Various Artists News

(3/22/00, 5 p.m. ET - 'N Sync has announced the dates for a summer tour kicking off May 9 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi and wrapping up July 30 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday evening (March 21) the group celebrated the release of its new album with an "invitation only" party at trendy Larua Belle in New York City. Singers Montell Jordan, TLC's Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Luther Vandross were on hand for the festivities with the five members of 'N Sync.

'N Sync has another reason to party. Sources tell LAUNCH that the first-week sales of No Strings Attached will easily surpass 1 million units. Amazingly, No Strings Attached may have reached the 1 million mark on its first day sales alone, according to insiders. The group's labelmates, the Backstreet Boys sold nearly 500,000 copies of Millennium on its first day in stores.

The current record for one-week sales in the U.S. belongs to the Backstreet Boys. The Backstreet Boys's Millennium sold 1,134,000 copies in its opening week last summer, according to Soundscan figures.

'N Sync member Chris Kirkpatrick tells LAUNCH that the group just wanted to have fun with No Strings Attached. "You know our first album had a couple fun songs," he says. "But then we had a lot of mid-tempos and ballads on there. You know, this album, we said let's just come out and have a fun album. So it's mostly up-tempos, you know, maybe one mid-tempo and maybe two or three ballads."

Kirkpatrick adds that fans of the band will also notice that the album is more up-tempo this time. "Basically when you hear every track, you're going to listen to it and pull something from the song. And mostly the vibe of the whole thing is just about having a good time. That's why we wanted to keep it up-tempo because it is our second album. We do want people to know that this isn't our ending album. This isn't our greatest hits album. This is something that we want people to know that we're going to be around for a while. We're going to have fun with our music."

'N Sync will be making promotional appearances and performing their hit single "Bye, Bye Bye" on ABC's The View on March 28 and NBC's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on April 4. The track is currently at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

'N Sync tour schedule (subject to change):

May 9 - Biloxi, MS, Miss. Coast Coliseum
May 10 - North Little Rock AR, Alltel Arena
May 11 - Lexington, KY, Rupp Arena
May 12 - Memphis, TN, Pyramid
May 14 - Nashville, TN, Adelphia Coliseum
May 16 - Greensboro, NC, Greensboro Coliseum
May 17 - Raleigh, NC, Entertainment & Sports Arena
May 18 - Atlanta, GA, Philips Arena
May 21 - Orlando, FL, TD Waterhouse Centre
May 22 - Fort Lauderdale, FL, National Car Rental Center
May 24 - Tampa, FL, Ice Palace
May 27 - New Orleans, LA, Louisiana Superdome
May 29 - Austin, TX, Frank Erwin Center
May 30 - Houston, TX, Compaq Center
June 1 - San Antonio, TX, Alamodome
June 2 - Dallas, TX, Reunion Arena
June 5 - Phoenix, AZ, America West Arena
June 7 - San Diego, CA, San Diego Sports Arena
June 9 - Pasadena, CA, Rose Bowl
June 11 - Oakland, CA, Network Associates Coliseum
June13 - Tacoma, WA, Tacoma Dome
June 15 - Portland, OR, Rose Garden Arena
June17 - Salt Lake City, UT, Rice Stadium
June 20 - Denver, CO, Mile High Stadium
June 22 - Kansas City, MO, Kemper Arena
June 23 - Minneapolis, MN, Target Center
June 25 - Joliet, IL, Route 66 Raceway
June 27 - Columbus, OH, Schottenstein Center
June 28 - St. Louis, MO, Kiel Center
June 30 - Cleveland, OH, Gund Arena
July 2 - Buffalo, NY, HSBC Arena
July 10 - Washington, DC, RFK Stadium
July 11 - Albany, NY, Pepsi Arena
July 14 - Cincinnati, OH, Cinergy Field
July 16 - Pittsburgh, PA, Three Rivers Stadium
July 18 - Pontiac, MI, Pontiac Silverdome
July 20 - Philadelphia, PA, First Union Spectrum
July 23 - Foxboro, MA, Foxboro Stadium
July 25 - New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
July 26 - New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
July 30 - Hershey, PA, Hersheypark Stadium

-- Jason Gelman, New York

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