THE BOXSCORE COLUMN

Top concert grosses reported the week ending April 10.

The Backstreet Boys began their Black & Blue Tour in January with a first leg of North American dates ending in San Diego in mid-March, but the group is not on hiatus before their next U.S. leg begins in June. They are playing select cities in Mexico, Puerto Rico and several South American countries during April and May. This week's top BOXSCORE is from one of those markets, Mexico City, where more than 150,000 fans filled the outdoor stadium Foro Sol for three shows grossing more than $7.2 million.

English singer Sarah Brightman has wrapped the 2001 North American leg of her La Luna Tour, which hit 22 markets during March. These dates were actually a continuation of the tour which kicked off last September in Ottawa, Ont., and played 40 dates in the fall. New York-based Metropolitan Entertainment Group promoted the North American leg, which grossed more than $13.7 million in 62 performances. Charting this week are the last seven shows on this leg of the tour.

Houston-based R&B group Destiny's Child just wrapped a slate of tour dates preceding the release of their highly-anticipated new album, "Survivor," set for release in May. The Grammy-winning trio is one of the genre's most successful acts, as evidenced by the seven-time platinum 1999 album, "The Writing's on the Wall," which has charted for 88 weeks in Billboard. Other than a few fair dates in Texas, the group primarily played arenas during February and March, with the bulk of the bookings promoted by Police Productions of St. Louis. This week's chart includes totals from six cities on the tour. Ten shows have been reported so far, with the top numbers coming from two shows at the Sioux City Municipal Auditorium. In last week's issue, Police Productions was not included in the listing for the March 25 concert at the University of Illinois' Assembly Hall in Champaign and should have been listed as promoter.

BOXSCORE is compiled every Tuesday. To file your concert report, please call Bob Allen, Nashville, (615) 321-9171, or submit via fax, (615) 321-0878. A star () appearing in a listing denotes a house record. For BOXSCORE research information, please contact Allen. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.