By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Well known for their late 1990s hits, “I Want It That Way”, “Everybody” and “As Long as You Love Me,”, the Backstreet Boys will arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, June 8th to perform the first of two sold-out shows at Citibank Hall in Barra da Tijuca. The veteran boy band then will return for their second sold-out show in Rio on Thursday, June 11th.
Touring Brazil during the month of June, the band began in Recife on June 6th and will play in Rio de Janeiro on June 8th and 11th, Belo Horizonte on June 9th, São Paulo on June 12th and 13th and in Porto Alegre on June 15th.
The second Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo dates were scheduled after the original shows sold out, with the newly added dates then quickly selling out as well.
All shows are part of the South American leg of the ongoing Backstreet Boys In a World Like This Tour world tour held in support of the group’s eighth studio album of the same name. Also known as the 20th Anniversary Tour, it began in Beijing, China in May 2013, as the year marked the group’s 20th anniversary.
The five members of Backstreet Boys, A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell, were brought together by Lou Pearlman, the impresario who was also responsible for the boy band N’SYNC. In the early 1990s Pearlman placed an ad in an Orlando, Florida, U.S. paper, looking for members to become part of a new vocal group.
Following open casting calls and hundreds of auditions, the five current members were chosen with Pearlman naming them the Backstreet Boys, after the Orlando flea market and meeting place, the Backstreet Market. April 30, 1993, was then designated as the group’s birthday.
During the over two decades that followed, the group released eight studio albums with two of them, Unbreakable and This Is Us without Kevin Richardson. They became superstars around the world and after selling 130 millions albums worldwide, were designated the best-selling boy band in history. In April 2013, they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Who: Backstreet Boys
When: June 8th and 11th, 9:30 PM
Where: Citibank Hall, Av. Ayrton Senna 3000, Barra da Tijuca
Entrance: SOLD-OUT