NEW YORK--As noisy as the group that welcomed the Beatles to America in 1964, a throng of fans jammed the Hudson Theatre in Times Square on Tuesday (11/21) to see Backstreet Boys [ tickets ] announce plans for their 2001 world tour.

The event was the last stop on the group’s whirlwind promotional jaunt, which hit six continents in four days. Hundreds of fans who purchased the new Backstreet Boys album "Black & Blue" at midnight on Nov. 20 were given passes to attend the media event.

Prior to hitting the stage, a five-minute clip of Backstreet Boys’ recent global venture was shown on a large screen. Group members Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson then walked on stage to the screaming approval of fans. At one point, Richardson asked the fans in the theater to quiet their screams so the group’s answers could be heard.

The quintet gave a brief, loose talk about their just-concluded trek before posing for photos and performing its current hit "Shape of My Heart" a cappella.

During a question-and-answer session, Carter said that the group’s stop in Rio was especially jolting. "There were 40,000 people in front of the hotel," he said. "It was amazing, all the energy. It didn't seem real. We now have a 'Black & Blue' army, like the KISS army."

McLean noted that the group wrote or co-wrote seven songs on the new album--"a lot of musical growth on our part."

Richardson dispelled what he referred to as an erroneous quote in a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine which said that the group came up with the title "Black & Blue" because the band was bruised about its treatment in the press.

According to Richardson, the group was doing a photo shoot dressed in black against a blue background, Littrell suggested the title "Black and Blue," and "we couldn't think of anything else."

Following the media event, the group headed to a nearby Virgin Megastore and invited fans to follow. The crowd accepted the invitation, quickly rampaging around the corner and into the store.

Backstreet Boys will kick off their world tour with a 23-city North American arena leg that will kick off on Jan. 22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and continue through March. Trips to Mexico and South America will follow in April, and a European tour is planned for May and
June.

The arena set up will be an end-stage production. Backstreet Boys used an in-the-round set up last year, which allows for more seating.

The tour will return to North America for a string of stadium shows from July through September before concluding with dates in Japan, New Zealand and Australia in October and November.

Specific tour dates, venues and ticket information will be announced on Monday (11/27) at 5 p.m. on Clear Channel Communications-owned pop radio stations in each market. Information will also be posted on the band’s official website, and on SFX.com. The tour will be produced by SFX Entertainment, the behemoth concert promotions firm that merged with Clear Channel earlier this year.

The "Black & Blue World Tour" follows last year's highly successful "Into the Millennium Tour." All 765,000 tickets for that 11-week, 39-city 1999-2000 North American arena tour sold out in less than an hour.

Note: Ongoing updates and information for the Backstreet Boys tour is available at liveDaily's Backstreet Boys 'Black & Blue' Tour page.

The tentative list of cities on the group’s "Black & Blue" tour follows: