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BACKSTREET BOYS CLAIM
INTERNATIONAL RECORD WITH NEW ALBUM |
| 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.
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