Welcome back to Takeover Tuesday, where each week Billboard taps chart-topping artists and taste-makers to compile their very own playlist exclusive to Billboard’s Spotify account. We give the artists free reign to base the list on whatever subject they choose. The only rule? Make it as creative and unique to them as possible.
In 1993, the Backstreet Boys were five boys from Orlando, Florida with humble beginnings and dreams of becoming famous singers. Twenty-five years later, the group (AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell) are one of the biggest boy bands of all time, and even topped Billboard’s 100 Greatest Boy Bands Songs of All Time list with their iconic 1999 hit “I Want It That Way.”
On April 20, the boy band and their adoring fans celebrated 25 years of Backstreet Boys mania, which they first commemorated with an Instagram post. “If you would have told us that 25 years later we would still be making music together, we would have never believed you,” the band said in the caption of the throwback photo.
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In honor of their milestone, the guys created a playlist spanning 25 years of music for this week’s Takeover Tuesday — perfect timing for Billboard‘s Boy Band Week.
A playlist of great music over the last 25 years wouldn’t be complete without a few songs from BSB themselves, of course including “I Want It That Way,” as well as earlier classics “(Everybody) Backstreet’s Back” and “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).” They continue the trend of male vocal groups throughout the playlist, featuring R&B staples Shai and Boyz II Men in their picks.
Many of the featured time-spanning songs are meant to make you “rock your body,” from the 1996 party-starter “Return of the Mack” by Mark Morrison to 2015’s groovy Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars collab “Uptown Funk.” Beyonce — who got in her start in girl group Destiny’s Child in the same decade as BSB — also appears on the playlist with her solo breakthrough hit “Crazy In Love” featuring now-hubby JAY-Z.
25 Years of Music also honors Avicii — who recently passed away at the age of 28 — with the inclusion of his Aloe Blacc-assisted banger “Wake Me Up” from 2013.
Check out the Backstreet Boys’ 25 Years of Music playlist below.