International Entertainment News: Rapidly Rising Boston Band Boys Like Girls Invited to Open for Avril Lavigne on Upcoming North American Arena Tour Beginning in March

Rapidly Rising Boston Band Boys Like Girls Invited to Open for Avril Lavigne on Upcoming North American Arena Tour Beginning in March

'Boys Like Girls' Debut Album Certified RIAA Gold

'The Great Escape' Single Certified RIAA Platinum

Newly Expanded Deluxe Edition of Boys Like Girls Self-Titled Debut Album Available Now

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The rapidly rising Boston-based rock/pop band Boys Like Girls has been confirmed to open shows for Avril Lavigne on the Canadian pop/punk performer's upcoming North American arena tour from March through May 2008 (please see itinerary following).

Boys Like Girls ushered in 2008 with a performance of "The Great Escape," the group's current hit single, on MTV's New Year's Eve broadcast. A Top 10 record for more than six weeks running, "The Great Escape" is being played on more than 110 POP radio stations nationwide including Boston's KISS (WXKS) and New York's Z100 (Boys Like Girls delivered an unforgettable set at the Z100 Jingle Ball on December 14 at Madison Square Garden) and others.

"Boys Like Girls," the group's self-titled debut album has been certified RIAA gold (in recognition of sales of more than 500,000) while the BLG single, "The Great Escape," has been certified RIAA platinum (in recognition of sales of more than one million).

"Boys Like Girls" opened the year in the upper half (#61) of the Billboard Top 200, #37 on the iTunes Top Albums chart, and #5 on the Alternative Albums chart. "The Great Escape" and "Hero/Heroine," the second BLG single, have reached #5 and #7 on the iTunes Alternative song chart respectively.

MTV named Boys Like Girls its 52/52 Artist of the Week (December 3, 2007) while the group took home the MTVU "Woodie Award" for Best Emerging Artist. A video for "Hero/Heroine" has been added to rotation on MTV (#4), MTVU, and FUSE (#20). "Hero/Heroine" is currently reaching a nationwide Hot 100 audience of more than 8.4 million listeners.

Columbia Records celebrated the rise of Boys Like Girls with the release of a newly expanded deluxe edition of the band's self-titled debut album last November.

The newly expanded Boys Like Girls - Deluxe Edition digipak features a CD Extra premiering new mixes of "Hero/Heroine" and "Heels Over Head" by the pioneering three-time Grammy winning mix engineer Tom Lord-Alge.

Additional extras on Boys Like Girls - Deluxe Edition include an expansive gallery of 40 behind-the-scenes tour and other photos, suitable for printing; an AOL Sessions performance video of the songs "Let Go" (a Frou Frou cover), "The Great Escape," and "Thunder"; live footage from The Avalon in Boston of the songs "Heels Over Head" and "The Great Escape"; and an audio acoustic version of "Hero/Heroine."

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After spending the summer performing a series of highly-successful shows on the Vans Warped Tour, the rapidly-rising Boys Like Girls -- Martin Johnson (vocals, guitar), Bryan Donahue (bass), John Keefe (drums), and Paul DiGiovanni (guitar) -- headlined the "Tourzilla" concert extravaganza featuring All Time Low and The Audition with We The Kings performing on the first half of the tour and Valencia during the second half. The Boys Like Girls "Tourzilla" tour began September 30 at Toad's Place in New Haven and ended November 25 at Philadelphia's Electric Factory with the entire last week of the tour sold-out. Boys Like Girls will spend much of January touring Japan and the UK with Plain White T's.

Produced by Matt Squire (Panic! At The Disco, Northstar, Hit The Lights), Boys Like Girls is consistently selling 10-20 thousand copies per week with sales-to-date totaling more than 500,000. Sales for Boys Like Girls have been steadily escalating since the album's release in August 2006. The album has spent 36 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 best-selling albums chart since April (reaching #55 in August). Previously, it spent more than forty weeks on the Billboard Heatseekers Top New Artist chart and the SoundScan Alternative New Artist Sales chart, reaching #1 on both charts for three weeks running in June 2007.

The group's spell-binding video for "The Great Escape," lensed by director Alan Ferguson (Fall Out Boy), has hit the #1 slot on MTV's "TRL" a remarkable 9 times and was retired from the countdown after 40 days on the chart.

Boys Like Girls received high profile coverage recently in USA Today, which accorded the band an "On The Verge" piece (July 26, 2007) while naming the Boys Like Girls single, "The Great Escape," as its "Pick Of The Week" (July 17, 2007).

Boys Like Girls has also been enjoying incredible exposure online with more than 23 million total plays on the group's My Space page (myspace.com/boyslikegirls) where the band has logged more than 17.5 million profile views and has more than 423,000 friends (including Avril Lavigne).

In 2007, Boys Like Girls won -- with more than 68% of the votes -- Spin.com's coveted "Artist of the Year" honors. Boys Like Girls, one of Alternative Press's "100 Bands You Need To Know in 2007," was also an AOL "Breakers" artist.

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BOYS LIKE GIRLS/Avril Lavigne Concert Itinerary
3/20/2008 Minneapolis, MN Target Center, Arena
3/21/2008 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
3/22/2008 Auburn Hills, MI Palace Of Auburn Hills, Arena
3/25/2008 Pittsburgh, PA Palumbo Center
3/26/2008 Cleveland, OH Wolstein Center @ CSU
3/29/2008 Buffalo, NY HSBC Arena
4/12/2008 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
4/13/2008 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena
4/22/2008 Biloxi, MS Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
4/24/2008 McAllen, TX Dodge Arena
4/26/2008 Dallas, TX Smirnoff Music Center
4/27/2008 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
4/29/2008 Las Vegas, NV The Pearl Concert Theater At The Palms
4/30/2008 San Diego, CA Cox Arena
5/2/2008 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Pavilion
5/3/2008 Anaheim, CA Honda Center
5/4/2008 Los Angeles, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
5/6/2008 Santa Barbara, CA County Bowl
5/7/2008 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion San Jose
5/9/2008 Spokane, WA Spokane Arena