!

After three years away from the music scene, Backstreet's back. They will visit China and play at Beijing's Olympic Centre on September24, the first stop on their new world tour. At the same time, their new album will hit shelves around the globe.

Five boys Brian, Kevin, Nick, Howie and AJ founded the "boy" band in 1993 in Orlando, Florida, and it is second only to New Kids on the Block in popularity. Composed entirely of white, middle-class Americans, the group sang a hybrid of new-jack balladry, hip-hop R&B and dance-club pop that originally found its greatest success in Canada and Europe, with their 1996 debut album charting in the Top 10 in nearly every country on the continent, while success in their native land did not follow until nearly two years later.

From 1996 to 2001, the boys released five albums ("Backstreet Boys," "Backstreet's Back," "Millennium," "Black and Blue" and "The Hits-Chapter One") and gained industry-wowing sales of 68 million.

The group was silent in 2001-04, but the rumour that they broke up was cleared. Kevin said that was never considered.

''We were very burned out,'' he said. ''We weren't enjoying it. We needed time to get perspective, to be thankful, to be grateful. But once Brian called last year, and he said he talked to the other boys and they're ready, that's when we hooked up and went on Oprah (Winfrey's show). We were all hungry again.''

The boys will put out their first album in three years. That album will be more diverse, with more rock and more hip-hop and urban sounds than on albums past. AJ, Brian and Kevin said the new album would be far more eclectic than the straight pop diet they've been feeding their mostly teen fans since hitting the scene in 1996. In effect, from the very first day the group was founded, they have been trying wider musical diversities so as not to be not only an idol group. Though the musical direction has shifted with the times, you can definitely expect to hear a classic BSB album with great vocals and great choruses.

Their manager said, "They're all working extremely hard and the result has been an incredible album."

Their new world tour aims to get the fans back in the groove, and to promote their new album. They realize they still have a solid, rabid fan base, but it's almost like a new beginning for them so they have to build their way up again.

Time: September 24, 2004

Venue: Olympic Centre

Admission: 200, 500, 800, 1,200 yuan

Tel: +86 10 8447 7308/9