The Backstreet Boys will touch every continent but Antarctica in a whirlwind week before the Nov. 21 release of their new album, Black and Blue.
After hitting Stockholm, Sweden, for the Thursday night MTV Europe Awards, the band will spend 55 of the following 100 hours in the air, as it travels on a chartered jet to Tokyo; Sydney, Australia; Cape Town, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and New York.
The 26,000-mile odyssey will allow the Boys time at each location to meet fans, hold news conferences, and perform their new single, "Shape of My Heart," without instrumental accompaniment.
Is it a last minute push, worthy of a presidential candidate, to give the group a chance to break the sales record set by rival boy band 'N Sync? Sales of 'N Sync's No Strings Attached reached 2.4 million copies in its opening week, breaking the record held by the Backstreet Boys' 1999 effort, Millennium.
Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough recently told Wall of Sound that this isn't their aim.
"The whole big thing is who's breaking whose record, especially since we had the record ourselves last year," he said. "But records are made to be broken, and to us, it's not so much about that. It's just about making good music, and if the fans love it and we're happy with it, everyone else will come along with it."
The trip around the world is more a tribute to the roots of their stardom. Their first successes were gained in Britain and across Continental Europe. Next came Asia and Australia, and, finally in 1997, their homeland, the United States.
As Backstreeter Kevin Richardson recalled, "Because we were big in Europe and we had toured France a few times, we started doing well in the French-speaking parts of Canada. Then our music spread to cities like Buffalo, New York; Washington, D.C.; and Chicago."
The group will not begin its actual tour until Jan. 23 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The band's first U.S. leg will take it through March, at which time it will return to the world circuit before heading back out for another set of U.S. dates.