Dennis Leupold
January 25, Backstreet Boys will release DNA, their first album of new material since 2013. Billboard has put DNA on its list of the “40 Most Anticipated Albums of 2019,” and Backstreet’s AJ McLean says he really believes the boy band’s fans are in for a treat. In fact, he’s gone on record saying that DNA will be as good as Backstreet’s classic 1999 disc Millennium. But but he says don’t take his word for it.
“Y’know I have friends that are fans — maybe not, like, ‘fan’ fans — but I have friends that are in the [music] industry, and I’ve been sending ’em songs and they’re like, ‘Man, dude! This is gonna be a great album!'” AJ says.
And lest you think these friends are blowing smoke, AJ insists, “These are guys that would shoot it to me straight and be like, ‘Err…I don’t know what you’re doin'”….but no! They’ve said, song for song, that this is gonna be a great album.”
DNA will include Backstreet’s Grammy-nominated hit “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” as well as their current single, “Chances,” written by Ryan Tedder and Shawn Mendes. AJ says at first, they weren’t sure about recording that song.
“We were on the fence because there’s so many other great [tracks] on this album, like, which one do we go with? And coming off the success of ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,’ what do we do?” he tells ABC Radio. “And we picked ‘Chances’ and it’s been doing fantastic, whether it’s from streams or from views on YouTube…it’s just been amazing.”
Backstreet Boys will resume their Las Vegas residency February 6. After it wraps up April 27, they’ll kick off their DNA world tour May 11 in Lisbon, Portugal.
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