Bon Jovi on "Ellen" today and Friday

All the anticipation in the world paid off last week for Island Records group Bon Jovi, as their new album LOST HIGHWAY (released June 19th) gave the band the first #1 U.S. debut of their career on the Billboard 200, on opening week sales of more than 291,000 copies – their biggest-ever one-week sales total. LOST HIGHWAY also debuted #1 on Billboard’s Rock Albums chart, Billboard’s European Top 100 chart, in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Austria, Thailand and Japan where Bon Jovi’s #1 chart debut gave them their 4th #1 career album – breaking the record which they shared with the Beatles, of three #1’s.

“LOST HIGHWAY is a career-defining collection of new songs that is resonating with Bon Jovi fans in a way that established a new standard of success for the band,” said Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group. “Bon Jovi has once again proved that their loyal following not only transcends any changes in the marketplace, but in fact has grown in numbers. 2007 is shaping up as a monumental year in Bon Jovi’s history.”

As Soundscan album sales officially began at midnight, 12:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Bon Jovi’s “Stripped” live performance was put up on 602 Clear Channel radio station websites from coast-to-coast. The program features six live song videos – the new single, “(You Want To) Make A Memory,” the album title track, “Lost Highway,” “Wanted Dead Or Alive,” “Hallelujah,” “Whole Lot Of Leavin’,” and “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” – plus an exclusive interview.

The 602 stations – representing an on-air audience of 40 million across the Mainstream Rock, Classic Rock, Hot AC, Country, and News/Talk/Sports formats – marked an all-time record number of participating stations for a Clear Channel Stripped promotion. More than 1.1 million homepage impressions were logged altogether in the first 48 hours.

That same Tuesday morning, NBC’s Today Show announced that Bon Jovi drew the biggest outdoor audience in the show’s history, for the band’s live 4-song performance outside on the Plaza. TV continued for Bon Jovi on Wednesday morning, on ABC’s The View, which will be followed by two more dates on Ellen next week (June 28-29).

First week sales received a further boost with the premiere tv broadcasts of Bon Jovi’s “Unplugged” acoustic performances on MTV, VH1 and CMT – on June 22nd, 23rd and 24th (Friday through Sunday), respectively. Fans were treated to live acoustic versions of “(You Want To) Make A Memory,” “Lost Highway,” and a duet with guest LeAnn Rimes on another new album track, “Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore.” The All American Rejects joined Bon Jovi for a reprise of their classic “It’s My Life.” New arrange­ments (many of them featuring full strings accompaniment) were charted for many of Bon Jovi’s classic hits as well as some rarely-heard album cuts.

Across the river, New Jersey homeboys Bon Jovi will be the inaugural performers at The Rock, the brand new arena at Newark’s Prudential Center (new home of the Devils hockey team), with 10 nights starting October 25th – the band’s only tour dates of 2007. Ticket sales were so brisk for the first five shows (Oct. 25, 26, 28, 30 and Nov. 1) that five additional nights have been added (for Nov. 3, 4, 7, 9, 10).

Earlier this month, Bon Jovi partnered with Ticket­master for the first-ever advance concert ticket + digital album package presale. For a period of 10 days ending June 22nd, every concert ticket purchased through the exclusive online presale program was bundled with a digital download of LOST HIGHWAY. Tickets are available for purchase at Ticketmaster.com.

In April, Jon Bon Jovi and David Bryan served as mentors to the six finalists on “American Idol,” as seen by 30 million viewers. The performance of “(You Want To) Make A Memory” on the second night launched the album pre-sale at the www.bonjovi.com website as well as the exclusive video premiere on AOL. LOST HIGHWAY follows the success of Bon Jovi’s record-breaking world tour and multi-platinum album Have A Nice Day, released September 2005.

Bon Jovi has sold over 120 million albums around the world and performed more than 2,500 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 32 million people.