 Popular male group the Backstreet Boys will be holding a concert at the Melon-AX Hall, eastern Seoul. / Courtesy of Nine Factory |
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
The Backstreet Boys, one of the most enduring boy bands in pop music, will be coming back to Seoul in February.
The American group will be performing at the Melon-AX Hall, Feb. 24, as part of their ``This Is Us Tour'' to promote their latest album. This will be the Boys' third concert in Seoul, after shows in 2006 and 2008.
Originally five members, Backstreet Boys are now just composed of Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, A.J. McLean and Howie Dorough. Kevin Richardson left the group in 2006.
The Boys have sold over 130 million records throughout their 16-year career, and have had14 Top 40 hits on the Billboard charts.
The group, formed by producer Lou Perlman in Orlando, Florida, made their debut in 1993. With their cute image, good vocals and slick dance moves, the Backstreet Boys first attracted fans in Europe and Asia.
It was only in 1997 when they released their second album that American fans started noticing them.
They racked up hit songs like ``Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart),'' ``I'll Never Break Your Heart,'' ``Everybody (Backstreet's Back)'' and ``As Long As You Love Me.'' The Boys were nominated Best New Artist at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
Their album ``Millennium'' proved to be both commercially and critically successful. It became the fastest selling album of the year, with 1.13 million sold in its first week of release. At the 2000 Grammy Awards, ``Millennium'' was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Album, while ``I Want it That Way'' was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group. Other hit songs from the album include ``Larger than Life,'' ``Show Me The Meaning Of Being Lonely'' and ``The One.''
In 2000, the Backstreet Boys released ``Black & Blue,'' and promoted it by traveling around the world in 100 hours making stops in Sweden, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Brazil and the U.S.
After a three-year hiatus, the group released ``Never Gone,'' which featured hits ``Incomplete'' and ``Just Want You to Know.
In 2006, Richardson announced he was leaving the group to start a family. Instead of disbanding, the four remaining members decided to continue recording and performing.
The four-member Backstreet Boys have since released two albums, ``Unbreakable,'' and the latest, ``This is Us.'' Their 7th album represents a return to the electronic pop dance music that made them famous in the 90s. They worked with Lady Gaga's producer RedOne on ``Straight Through My Heart" and ``All of Your Life (You Need Love)," hip-hop star T-Pain on ``She's a Dream" and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder on ``Undone.''
The Boys will kick off the Asian leg of their ``This is Us'' tour in Japan, Feb. 5 with concerts in Tokyo, Kobe and Nagoya. After Seoul, they head to Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
The Seoul concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are 110,000 won for both standing and R seats. Visit ticket.interpark.com (1544-1555) or call organizer Nine Factory (02) 3443-9969. To get to Melon-AX Hall, get off Gwangnaru Station Line 5, Exit 2.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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