I want it that way

I was awake after a short nap and decided to turn on the TV. There was a show on channel E!, "15 awesomest boy bands ever" and guess what? Soon as I clicked on the channel, the number one boy band was about to be revealed. I present you, my biggest obsession between 1997 to 2002…BACKSTREET BOYS!

The poster in my room back in 2001

I remember seeing them for the first time on a local newspaper. According to E! they debuted in 1996 but for some reasons I only saw BSB in Malaysian media a year later. Now, we all know for each boy band there would always be that one person we really like a.k.a boy band member crush. At first I liked Nick but somehow I ended up going gaga over Kevin Scott Richardson. The proof can be seen in my "autograph book", that tweeny thing we have every year where friends and foes alike write a few words (or pages) of memories about us. Mine was filled with photos of my favourite artists.

Everywhere there would be Kevin's photo. And Mariah. They all know how much I love Mariah.

Kevin again. And Mariah.

There's also Mark from Westlife.

And Mariah.

To me, Backstreet Boys was is the epitome of a teen-age's need to look up to someone, and what better person to choose than someone (or five ones) who are famous worldwide with white teeth and innocent looks? Of course BSB has some kind of swag attached to their image but it's the innocent, boyish looks that first captured many young hearts at that time. And their songs…there aren't any swear words or bad examples, only hours or swooning about a girl (That's the way I like it, Get Down), going to a party (Let's Have a Party) or just simply telling people they're back (Backstreet's back, alright!).

My friend said to read this page every birthday for birthday wishes...from her and Kevin Ha ha ha!

I don't think there would ever be any other boy band that would take BSB's crown. Although that could easily be explained by the fact that I no longer go crazy for boy bands (k-pop was non-existent back then so Big Bang doesn't count in this discussion, OK) and I would probably have interest in boy band but the level of excitement would never be the same. I remember buying each album that came out from my meagre pocket money, going after posters in magazines, swapping posters with my pen pal from Germany, and worst of all, posters all over my room!

Kevin the hunky member of BSB.

Mariah, BSB and some other guy from another boy band. I think his name is Rich or Richie.

My favourite BSB song of all is, strangely, one that was not put forward as much as I'd love, entitled "If I don't have you". I have that song in every music player I have owned since 1997 i.e.: a bulky Sony Walkman, followed by a Slim Sony Walkman, Samsung MP3 players (two of them, of the same model with different colours) and finally my smartphone, not to mention all of my computers. Here are a few others that I used to listen to non-stop:

• What makes you different (makes you beautiful)
• That's what she said
• Don't wanna lose you now
• Spanish eyes
• Let's have a party
• and of course, the magical  -I'll never break your heart-

So many pictures!

Oh now I remember - my friends put Mark's photos because he looked like this guy I had a crush on from another school, who much much later became my boyfriend (now ex).

Thank you BSB, for all those supports that you probably never knew you gave to a teenager living with her single mother. I hope you have a big happy family (maybe they already do) and success in your every step of life. I love youuuuuuuu!