PopOdyssey


PopOdyssey was the fourth concert tour by American boy band NSYNC. Sponsored by Verizon Wireless and Chili's, the tour promoted the band's third studio album, Celebrity. The tour's name is defined as "an adventurous journey towards popularity, beginning as just a dream and ending in reality". The tour became the biggest production in pop music, beating U2's PopMart Tour. The 2001 tour earned over $90 million, becoming one of the biggest tours of the year. It was also nominated for "Most Creative Stage Production" for Pollstar's "Concert Industry Awards". The tour primarily visited North America with dates in Japan proposed, but never realized.

Background

While promoting their appearance at Rock in Rio in 2001, the band stated that have already begun production on their forthcoming tour. Following the performance, SFX Entertainment announced the band were beginning a summer concert tour, to promote their upcoming album. Initially, the tour was expected to being May 12, 2001 at the Pro Player Stadium in Miami. English pop group BBMak were slated to be the opening act. At this time, it was believed the album was to be released along with the tour. However, the album was pushed back until June, as the band were still in the recording process. According to bandmember Lance Bass, the tour dates had to remain the same, as the group needed to complete their stadium tour before football season commenced. Subsequently, the album was pushed back, once again, to July. Collectively, the group decided to have a majority of the concert focus on their album, Celebrity, giving attendees a special preview of the songs before the album was released.
The tour faced a few setbacks as well. Deemed "the largest production for a pop concert", the stage was five stories tall with three video screen and five mini-stages. The setup took four days to complete. For this reason, the commencement of the tour was pushed to the end of May, to allow the crew to complete construction of the stage and to give the band time to rehearse the new material. Brad Wavra, Vice President of Touring for SFX Entertainment stated, " wanted to make sure that all their fans got the full effect of this dynamic tour. We, along with the group, regret any inconvenience this schedule change may have caused for the fans. We promise this tour will be a musical extravaganza for the record books." Further roadblocks occurred when the band were forced to cancel dates, as there was inadequate time to complete stage construction for the venue. Additional dates were cancelled due to weather conditions in the South. Despite the minor setbacks, the tour was one of the most anticipated tours of 2001.
The tour debuted at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida to positive reviews. They were joined on tour by several pop acts including: Christina Milian, Samantha Mumba and Deborah Gibson. During the show, PSAs were shown for an anti-drug campaign with the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Here, the bandmembers stated their healthy alternatives to smoking. The band also partnered with the Candie's Foundation to help prevent teen pregnancy. They performed at "Event to Prevent", at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. They were joined by Destiny's Child, Macy Gray, 98 Degrees and Eve. The tour also opened the newly built Heinz Field.
The band's third studio album premiered at the top of the charts, setting another record for first week sales. The tour ended in the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos. During this downtime, the band worked on several side projects. Bass and Joey Fatone starred in the film On the Line. Fatone also filmed his role in the 2002 hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. They honored Janet Jackson as MTV's first icon. The group performed a bossa nova version of her number one song, "That's the Way Love Goes". For the other Jackson, the band performed alongside Michael Jackson during the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, to their hit "Pop. The group performed "Dancing Machine" with The Jackson 5 at the.
The band performed at another Jackson event, "", at the RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The concert paid respect to those lost during the September 11 attacks. The group presented another concert to benefit the families of the attacks. On November 11, 2001, the group performed to 150,000 fans on South Beach. 100% of concert proceeds were donated to the Miami Recovery Fund and Families of September 11. They were joined by :de:Dante Thomas|Dante Thomas, Willa Ford, Deborah Cox and Tito Puente, Jr.. This was followed by a promotional concert at Atlantis Paradise Island with special guest, Tim McGraw. Bass also stated interest into joining a space mission and had begun training in Russia to be eligible. Despite having surgery to complete training, minor technicalities prevented him from participating. Bass would have been the youngest person in space, if the trip came to fruition.
At the end of 2001, the tour became the biggest concert tour in North America, falling short to veterans U2. In January the following year, the band announced another string of tour dates known as the "Celebrity Tour". This time around, the band felt their songs were well known and were able to experiment a little more with their songs. Originally, the group wanted to perform in theaters, however, they were pushed to arenas due to demand. During an interview, bandmember Chris Kirkpatrick stated the second outing would remove the spectacle of the previous tour and focus on the music. Justin Timberlake added,
" knew when they were coming to the show last summer that they were going to get something that nobody else had, which was basically about 80 percent of the album that was going to come out after the tour. This year, obviously, they'll know the songs, but we put a twist almost on everything, so it makes it fun for them to hear it a different way and to try to recognize those tunes."

Joining the band on their second venture were R&B singer, Ginuwine and rapper and entrepreneur P. Diddy. Punk band Smash Mouth also joined the boys. The new tour dates coincided with the group's partnership with Chili's. The band was featured in several advertisement for the restaurant online and on television. Before the tour began, the band released the third single from the album, "Girlfriend" and performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics at the Olympic Medals Plaza on February 23rd, 2002.

Personnel

NSYNC

On this tour, all six accompanists returned from the No Strings Attached tour. Two new additions would join the ranks, however
The following setlist was obtained from the concert held on May 23, 2001, at the Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.
  1. "Video Sequence"
  2. "Pop"
  3. "Tearin' Up My Heart" / "I Want You Back"
  4. " A Little More Time on You"
  5. "The Two of Us"
  6. "Video Sequence"
  7. "Space Cowboy "
  8. "This I Promise You"
  9. "Video Sequence"
  10. "Gone"
  11. "Performance Sequence"
  12. "It's Gonna Be Me"
  13. "See Right Through You"
  14. "Up Against the Wall"
  15. "Band Introductions"
  16. "Video Sequence"
  17. "Celebrity"
  18. "Something Like You" / "Falling" / "Selfish"
  19. "No Strings Attached"
;Encore
  2. ""Video Sequence""
  3. "The Game Is Over"
  4. "Bye Bye Bye"

    5. Tour dates

;Cancellations and rescheduled shows
May 12, 2001Miami, FloridaHard Rock StadiumRescheduled to August 2, 2001
May 15, 2001St. Petersburg, FloridaTropicana FieldRescheduled to July 31, 2001. Moved to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida
May 18, 2001Jacksonville, FloridaAlltel StadiumRescheduled to May 23, 2001
May 20, 2001Jackson, MississippiMississippi Veterans Memorial StadiumRescheduled to August 24, 2001.
May 22, 2001Charlotte, North CarolinaBank of America StadiumCancelled
May 24, 2001Atlanta, GeorgiaGeorgia DomeRescheduled to August 11, 2001
May 30, 2001Foxborough, MassachusettsFoxboro StadiumCancelled
June 10, 2001Plattsburgh, New YorkPlattsburgh Air Force BaseCancelled
June 26, 2001Green Bay, WisconsinLambeau FieldCancelled
June 29, 2001Pontiac, MichiganPontiac SilverdomeMoved to Comerica Park in Detroit
July 31, 2001Las Cruces, New MexicoAggie Memorial StadiumCancelled
August 2, 2001Miami, FloridaHard Rock StadiumCancelled due to the effects of Tropical Storm Barry
August 7, 2001Birmingham, AlabamaLegion FieldCancelled due to the effects of Tropical Storm Barry
August 11, 2001Vancouver, CanadaBC Place StadiumCancelled
August 18, 2001Memphis, TennesseeLiberty Bowl Memorial StadiumCancelled
August 20, 2001Lexington, KentuckyCommonwealth StadiumCancelled

Box office score data

Broadcasts and recordings

The tour was documented for video during the concert at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Bandmember JC Chasez mentioned the band chose to film at that venue because rehearsals were held at that facility. The VHS, entitled *NSYNC: PopOdyssey Live, was released on November 21, 2001. A DVD edition was released on April 23, 2002. The DVD featured the entire concert along with special features, which included: interviews with each bandmember, photo gallery, profile of each musician, web links and a documentary. A special intro video was made for the video release to explain the meaning of the tour name. The original video shown at the beginning of each concert was made available as a special feature. For the Celebrity Tour, the concert at the TD Waterhouse Centre was filmed for a possible DVD release. However, the footage was deemed "unusable" and not released. Bootleg DVDs were sold on eBay in 2003 with ameuter footage of the concert in Anaheim. A professionally filmed video montage appeared on YouTube in 2006.
Before the group began the Celebrity Tour, they performed a few promotional concerts that aired on television. The first was a CBS Thanksgiving special entitled "*NSYNC: The Atlantis Concert". The show was filmed at the Atlantis Paradise Island on November 14 and 15, 2001. The concert was exclusive to guest of the hotel and featured duets with country recording artist, Tim McGraw. The special aired on November 23, 2001 alongside The Rugrats Movie. This concert was followed with another promotional performance. To celebrate the 2002 Winter Olympics, the band was one of the headlining performers for the "Olympic Celebration Concert Series". The concert was filmed at the Olympic Medals Plaza on February 23, 2002. The concert aired live on NBC.

Critical reception

The tour received mixed reception from numerous music critics. For the debut concert at Altell Stadium, Nick Marino of The Florida Times-Union wrote that despite the massive stage, the band's stage presence was out of this world. He continued, "A big pop show, an expensive pop show, but a pop show all the same. NSYNC realizes that they are famous, in part, for being famous, and they're using that fact as the touchstone for this entire tour. Pretty smart".
At the Hersheypark Stadium show, Peter Debruge from Entertainment Weekly felt the group strayed away from the traditional "pop" sound. Sean Richardson of Boston Phoenix thought that the show at the Foxboro Stadium was "colorful", praising the humor of the vignettes and the audience engagement.
However, Neil Strauss of The New York Times compared the show at the Giants Stadium to U2's PopMart Tour, stating that the production was spectacle for the sake of spectacle. Writing about the same concert, Isaac Guzman from New York Daily News considered the show to be "all sizzle, no steak". He explains, "On a stage set so large it looked as if someone had parked the upper decks of an ocean liner on the field, the group—Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, J.C. Chasez, Lance Bass and Chris Kirkpatrick—was dwarfed by the size of the production. To a certain extent, that was the point: 'Popodyssey' is meant to explore the meaning of 'Celebrity', which happens to be the title of the group's next record, slated for release July 24. In NSYNC's world, celebrity means facing down gold-digging girlfriends and complaining about having to wear sequin-covered chaps while singing 'Space Cowboy '. It also means being open to your fans' admiration by sincerely reading their love letters aloud".
Reviewing the show at the SkyDome, Jane Stevenson of Jam! gave the performance three and a half out of five stars. She states, "The non-stop display of spectacle aside—there were also levitating platforms, Velcro suits, moving sidewalks, fans taking pictures of the group on stage and the band's final disappearing magic act—the crowd erupted into ear-piercing screams whenever NSYNC performed their neo-Chippendales dance maneuvers". At the Metrodome show, Jon Bream of Star Tribune noted the effects were bigger, brighter and bolder than their last tour. He says, "This time around, the Prefab Five seemed to be projecting more of an attitude, as if some of the songs and the messages on the video screen were flipping a figurative finger at critics. The feistiness adds a much-needed edge, but if critics are NSYNC's biggest gripe, these guys have nothing to complain about". Scott Mervis of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the show at RFK Stadium the "mother of all stadium tours". He follows, "But the shtick was piled ever higher. There were flying contraptions. A tasteful helping of pyro. Toys to ride around on. Costumes louder than Joey that they changed into while we were entertained by their slick home videos. One of those Velcro walls inspired by David Letterman for 'Up Against the Wall'. Hot chicks in superhero costumes, and a diabolical wizard taking the controls for 'The Game Is Over'.
Phil Gallo of Variety wrote a mixed review on the Chicago show, praising the show's production and vignettes, but criticized the camera positioning and lack of cohesiveness of the setlist on Michael Jackson's Bad Tour.