Mariah Carey on the cover of <i>Interview</i>
Photo: Bruce Weber

Mariah Carey is "thankful" to ex-husband Tommy Mottola but also felt like she was being controlled by the music executive while they were married, she divulged to Interview for the magazine's September issue, which hits newsstands Tuesday. In the magazine — the cover of which features a Bruce Weber photo of a barely clothed Carey — she says, "I am thankful to [Mottola] in a lot of ways. I try not to vilify him. I have to forgive him for being so restrictive. I understand him not wanting me to go out and hang out all night, but going to a spa with friends every now and then, or doing things on my own would have made a world of difference. And I'd probably still be with him if I had. Maybe it's for my own good that I wasn't 'allowed' to do those things, but that's not how it felt. It felt like suddenly I had a strict father. ... With Tommy it felt like I had this controlling situation where I wasn't allowed to be myself. This conversation that we're having now would never have taken place." Carey also opened up about the catastrophic Glitter collapse that preceded her surprise rebound. "I consider 'the breakdown' a breakthrough — I needed to hit rock bottom, however it happened. I needed to understand the cost of pushing so hard, fighting so hard against the system." ...

Diddy's Labor Day party is going to be a little less explosive than anticipated. Officials in the Hamptons, New York, have nixed the hip-hop mogul's planned $100,000 fireworks show over the Northwest Harbor on September 2 both for safety reasons and because it might have conflicted with another nearby fireworks bash set for the same night. Diddy intended to go with all-white fireworks so they would match the "white party" theme. ...

Beyoncé turned out Tuesday night at her sister Solange's "R&B Live" showcase at Times Square's Spotlight Live club in New York. Tina Knowles, Bow Wow and the Simmons sisters — Angela and Vanessa — also took in the show, which featured other acts on Mathew Knowles' Music World Entertainment, including #1 Crush, Katy Shotter and more. ...

Britney Spears chatted with Life & Style on Sunday night at a club in Los Angeles, revealing her concerns that ex-husband Kevin Federline could gain primary custody of their two children, sons Sean Preston and Jayden James. "My babies are my life. I love them more than anything," said an "emotional" Spears, according to the magazine. But the boys are doing "so good," she added. ...

Ja Rule and Game have joined forces for "Sunset," a track to be featured on Ja's Mirror LP, due November 13. "I don't think people were expecting that," he told RollingStone.com in regards to teaming up with his former rival. Ja also disclosed that another track, "Father Forgive Me," updates the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby." "Hopefully I make the Beatles proud," he said. "Big shout-out to Paul McCartney and the whole gang, Ringo and everybody!" The rock icons are getting lots of love from the rap set these days, with Wu-Tang Clan covering George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" — with Harrison's son Dhani and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante in tow — for their upcoming 8 Diagrams LP, also due November 13. ...

Juelz Santana is hammering away at his third LP, Born to Lose; Built to Win, which is due in stores in the winter. "This time around, I'm talking about survival — maintaining my lifestyle and overcoming the obstacles and challenges life brings," he said in a statement. Santana was also set to debut his new RoyElz clothing line but has had to postpone the unveiling until February due to the terminal illness of a family member. ...

Swizz Beatz was a busy man on Tuesday. The multiplatinum producer and rapper celebrated the release of his solo album, One Man Band Man, with a live performance at the Apple store in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York during the afternoon. After that he hosted a party at Xchange Loft that drew the likes of Remy Ma, Birdman, Brooke Hogan, G-Unit's Young Hot Rod, Steve Stoute, Kid Capri, Free and singer Mashonda, Swizz's wife. He then capped his long day at Manhattan night spot Sol for another album-release party. ...

Keyshia Cole and Fort Wayne, Indiana's Voices of Unity Youth Choir will get the NFL season under way by performing the national anthem at the New Orleans Saints/ Indianapolis Colts game September 6. The half-hour pre-game show — featuring performances by Kelly Clarkson and others — will air at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. ... Cobra Starship will land again, on October 23, with a new LP called If the World Is Ending, We Are Throwing the Party. The disc will be issued by Fueled by Ramen and follow the band's 2006 disc, When the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets. ...

Paris Hilton and Zeta Graff settled Graff's lawsuit Wednesday (August 22), the same day jury selection was due to begin in the trial, TMZ.com reports. Graff, an actress/model, filed a $10 million defamation suit against Hilton in 2005 for allegedly planting gossip about her in the tabloids. ... Amy Winehouse fans can get ticket refunds for her postponed U.S. tour at their point of purchase, her publicist said Wednesday. ... A judge halted a lawsuit against Michael Jackson on Tuesday, ruling that it can't continue as filed, AP reports. The singer is being sued — along with the Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, California — by the family of a woman who died at the hospital after she was moved to make room for Jackson. In the suit, the family claims the woman was kept from critical care after suffering a heart attack on the same day Jackson went to the hospital with flu-like symptoms during his child-molestation trial. Attorneys for Jackson and the hospital have claimed the facts of the case didn't merit the suit. Judge Rodney Melville — who was also the judge in the aforementioned trial — gave the plaintiffs' attorney, James McKiernan, 30 days to redraft the suit. ...

A neuropathologist rejected on Wednesday a previous claim made by Phil Spector's defense that Lana Clarkson might have lived for up to a few minutes after being fatally shot in the music producer's mansion, the Los Angeles Times reports. Dr. John Andrews, who participated in the deceased actress' autopsy, is expected to be the last prosecution rebuttal witness. The defense is expected to present its rebuttal case in the next few days, with closing arguments expected soon after Labor Day. ...

The Chemical Brothers have firmed up their first, albeit brief, U.S. tour in more than five years. The group will bring its visually intensive show to New York's Hammerstein Ballroom (September 21); Brooklyn, New York's McCarren Park Pool (September 22); Chicago's Riviera Theatre (September 24); Denver's Fillmore Auditorium (September 26); San Francisco's Concourse (September 28); and Los Angeles' Nocturnal Bar (September 29). ... In other tour news, Bad Religion will trek through the States from September 29 in Queen Creek, Arizona — where they'll play at Edgefest &38212; through October 20 in Sayreville, New Jersey. Gallows and the Briggs will open most dates. And Cold War Kids will tour from November 17 in San Francisco through December 11 in Boulder, Colorado, after gigging in September and October with the White Stripes. ...

In hard-rock tour news, Down's upcoming U.S. headlining run is finally taking shape, with dates confirmed from September 27 in Reno, Nevada, through November 13 in Houston. The band — which features former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo — will release its latest, Down III: Over the Under, September 25. The Melvins will tour from September 16 in Sacramento, California, through October 18 in Dallas with Big Business. Prog-rockers Porcupine Tree will be on the road for a headlining run that begins October 3 in Orlando, Florida, and visits 18 other cities through October 29 in Atlanta. And Queens of the Stone Age have tacked seven additional shows onto their current tour. ...

Bill Murray refused to take a breathalyzer test after getting caught speeding in a golf cart in downtown Stockholm, Sweden, early Monday — and he might face a drunk-driving charge as a result, The Associated Press reports. "He refused to blow in the [breath-test] instrument, citing American legislation," Detective-Inspector Christer Holmlund told the wire service Wednesday. "So we applied the old method — a blood test. It will take 14 days before the results are in." Murray signed documentation admitting that he had been driving under the influence and agreed to allow a police officer enter a guilty plea for him if the case goes to court. A very high blood-alcohol level could result in a potential prison sentence, but fines are more likely for the actor. ...

Darren Hayes, former lead singer of Australian pop duo Savage Garden, turned himself in to London police on Friday and was arrested for an alleged racist attack against a waiter in a Thai restaurant in Soho. According to The New Zealand Herald, Hayes is alleged to have verbally abused a staffer at the Busaba Eathai Thai restaurant on July 22. Hayes was released on bail and his lawyer said he is denying the allegations. ... DNA testing carried out after James Brown's death has confirmed a third person is a child of the late rock and roll icon, his adviser Buddy Dallas told Georgia's The Augusta Chronicle on Monday. Roughly a dozen DNA tests have been carried out, and some are still pending. ...

Actress Bridget Moynahan gave birth to her child — a boy — with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The couple split up late last year. ... Wal-Mart is the latest retail giant to unveil an online music store aimed at challenging Apple's iTunes by offering DRM-free music. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wal-Mart is selling the unfettered tracks from two major labels, Universal Music Group and EMI, for 94 cents a piece and $9.22 an album. The songs can play on almost any portable music device, including iPods and iPhones.

08.21.07

First Amy Winehouse pulled out of shows in Norway and Denmark two weeks ago, then she pulled the plug on her V Festival appearances last week — now the U.K. starlet is shelving her remaining 2007 North American tour dates until next year. "Due to the rigors involved in touring, Amy Winehouse has been advised to postpone her upcoming September U.S. and Canadian tour dates," Winehouse's publicist said in a statement Tuesday (August 21), according to The Associated Press. "Amy's European and U.K. tour dates in October and November remain in place. Plans are being made to reschedule her U.S. tour for early 2008. Until then, Amy has been ordered to rest and is working with medical professionals to address her health." It is unclear whether the change in her North American tour plans will affect Winehouse's previously announced performance at the VMAs on September 9. ...

Forget 50 Cent — Kanye West considers Justin Timberlake his biggest rival. In an interview with XXL magazine for its October issue — which hits stands September 11 — Kanye called Justin his "biggest inspiration and biggest competition," adding that "he's the only other person that gets an across-the-board response and respect level — black radio, white radio. If Justin hadn't come out and killed the game, I can't say that my album, singles and videos would be on the same level that they're on. We push each other. I look at me and Justin like Prince and Michael Jackson in their day." ...

Award-show nominations and #1 records don't seem to be enough for Nelly Furtado this year, so the Canadian beauty decided to add directing to her lengthy list of 2007 accomplishments. Furtado recently made her debut behind the camera shooting a clip for the Loose song "Do It" with co-director Aaron A., her tour documentarian. The video was filmed on location in Detroit during a tour stop and included her dance team, among others. Furtado also announced that she will re-release Loose with bonus material — including her cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" — this fall. ...

Spike Jonze has launched a series of diary-style video interviews through online-broadcast network VBS.TV. The series will capture Jonze interviewing and traveling the world with various artists and entertainers, including the premiere guest, M.I.A. The set kicks off this week with a six-part episode that follows Jonze and M.I.A. around London and at the singer's various enclaves. An interview with Kanye West is scheduled to go live next week. ...

R. Kelly appeared Tuesday in a Chicago court where prosecutors and defense attorneys ironed out a few more details in the R&B singer's child-pornography trial before jury selection starts September 17. After the prosecution tried for a reversal, Judge Vincent Gaughan upheld his ruling that the media and public could view the sex tape that allegedly depicts Kelly having sex with an underage girl and is at the heart of the charges. Gaughan said he wouldn't reconsider his original ruling because the girl who prosecutors say is in the video isn't cooperating with investigators and denies that she's the person on the tape. Had she said she was, the judge would give her victim status and protect her from a public viewing. Instead, he ruled Tuesday that the state can't call her a "victim" but must instead call her an "alleged victim" or the "state's witness." To attempt to prove that she is in fact the girl on the tape, the prosecution wants to call an expert witness to testify that denial is a common issue with victims of child pornography, but the defense argued that the theory is not backed up by science. Judge Gaughan delayed ruling on this, as well as whether an expert could testify that the veins in Kelly's hand are consistent with those in the hand of the man in the video. He is expected to rule on those matters at the next hearing, on September 10. ...

Another day, another problem for Foxy Brown. The troubled rapper is being accused of lying to police during a traffic stop on Wednesday in suburban Mahwah, New Jersey. According to Bergen County's The Record, Brown (born Inga Marchand) was pulled over for talking on a cell phone and failing to stop at a stop sign while driving her SUV. After a check found that the car's registration had been suspended, Brown, 27, reportedly gave officers a different version of her real name and a birth date that was a year off. When the information didn't come up, Brown then gave her correct information, at which point the officers found out that her license was suspended. She was taken to police headquarters and given seven traffic tickets and released. The traffic tussle came one day after Brown was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a New York neighbor with a BlackBerry. But still, Brown has some good news to help take her mind off things — according to the New York Post, she said outside a store in New York earlier this week, "I'm getting married in September. I'm pregnant." ...

With Jane's Addiction on ice and his latest project, the Panic Channel, without a label deal, Dave Navarro has taken up a new side gig: porn-movie director. The guitarist has shot a feature-length adult film titled "Dave Navarro: Broken," the first in a series of flicks to be directed by celebrities. The film for Teravision — owned by adult star Tera Patrick and rocker husband and former Biohazard member Evan Seinfeld — is due September 27 and features an all-star cast of porn actors and actresses (Victoria Sin, Spyder Jonez, etc.). ...

Ben Lee really likes the new Against Me! album, New Wave. In fact, the Australian pop singer likes it so that he has posted a song-for-song cover album on his MySpace page and blog that are available for download or streaming. He's even cooked up his own cover for the effort, Ben Lee Sings Against Me! New Wave — it replaces the fearsome panther on the Florida punk band's original with a less ferocious kitty cat. ...

Devra Robitaille, one of Phil Spector's ex-employees, testified Tuesday that he once threatened her at gunpoint when she attempted to leave his house. The scenario is similar to the ones outlined by four additional women during the music producer's murder trial. After the defense announced it was conditionally resting its case — and that Spector would not be taking the stand during the trial — the prosecution called Robitaille as a rebuttal witness, contrary to the wishes of the defense. She recalled being in Spector's house during a party in which he became heavily intoxicated, after which she said she was going to go home. "He said no and locked the door," testified Robitaille, who added that she had a romantic relationship with Spector. "I remember standing in the lobby with a door in front of me, and when I turned, there was a gun pointed at my temple. ... It was like a long-barreled shotgun." She added that Spector repeated three times, " 'If you leave, I'll blow your f---ing head off.' " Robitaille said he eventually put down the gun and let her leave. ...

Some Lollapalooza footage — of performances by LCD Soundsystem and the Black Keys — finally went up on AT&T's Blue Room site last week, following the revelation that its webcast of the festival featured several edits of anti-President Bush comments made by Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. Clearances are still being sought for Pearl Jam and other artists, while Lupe Fiasco's comments against Bush — which were also reportedly edited — have not been posted. ...

Five people were arrested early Sunday morning at a campground near the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, following the Warped Tour performance at the venue Saturday night. The Associated Press reported that sheriff's deputies were called out to the campground following reports of a person being injured at another nearby campground. When officials arrived, they reportedly saw a number of campers involved in fights and a comfort station with portable toilets and sinks that had been set on fire. Some of the 400 campers in the area allegedly set additional fires and pelted deputies with beer bottles, cans and rocks, shattering the windshield of a fire truck with debris. Those incidents led to five arrests for obstructing a law-enforcement officer, disorderly conduct and intimidating a public servant. ...

Additional shows for Van Halen's first tour in more than 22 years — with original frontman David Lee Roth — have been added in Philadelphia (October 3); Detroit (October 20); and Washington, D.C. (November 1). Tickets for the previously announced gigs went on sale over the weekend, and fans snatched them up fast — sellouts were reported in at least five markets so far. ...

Pete Doherty — who was arrested on suspicion of drug possession in London early Monday morning — was released Tuesday because authorities didn't get him to court on time. The charge of breaching bail conditions that he was facing has been dropped as a result of the technicality. ...

The Jacksonville, Florida, chapter of the NAACP is protesting an editorial cartoon that criticized the "no snitchin' " street mantra and ran in the Friday edition of The Florida Times-Union. The image shows a black man wearing a "Don't Snitch" T-shirt, holding a smoking gun and standing over a gunshot victim. Behind him are two children, one a girl with dreadlocks who also wears a "Don't Snitch" shirt and says, "I didn't see nuttin'." In the cartoon, the man responds, "Now that's a good little ho." The comic, which is captioned "The new rule of law!," also has a billboard in the background with an image of a rapper holding a gun below the words "rap your life away," with BET and Warner Music Group called out at the bottom of the billboard. According to local TV affiliate NBC12, on Sunday, a Times-Union editorial-page editor apologized for the "bad judgment" in using the word "ho" in the cartoon. "The object of the cartoon was to comment on the rise of a no-snitching culture, something that is widely in the news today," Mike Clark explained.

• Mariah Carey
• Britney Spears
• Ja Rule
• Game
• Keyshia Cole

Darren Hayes
Photo: Sony

Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones, how does your garden grow?

Apart, it seems, insofar as the Australian pop duo Savage Garden have called it quits after five years together.

Neither their label, Columbia Records, nor Hayes' spokesperson would comment on the breakup. However, as Jones told Reuters on Friday (October 5), "We achieved something so great in a short period of time that we had to look for something else. We've both had a lot of success together. We'll probably have a lot of success independently in the future."

While Jones plans a career outside of music, Hayes said he has finished recording his debut solo record.

"Way back after the last tour, Daniel decided he wanted to take a break from the band and I was forced into a big vacation I didn't want to take," Hayes explained from the set of the video for the all-star remake of "What's Going On." "So I started writing songs with Rick Nowels [Dido, Melanie C], Walter Afanasieff [Celine Dion, Mariah Carey] and people like that."

He did not address Savage Garden's demise.

Hayes recorded his upcoming album, Spin, in San Francisco during the past year.

"It's really cool. It's probably the thing I'm most proud of, ever," he said. "It's a mixture of pop, R&B and electronica. Savage Garden was always a collaboration. This was me on my own, which was scary but cool because I could muck around with electronica and things I couldn't do in the band."

Spin's first single will be released in late November, with the album to follow early next year. Hayes wouldn't reveal the single's title but described the song as "very sexy" and said his record company is negotiating with a noted director to film its video in Australia.

Hayes wrote 35 new songs for the record, though only 13 made the final cut. "The cool thing is, a lot of the ones I didn't use will be B-sides, bonus tracks or stuff you can download on the Internet," he said.

Savage Garden scored a #1 single in 1998 with the love song "Truly Madly Deeply," from their eponymous 1997 debut. The album sold nearly 5 million copies, according to SoundScan.

The guys' relationship may have severed years before they officially called it quits as a band. Hayes left their native Brisbane for New York as the band was riding high on the charts, while Jones stayed behind to concentrate on music. Their second album, 1999's Affirmation, sold more than 2.6 million copies and yielded the group's second #1 single, "I Knew I Loved You."

Savage Garden went on hiatus late last year, claiming they weren't breaking up.

(This story was updated at 6:47 p.m. ET Friday, October 5, 2001.)

• Savage Garden

Backstreet Boys' AJ
Photo: Jive

The big-print names on the charts might be 'NSYNC, Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion, but when Swedish composers Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson each took home a piece of the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award, it was a reminder that it's both the singer and the song that makes for a hit.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers held its 18th annual ASCAP Pop Awards Tuesday in Los Angeles, where other big winners were Savage Garden, Tom Waits and Modest Mouse.

Martin penned the Backstreet Boys' smash "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" while Carlsson wrote 'NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye." Together, the two were responsible for the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way," 'NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" and Dion's "That's the Way It Is." ASCAP honored Savage Garden's Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones with Song of the Year for their "I Knew I Loved You," which is #14 on the Billboard adult contemporary singles chart.

Waits, whose almost 30-year career has seen him mutate from grizzled blues-jazz singer to avant-garde rocker and theatrical composer, received ASCAP's Founders Award for his body of work. On Waits' latest disc, 1999's Mule Variations, he collaborated with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, on an album of twisted lyrics and sonic experimentation.

Waits and Savage Garden performed at the Beverly Hilton Hotel event, along with the Goo Goo Dolls and Holly Lamar, who co-wrote Faith Hill's #1 hit "Breathe." Lamar's collaborator, Stephanie Bentley, took home Song of the Year honors at last week's BMI Pop Awards, handed out by rival songwriters' organization BMI (see "Grohl, Stapp, Sting Take Home BMI Honors"). Modest Mouse picked up the College Radio Award for the ASCAP artist whose body of work collectively garnered the most college radio airplay. The group released Building Nothing Out of Something in 2000, and dropped the rarities collection Sad Sappy Sucker in April (see "Modest Mouse Rarities Surfacing").

• Backstreet Boys
• *NSYNC
• Savage Garden
• Tom Waits
• Celine Dion

AC/DC's Angus Young
Photo: Elektra

After a summer and autumn marked by the song's complete cultural penetration, you might think no one on Earth would ever again want to hear the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out." But five people orbiting the Earth definitely wanted to hear it February 9 — the song was the wake-up call for the crew of the space shuttle mission STS-98.

During the mission, every day at 4 a.m. CT, the crew would receive wake-up calls: musical transmissions from Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center outside Houston. Tuesday (February 20), some 12 hours before touching down at the space center the four men and one woman crewmembers were roused by the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go." When one exits the atmosphere of the planet Earth, the notions of "night" and "day" become relative. Since the mission began February 7, the crew orbited the earth every 90 minutes. That's 15 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.

But people still need to rest and observe work routines, so NASA marks the passage of time in space with wake-up calls.

STS-98's two-week mission was to deliver and install the Destiny research laboratory to the International Space Station (an orbiting laboratory in space produced jointly by 16 countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan and Canada), according to NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries. The mission also included three space walks.

The crew included mission commander Ken Cockrel, pilot Mark Polanski and mission specialists Marcia Ivins (who used a robotic arm to install the module onto the station), Tom Jones and Bob Kerbeam, who took the walks in space to make the necessary connections.

The crews orbiting the Earth schedule their night and day periods based on when they need to be awake to do their work, according to Humphries.

"Some missions have two shifts, so there is someone awake 24 hours a day," he said. "On those missions, we don't do wake-up calls. On missions when the crew is on the same shift, we send up one when they're supposed to get out of bed." The wake-up calls are orchestrated before the mission, Humphries said. "A [crew-member's] family will say, 'I'd like to send this song up to my dad, because he's on orbit and he likes this song.' " Some songs fostered team spirit, Humphries said.

For instance, the crew's training team sent AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock" to the shuttle February 13, the seventh day of the mission. The next day was Valentine's Day, so Jones' wife had mission control play Savage Garden's "To the Moon and Back."

• Baha Men
• AC/DC
• Savage Garden
• The Clash

Savage Garden will take an extended break once the band's world tour wraps up in South Africa in December, giving singer Darren Hayes an opportunity to work on a solo album, according to posts by Hayes on the band's official fan Web site, savagefan.com.

Hayes told fans he's been working on songs in his spare time all year and expects to start recording in February, but no specific plans are in place, and no producer has been chosen for the project, according to the band's manager, Larry Tollin.

Hayes also said he's been working on a screenplay he hopes to have produced.

Savage Garden have not broken up, the singer stressed, and he added that the duo, which includes instrumentalist Daniel Jones, likely will reconvene in late 2001 or early 2002 to record a third album, a follow-up to Affirmation, released November 1999. Jones intends to work as a producer on other projects during the band's hiatus, Hayes said.

Meanwhile, Hayes has asked fans to stop requesting the band's latest single, the title track from Affirmation, en masse. The band's fans have created special Web sites dedicated to garnering the band more airplay, but Hayes said he is concerned that such campaigns have a negative impact at radio, and that the band risks getting a reputation for 'fixed' requests.

"Mass emails, phone calls etc simply do not work and cause more damage than good," Hayes wrote. The song "Affirmation" was not the hit the band hoped for, but no one was to blame, he added.

"There are many reasons why 'Affirmation' wasn't a hit, and had nothing to do with the quality of the song or the support of the fans," Hayes wrote. "Affirmation as an album has sold over seven million copies worldwide in only one year. We are happy. We are thankful and grateful. But I think it's time to stop with strategy and just be supportive. Trying to resurrect 'Affirmation' now is not a good idea. It's over, and we should move on."

Hayes added that the song would be the last single from the album.

• Savage Garden

Australian popmaker Savage Garden is currently in the midst of an extensive North American summer tour, but the duo has already lined up an Olympic-size homecoming gig for when the tour wraps.

The duo, who is performing in support of its second album, "Affirmation," has been tapped to perform the record's title track during the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, on October 1.

Both the opening and closing ceremonies will be held at the newly constructed Olympic Stadium at Sydney's Olympic Park, with the opening ceremony slated for September 15, although several preliminary events will actually take place starting on September 13.

So far, none of the other artists confirmed to play the opening ceremony quite have the contemporary pop luster of Savage Garden; they include Olivia Newton-John, Human Nature, and Tina Arena.

Savage Garden, which has sold more than 2.3 million copies of "Affirmation" in the U.S. alone, will play the Bethlehem Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday (see "Savage Garden Kicks Off North American Tour").

• Savage Garden

Aussie pop act Savage Garden kicked off its North American tour at Sunrise, Florida's Sunrise Musical Theatre on Tuesday night with a large stage production that managed to keep the crowd's focus on the group's two figureheads, singer Darren Hayes and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Jones.

Hayes, decked out in the first of many flamboyant costumes, played rock-star as he covered the multi-tiered stage during early numbers like "Break Me Shake Me" and "To The Moon & Back," both from the duo's self-titled, six-times-platinum debut. While Hayes strutted, Jones, wearing a much simpler outfit, was content to stick to one spot onstage with guitar in hand.

The concertgoers in the small theater showed their appreciation for the group's early, upbeat tunes, and glow-sticks seemed to be the only common accessory between them. Of course, many of the fans didn't know what to do with their fluorescent toys during a set of ballads which saw the duo dispatch with its six-piece backing band, Jones take a seat behind a grand piano, and Hayes serenade the mostly female audience.

Ranging in age from preteens to 40-somethings, it seemed as if every audience member let out a shriek at least once during the show; when Hayes made eye contact with the crowd, there was an instant, high-decibel response. The singer made it clear he was enjoying the attention. "This is a two-way street; it's not our show, it's your show," Hayes said, his face flushed red from exertion.

The intimate vocals-and-piano interlude featured a rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine" along with some storytelling between songs. While Hayes chatted, Jones just kept beaming a smile that seemed to have been plastered on his face for the entire show.

For the encore, Hayes traded in his black leather pants for a white-on-white disco look, complete with Elvis-styled sunglasses, for the high-energy "Chained To You." Quickly shedding the glasses and disco jacket for the group's breakthrough hit "I Want You," Hayes looked as contemporary as possible.

But the crowd favorite was undoubtedly "I Knew I Loved You" from Savage Garden's double-platinum 1999 release, "Affirmation," which featured the entire audience singing along throughout.

To catch Savage Garden on the road, here's the duo's current itinerary:

• 7/20 - Myrtle Beach, SC @ Palace Theater
• 7/22 - Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Music Center
• 7/25 - New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
• 7/27 - Troy, PA @ Troy Fair
• 7/28 - Boston, MA @ FleetBoston Pavilion
• 7/29 - Bristow, VA @ Nissan Pavilion
• 7/31 - Montreal, QC @ Molson Centre
• 8/1 - Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheatre
• 8/2 - Ionia, MI @ Ionia Free Fair
• 8/5 - Columbus, OH @ Ohio State Fairgrounds
• 8/6 - West Allis, WI @ Wisconsin State Fair
• 8/9 - Bethlehem, PA @ Bethlehem Musikfest
• 8/11 - Fairlea, WV @ West Virginia St. Fair
• 8/13 - Springfield, IL @ Illinois State Fair
• 8/14 - Midland, MI @ Midland County Fair
• 8/17 - Sedalia, MO @ Missouri State Fair
• 8/18 - Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre
• 8/19 - Lima, OH @ Allen County Fairgrounds
• 8/21 - Interlochen, MI @ Kresge Auditorium
• 8/22 - Rochester, MI @ Meadow Brook
• 8/25 - Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
• 8/26 - Pueblo, CO @ Colorado State Fair
• 8/28 - Saskatoon, SK @ Saskatchewan Place
• 8/29 - Calgary, AB @ Canadian Airlines Saddledome
• 8/30 - Edmonton, AB @ Skyreach Centre
• 9/1 - Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
• 9/2 - Seattle, WA @ Bumbershoot Festival
• 9/3 - Portland, OR @ Tom McCall Park
• 9/6 - Concord, CA @ Chronicle Pavilion @ Concord
• 9/8 - Universal City, CA @ Universal Amphitheatre
• 9/9 - San Diego, CA @ SDSU Open Air Theatre
• 9/10 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues

• Savage Garden

Affable Australian duo Savage Garden has scored the number one single in the country for the second week in a row with "I Knew I Loved You" from its album "Affirmation."

• Savage Garden

In terms of first-week sales, Fiona Apple and The Artist were simply no match for Faith Hill, Savage Garden, or those darn-blasted Pokémon.

-- Kim Stitzel

• Fiona Apple
• Mariah Carey
• Faith Hill
• Prince
• Rage Against the Machine

After tabulating more than 11 million in worldwide sales of its 1997 debut album, the Aussie pop duo known as Savage Garden has returned with its second record, "Affirmation."