Backstreet's Back

The best-selling boyband of all time brings 20 years of hits to Dubai when they headline Blended Music Festival

There’s a telling moment in Backstreet Boys’ 2015 documentary Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of when Brian Littrell, always one of the strongest vocalists in the all-conquering Orlando group, has a bit of an existentialist crisis. “What do you do,” he ponders, “when you’re a full-grown man in a boyband?” Not an unreasonable question to ask given that Littrell – along with two other Backstreet Boys – is now firmly in his mid40s, yet still expected to expound every last piece of teenage energy in performing sugar-coated pop hits I Want It That Way or Quit Playing Games (With My Heart). But with the success of their current Las Vegas residency – and now a date in Dubai in April – the answer was clear: keep going until someone suggests you stop. As Long As You Love Me, indeed.