BACKSTREET BOYS TO TOUR THE WORLD IN SUPPORT OF THEIR NEWLY RELEASED ‘BLACK & BLUE’ ALBUM

DATE: NOVEMBER 21, 2000

FROM: MARCEE RONDAN/MITCH SCHNEIDER/TODD BRODGINSKI

BACKSTREET BOYS TO TOUR THE WORLD IN SUPPORT OF THEIR NEWLY RELEASED 'BLACK & BLUE' ALBUM

Produced and promoted by SFX, the massive trek will kick off January 22 in Fort Lauderdale and will take BACKSTREET BOYS–NICK CARTER, HOWIE DOROUGH, BRIAN LITTRELL, AJ McLEAN and KEVIN RICHARDSON–into 23 U.S. cities (see list below). After the initial run, the group will head to South America (April) and Europe (June), returning to North America for a string of stadium shows in summer 2001 and finally concluding with shows in the Pacific Rim, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The "Black & Blue World Tour" follows last year's mega-successful "Into The Millennium Tour." BACKSTREET BOYS made history when all 765,000 tickets for their 11-week, 39-city 1999-2000 North American arena tour sold out as soon as they went on sale Saturday, August 14, 1999–the vast majority within an hour. This triumphant U.S. trek was followed by an equally spectacular second U.S. leg and also encompassed 42 sold-out European shows.

BLACK & BLUE is the follow-up to BACKSTREET BOYS' 1999 MILLENNIUM album, which is already certified twelve times platinum in the U.S. and remains on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart more than 78 weeks after its release. In addition to receiving gold and platinum awards in 45 countries, MILLENNIUM was honored with five 1999 Grammy nominations including Album of the Year.

SFX, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, is the world's largest promoter, producer and presenter of live entertainment events. In addition, SFX owns, operates and/or exclusively books 130 live entertainment venues in the U.S., including 44 amphitheaters.

"We are extremely excited to bring the Backstreet Boys to the world in what is sure to be one of the most successful tours of 2001," said Arthur Fogel, President of Touring, Music, SFX. "SFX will utilize all of its available worldwide resources to ensure fans everywhere have the most memorable concert experience of their lives."

The preliminary tour cities are as follows, with venues and dates to be released Monday, November 27th at 5:00 PM EST.

Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Charlotte, NC
Atlanta, GA
Philadelphia, PA
Washington D.C.
East Rutherford, NJ
Uniondale, NY
Toronto, ONT
Pittsburgh, PA
Chicago, IL
Pontiac, MI
Minneapolis, MN
Grand Forks, ND
Denver, CO
Vancouver, BC
Tacoma, WA
Portland, OR
Oakland, CA
Sacramento, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Phoenix, AZ
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA