'When we finished recording the song and the label executives heard it, they didn't think it made 100 percent sense, lyrically-and they actually asked us if we could go back in and rewrite and rerecord some of the lyrics to make the song make a little more sense, meaning-wise, and we actually did that,' explains Kevin. The Backstreet Boys at the 1999 Billboard Music Awards Getty Images But the record label disagreed, because they didn't think the song made sense. I thought it was gonna be a big record for us.' To me, the guitar part is as much of a hook as the chorus is, and immediately it jumped right out at me. 'Max played the demo and he was singing on it,' says Kevin of the first time he heard the song. This was gonna be our third album in Europe, but it was only gonna be our second album in the United States, so there was a lot of pressure, a lot of anticipation for our second record.' Kevin thought it was going to be a hit straight away. Kevin says, 'We had just finally broken in the United States.

There was a lot of pressure on the band before 'I Want It That Way' came out. To be fair, I don't either, and I've listened to it 50,000 times. Nick doesn't remember the first time he heard the song. Here, they (sort of) answer all our questions about 'I Want It That Way' and how it came to be. We chatted with Nick, A.J., and Kevin about their signature ballad.

Although 'I Want It That Way' is 17 years old, it's still on regular rotation everywhere from karaoke bars to fashion weeks-and still makes news headlines.

The Pakatan government collapsed yesterday after Bersatu left the coalition with its 26 MPs, along with the resignation of nine former PKR MPs from the party.The 1999 song is such a classic that when I went to get a coffee this morning, it was playing in the cafe. Mujahid also expressed his confidence in the leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, shortly before the latter resigned as prime minister and was subsequently nominated again later as interim prime minister by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. He described the move as the actions of desperate people doing desperate things, adding that Pakatan Harapan’s presidential council meeting last Friday was clear and should be adhered to. In a series of tweets on Sunday, Mujahid had attacked other MPs he deemed as the “backdoor gang”, questioning their motives in forming a new government. The former minister in charge of religious affairs also quoted the chorus of Backstreet Boys’ 1999 hit I Want It That Way.

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