‘He Helped Us Create Our Legacy’

The Backstreet Boys welcomed a very special guest to their residency at Sphere Las Vegas Saturday night, pointing out their longtime collaborator Max Martin in the crowd.

“He helped us create our legacy and the soundtrack to our lives,” Howie Dorough said, just before the group broke into a rendition of the Martin-helmed Millennium track, “Don’t Want You Back” “He wrote all those hit songs that we get a chance to sing for you guys. We are very indebted to Mr. Max Martin.”

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“Let him feel the love y’all,” added Kevin Richardson, urging the audience to give Martin a standing ovation. “Let him feel the love.”

Martin reposted the moment on his Instagram stories, adding a video of himself standing up and acknowledging the sold-out crowd. Recently named Billboard’s Top Producer of the 21st Century, the Swedish hitmaker has worked with the Backstreet Boys since the very beginning, writing and producing the group’s debut single, “We’ve Got It Going On,” which was released in September 1995. He went on to work on memorable BSB hits like “I Want It That Way,” “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and “Shape of My Heart,” to name just a few.

Martin has also been tapped to produce Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl. After working almost exclusively with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner for the last eight years, Swift announced last week that she reunited with Martin and his frequent producing partner Shellback for the new LP. Martin and Shellback are responsible for some of Swift’s biggest hits to date, including “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off,” each of which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Martin wasn’t the only BSB collaborator in attendance Saturday night. Dorough also shouted out songwriter Andrew Fromm, who wrote the Millennium album cuts, “I Need You Tonight” (which Nick Carter performs solo in the residency) and the Howie D-led “Spanish Eyes.” “This song is normally dedicated to my mom,” Dorough said about the latter, “but the man who wrote it is in the house tonight. so we’re dedicating it to Andrew.”

Saturday’s outing marked date number 17 of the Backstreet Boys’ well-received Vegas residency, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of their chart-topping album, Millennium. The group recently added seven more dates to their run at Sphere, taking them into 2026.

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