Latest news with #Millennium2.0
Travel Weekly
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Travel Weekly
Backstreet Boys headlining Sphere in Las Vegas this summer
The Backstreet Boys will perform their greatest hits as well as tracks from their "Millennium" album at Sphere in Las Vegas this summer. The 21 shows, set for July 11 to Aug. 24, mark the first performances by a pop music act at Sphere. The group, with more than 130 million in worldwide sales since their debut, is releasing "Millennium 2.0" on July 11 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its chart-topping, Grammy-nominated album. Live Nation is producing the shows, and Vibee is the official concert & VIP hotel experience package partner for the performances. Packages include a choice of general admission floor or reserved seating; a two-night stay at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas or Virgin Hotels Las Vegas; access to the Backstreet Boys Experience pop-up; and a collectible laminate and lanyard. The VIP edition of the packages provides perks such as premium reserved seating, priority entry and luxury motorcoach transportation to and from the airport. For the list of performance dates, showtimes and tickets, go to
Express Tribune
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Backstreet's back
Deep in the heart of every late 30s/early 40s-something woman is a secret she would be loath to admit. And no, it is not that we hide bodies in the back garden. (Not everyone can afford a garden.) Our secret, in fact, is this: once upon a time, circa late '90s, our hearts were in the sole care of that specimen of human male collectively identifying as the Backstreet Boys. And now in 2025, come July, the BSB are seeking to capitalise on some of the embers of the passion that once burned so brightly. Think the film industry lacks imagination when it inflicts upon you sequel after sequel? The BSB are going to do you one better by releasing a digitally remastered version of their Millennium album titled – you are going to want to sit down for this – Millennium 2.0. Please do not be alarmed if you despise change in your advanced age, because there is absolutely nothing new on offer in this digitally remastered situation other than the number 2. In the trusty words of People, the only new thing you will have to tolerate on Millennium 2.0 will be six unheard demos and six live recordings from the BSB Millennium tour. Every existing track that you once knew and loved – and still know the words to despite having not heard it in 20 years – will be digitally remastered. That is it. Boyband mission statement Like their boyband brethren, the BSB existed to teach us all about love. We had the baby of the group Nick Carter, who joined the band at 16 and had the most fabulous middle parting in his blond hair. Nick walked so Jack Dawson (of Titanic fame) could run. Then there was Brian Littrell, the avowed best friend of Nick, cousin of fellow bandmate Kevin Richardson, and the man who usually opened most of BSB tracks. Brian's favourite colour was blue. We former BSB fans may not remember to pick up milk when we do the groceries, but you will be pleased to note that we have retained this information for the day Earth gets overtaken by alien overlords and the only condition of release is to answer to their chief whether Brian prefers blue or yellow. AJ McLean was the obligatory whacky tattooed figure, and together with Nick and Brian, got the meatiest part of the songs (or at least as meaty as it could be after being split three ways.) Kevin, Brian's cousin, existed to stare moodily in the background and occasionally astonished us all with his lovely baritone. The final member of this crew was Howie Dorough, who, like Kevin, melted away in the background, but did inform us during the liner notes of the first Backstreet Boys album that his favourite book was John Grisham's The Firm, an admission that sparked a love affair with courtroom dramas with at least one bookish BSB fan. Speaking of liner notes, along with churning out ballads and looking pretty, our lovelorn hotshots also relied heavily on those little cassette booklets to lure fans into swearing allegiance to them. These liner notes were almost as important as whatever was actually on the album. In minuscule writing that would have you squinting today, these informative booklets would detail the lyrics of every track, include an array of photos of moody poses, and thoughtfully give us thank you letters from each band member that fans would pore over as if they were WW2 mathematicians and it was the enigma code. What a beautiful, simple time to be alive! Looking back at 'Millennium' Back in 1999, BSB fans, forever congratulating themselves on picking the right side of the Backstreet Boys-'N Sync battle were beside with joy with the third BSB album, Millennium, which included not just I Want It That Way, but an ego-affirming song dedicated to the fans (Larger Than Life), another dedicated to Brian's mother (The Perfect Fan) and one thoughtful contemplation on the subject of loneliness (Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely). As a bonus, this last song contained the word 'crimson', which is not a feat any other boyband can boast of. Now that we are older and wiser, we sigh in despair at the numerous offerings of the K-pop industry, but back in 1999, we could have written a dissertation on why Millennium was the most important album ever produced, with a large section on why its biggest single, I Want It That Way was the most genius musical composition to have ever graced the earth. It wouldn't have been a very good dissertation, mind you, because most available brain cells were engaged in swooning over the album cover. To ensure maximum swoon-ability, our heroes out-dazzle the sun in blinding white outfits and shoes of the type favoured by detergent commercials. Standing against a blue backdrop, they stare soulfully at an indeterminate spot, lost in the type of philosophical contemplation not seen since the likes of Aristotle. Perhaps they are contemplating the meaning of life, or more likely, the meaning behind I Want It That Way, which relies almost exclusively on a meaningless variation of the words 'fire', ' desire' and 'I want it that way'. Just what it is that they desire and why they are so fixated on wanting it that way is a mystery that no one has ever successfully cracked, but such is the power of this hit track that, as Brooklyn Nine Nine reminded us, it can even ferret out murderers in a prisoner line-up. It is fitting, then, that to promote the new-but-not-really-new Millennium 2.0, our heroes of the days of yore performed their biggest hit during the recent SNL 50th anniversary show. We are not the only ones who have grown up. They have, too. For a start, they are all fathers now. Brian suffers from a medical condition causing him difficulty singing, not that that stops him from trying. Those who do not know will be shocked at his opening verse in the recent SNL performance, but with Nick – no longer the designated baby – swooping in to pick up his second verse and saving his friend, balance is restored. Is there any point in Millennium 2.0? Heavens no. But since we are getting it anyway, we may as well submit to nostalgia, revisit simpler times (digitally remastered though they may be) and try, once again, to solve the unfathomable riddle of I Want It That Way.
USA Today
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Backstreet Boys talk Las Vegas Sphere residency, becoming the 'Rolling Stones of pop'
Backstreet Boys talk Las Vegas Sphere residency, becoming the 'Rolling Stones of pop' Show Caption Hide Caption This Backstreet Boy already lives in Las Vegas ahead of Sphere shows The Backstreet Boys chat with USA TODAY's Ralphie Aversa about relocating to Las Vegas for the band's residency at the Sphere. NEW YORK – The Backstreet Boys are taking on a new challenge: Be the first pop group to headline the Sphere, a state-of-the-art venue in Las Vegas that has already hosted U2, Phish, Dead & Company and the Eagles. Features of the building include a 160,000-square-foot wraparound LED screens and more than 160,000 speakers. "Hopefully we sound like angels," Brian Littrell, 49, jokes to USA TODAY during a press junket in midtown Manhattan for the group's upcoming Vegas residency, which kicks off July 11 and runs through August. "Millennium 2.0," a rerelease of the Backstreet Boys career-defining 1999 album, will release in tandem with the start of the shows. "(There's) not a bad seat in the house," AJ McLean, 47, adds. "Everybody will hear it sonically the same, no matter where you're sitting in the venue, which is incredible." USA TODAY's music reporter Melissa Ruggieri has attended multiple Sphere concerts, saying it "turns the mundane into magical." When you reflect on the Backstreet Boys discography, specifically their 26-year-old third album, nothing exactly stands out as mundane. Preparing a new 'Millennium' setlist The Backstreet Boys residency, "Into the Millennium" and the "Millennium" rerelease are a call back an album that spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It spawned hits "Larger Than Life," "I Want it That Way," and "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely." But professional and personal challenges preceded the LP's success: In 1998, the Backstreet Boys left their management group and were entangled in a lawsuit with businessman Lou Pearlman over the amount of money earned for their first two albums. Meanwhile, two different bandmates dealt with deaths in the family and Littrell underwent open heart surgery. In a 1999 Rolling Stone profile of the group, Kevin Richardson called the previous year, "the hardest of my life.' Looking back 26 years later, the band is excited to revisit "Millennium." "We were starting to get our rhythm with the music that we were writing and creating along with our producers at the time," says Nick Carter, 45, of the lead-up to the album's release. "It was the pinnacle for the Backstreet Boys and the music that we recorded. It was a good time." The last Backstreet Boys trek, the "DNA World Tour," featured seven of the original 12 songs from "Millennium." For the Sphere residency, the album will be performed in its entirety along with what McLean describes as "personal favorites and the greatest hits." "I'm excited to perform a song that I wrote called 'Back To Your Heart,'" Richardson, 53, reveals. "I wrote that for my now wife, but when I wrote that song, we were broken up and that helped me win her back." Taking up a literal Las Vegas residence Carter has the easiest commute for the Sphere residency. The singer relocated from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2017 for the group's first Vegas residency. Of the three children he shares with wife Lauren Kitt, two of them were born in Las Vegas. "I was thinking, '(The Sphere residency) is going to be really great because I get an opportunity to still take my kids to school or take my son to baseball,'" Carter says, before joking about the downside. "Now I'm realizing there's gonna be a little more work because my wife's not going to let me out (of my household responsibilities)." Howie Dorough, 51, adds: "The fact that we're doing (the residency) the summer makes it a little bit easier because we're able to enjoy this time with our families which is really important. Our kids are growing up, so to have those moments where we can bring them out on the road with us and create memories with them is what keeps the spark going for us." Richardson and McLean reside in Los Angeles. Dorough and Littrell are both "East Coasters" who haven't decided if they'll commute back-and-forth during the residency or move their families out West. The Backstreet Boys still got it goin' on "Millennium 2.0" drops the same day as the start of the Sphere residency. The album includes remasters of the original 12 tracks plus demos, live versions and a new single entitled, "Hey!" The band has revisited the album and their career in a number of documentaries, from the recent "90's Boy Band Boom" that aired on the CW to Netflix's "This is Pop" and "Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam," which chronicled the business practices of Pearlman. The group also told its own story in the 2015 film, "Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of." For that reason, Richardson usually doesn't agree to sit down for other productions. "For me mostly I just say, 'No thank you,'" he remarks, eliciting laughter throughout the room. "I'm like, 'I already spilled my soul in a documentary. Go check it out on Netflix.'" McLean, who granted an interview for the CW special, says the band's participation hinges on individual schedules and the scope of the productions. "There has been quite a lot of these (documentaries) coming out because there is a lot to be said," he notes. "It's been interesting talking to some personal friends of mine, not knowing a lot of what groups like us actually went through, the highs and lows." All five of the band members hope there are more chapters to be written. "We want to manifest a career," Richardson says. "We want to be the Rolling Stones of pop."
