March 24, 2000 – With 115 shows of their sold-out "Into the Millennium Tour" in 84 cities around the world under their belts, the BACKSTREET BOYS are taking a little time off just as their new single "The One" is poised to launch at radio the first week of May. The forthcoming single – from the group's 12-times-platinum Millennium CD – was chosen by fans who cast their votes via the MTV website. The song follows the smash hits "I Want It That Way," "Larger Than Life" and their current Top Ten hit "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely." Expect the Backstreet Boys to perform songs like these when they join Sting, Tom Jones, D'Angelo and Enrique Iglesias for the VH1 special "Men Strike Back," the first-ever VH1 male-dominated concert premiering Tuesday, April 18 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT). The special will tape at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

On the live front, the second leg of the Backstreet Boys' "Into The Millennium" tour took the group into arenas and stadiums including the Georgia Dome in Atlanta (capacity 72,000), Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL (53,000), the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans (52,000) and the St. Louis Trans World Dome (74,000) before concluding March 15 at the Toronto Skydome (36,000). This followed the group's record-breaking Fall 1999 tour which made music history when all 765,000 tickets for the dates sold out as soon as they went on sale, the vast majority within an hour.

Setting sales records for both concerts and albums, the Backstreet Boys had the best-selling CD of 1999 – it hit #1 in 26 countries and went gold and/or platinum in 45 countries – and have received a wide array of awards. The group received five Grammy nominations and won four Billboard Music Awards, a People's Choice Award as well as various prizes from around the world, including Juno and MuchMusic Awards in Canada and the "Best Group Award" at the 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards. The group graced the cover of Rolling Stone twice within an eight-month period and won their reader's poll for "Artists of the Year," "Band of the Year," "Album of the Year," "Single of the Year," "Best Video" and "Best Tour."

On the heels of the VH1 taping, the Backstreet Boys will head into the studio to begin work on a new album, due out in late 2000 on Jive Records.