This year opens with a musical note for India. American multi-Grammy nominated pop band Backstreet Boys, pop/rock singer Richard Marx and South African band Prime Circle will headline this year’s Rock In India 2010 festival. The annual festival, which has hosted international heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden in 2009 and Megadeth in 2008 in Bangalore, has shifted the tone of music this time, to satiate a wider range of listeners. Another notable change: Delhi is on the list of venues.

“There has been a long- standing request from many music fans to our website that they would like to see mainstream music and also classic rock,” says T. Venkat Vardhan of DNA Networks, India. “Delhi has always been a good market for live entertainment so when I got this opportunity to expand our festival Rock in India Delhi was the obvious choice.”

The Rock in India concert will take place in Delhi on February 20 and in Bangalore on February 22.