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Britney Spears Opens Tour, ‘N Sync Joins Via Video
Britney Spears launched the summer leg of her North American tour in support of her multi-platinum album, “Oops … I Did It Again!” (Jive) on Tuesday night (6/20) in Columbia, Md., where ‘N Sync made an appearance via a pre-recorded video.
‘N Sync’s video cameo was a “What Would You Do to Meet Britney?" segment that reportedly was staged while Spears was making a costume change backstage. Audience members were invited onstage by Spears’ back-up singers for the competition and asked by 'N Sync members to, for instance, bark like a dog for a chance to shake Spears’ hand.
Though rumors that Spears and ‘N Sync will launch a co-headlining European tour in October have been circulating widely, publicists at Jive Records would not confirm that such a tour is in the works.
Spears’ North American tour will wrap up in Atlanta on Sept. 18. 'N Sync is scheduled to wrap up the current leg of its tour in late July with a sold-out four-night stand at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. (The band’s July 27 show will air as a live special on HBO.)
On July 29, ‘N Sync will follow-up the New York concerts with the Challenge for Children II basketball tournament at New York’s St. John’s University. Challenge for Children is a charity founded by ‘N Sync in 1998, and the event will feature a basketball tournament between the group’s members and other celebrity guests. Tickets for the tournament went on sale on Monday (6/19) and, according to ‘N Sync’s official website, sold out in 15 minutes.
Spears’ latest album, released last month, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, and has already been certified multi-platinum by the RIAA for shipping over 4 million copies in the United States.
‘N Sync, meanwhile, shattered all previous SoundScan seven-day sales figures with the release of “No Strings Attached” (Jive). The album sold 2.4 million copies in its first week on the shelves, and has been certified by the RIAA for shipping 7 million copies since its March 21 release date. It is the first album ever certified by the RIAA for shipping that many copies in its initial RIAA auditing period.
