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Black & Blue
Breaks International Record
LOS
ANGELES
(Reuters) - Pop idols the Backstreet Boys (news - web sites)
sold five million copies of their new album in its first week of worldwide
release, setting a new international record, the group's publicist said
Tuesday.
In the United States alone, ``Black & Blue'' (Jive) sold 1.6 million
units
in the six days from its Nov. 21 street date, enough to replace the
Beatles
at the top of the charts.
The Backstreet Boys can lay claim as the first act to achieve million-plus
first-week U.S. sales with back-to-back albums, said publicity firm Mitch
Schneider Organization (MSO). Their last album, ``Millennium,'' debuted
with
a then-record 1.1 million copies in May 1999. Its worldwide sales stand at
more than 30 million, MSO said.
Details of the previous international record for an album's first week
sales
were not given in the statement.
``Black & Blue'' is already multi-platinum in Canada (5 times), Japan,
Korea, Mexico and Venezuela; platinum in Arabia (Gulf), Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Philippines, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States; and gold in
Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal,
Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. Different countries have different
definitions of gold and platinum.
Black & Blue In
Spanish
The
Backstreet Boys paid homage to their Spanish fans when they shared their
hopes to re-record some of the tracks on their new album BLACK & BLUE
into the Spanish language. Talking in Rio de Janeiro on the penultimate
leg of the Backstreet Boys astounding 100 hour trip across 6 continents of
the world, part-Puerto Rican Howie Dorough confirmed that the band have
discussed the possibility of re-working selected songs from their latest
release.
‘We did some Spanish songs on the first international album,’ said
Dorough, ‘and we had a song on the last album Millennium called Spanish
Eyes which we dedicated to the Spanish fans out there.’ However, he
explained that time was the only factor which had prevented the group from
doing the same on BLACK & BLUE which is released this week. ‘For
BLACK & BLUE we just haven’t had the chance to do any other versions
of tracks yet but there might be some Spanish translations appearing at a
later date.’
The singer proved the Backstreet Boys devotion to this sector of their fan
base by pointing out that the Spanish fans were very much in the forefront
of their minds when writing and recording Black & Blue. ‘There are a
couple of songs on the album that have a Latin acoustic guitar sound,’
he stated. MORE THAN THAT is the most heavily Latino influenced of the two
with soaring strings giving the ballad a romantic edge.
Backstreeet Boys will announce the dates for the first leg of their 2001
World Tour on Tuesday 21 November in New York. The group assured fans in
Rio that they will be returning to South America next year.
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