Backstreet Boys hit single I Want It That Way, from their 1999 release Millennium, reached a milestone today. 1 billion views on YouTube! Making it the first Backstreet Boys music video to reach 1 billion views on the video sharing platform. Eleven years since it was uploaded. The video was uploaded to YouTube in October 2009. The video was also updated in HD quality just this year as well.
Seeing them reach this achievement proves that I Want It That Way is still one of their most popular songs. Just go to a Backstreet Boys concert and the second you hear the opening chords, the crowd gets excited. Singing every word to the song. It’s an incredible feeling to be in a arena with thousands of people singing the song.
I Want It That Way was the launching pad to their most successful album to date, Millennium. The album went on to sell 40 million copies. Would this have been the case with the alternate version, No Goodbyes? A rewritten version of the song that actually made more sense than the original. We may never know.
The music video was a constant feature on the MTV TRL countdown, reaching number 1 forty-seven times during the sixy-five day run. Fans called and voted online daily to make sure it was number 1. They won a Viewer’s Choice Award at the MTV VMAs for the video. The song was frequently played on the radio. It reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and #6 on the Hot 100. That song and Millennium made them one of the biggest groups at the time.
The song continues to chart on Billboard as recent as last year. It charted on the Google’s Top Hummed Songs of 2020 chart at #77. A chart that is based on how many times people hummed a song on their phone using Google. Pretty random, right? Many also searched for the lyrics using Lyric Find. Peaking at #7 on Billboard’s LyricFind U.S. chart on April 11, 2020.
I believe if you don’t know all of the Backstreet Boys’ music you definitely know I Want That Way. It was a song that was hard to escape. Still to this day I hear the song on the radio in my car and frequent too. No matter how many times I’ve heard it, it’s always nice to hear their music still being played on the radio.
Congratulations BSB for reaching this milestone on YouTube!
Wondering which music video might be next to reach 1 billion views on YouTube? Here’s a list of the music videos that have over 100 million views.
As Long As You Love Me 345 million
Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) 338 million
Shape of My Heart 231 Million
Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely 222 million
Incomplete 154 million
Drowning 148 million
Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) 123 million
