On Saturday night when performing in Toronto, Backstreet Boys surprised everyone when they brought out the city’s most famous native, Drake, who assisted them in delivering their 1999 hit, ‘I Want It That Way’ from Millennium.
It’s not the first time that contemporary rappers have revisited the song, recently, it was used by Lil Uzi Vert for ‘That Way’, whilst also becoming the centrepiece of a Doritos Super Bowl ad that co-starred Chance the Rapper alongside Backstreet Boys.
It’s been a busy week for Drake. Last week, his new album, Honestly, Nevermind, went to number one on the American album charts. A surprise release, it dropped on streaming services just a few hours after he announced it on his Instagram.
A departure from the trap sound of his last album, Certified Lover Boy, Drake’s new opus is comprised of a blend of house and Baltimore club sounds. Featuring an appearance from 21 Savage, it was produced by a host of some of the best in the game, including Gordo, 40, and Black Coffee.
Although Honestly, Nevermind has polarised some Drake fans, as it represents a new stylistic direction, the album has been largely welcomed as refreshing, helping the rapper to top the US album chart easily.
Boasting the singles, ‘Sticky’, ‘Massive’ and ‘Falling Back’, Drake’s new album earned 204,000 equivalent album units in the first week of release in the US, as well as 11,000 album sales. It also racked up 250.23million streams, giving it the fourth-largest streaming week behind Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and Future’s Never Liked You.
Drake’s new number one album pushes him past Kanye West and Eminem, landing him tied with Bruce Springsteen and Barbara Streisand for the third-most number one albums in Billboard history, behind only Jay-Z (14) and The Beatles (19).
Watch Drake join Backstreet Boys onstage below.
