Backstreet's back, all right! Boyband sign up for 18-date Las Vegas residency

Backstreet’s indeed back – in Vegas.

Backstreet Boys, the best-selling boyband in history, is the latest pop act to get its own residency, according to Billboard. The group – consisting of AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell – is confirmed to play an 18-date trial residency at the AXIX at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino starting in March.

Britney Spears’s popular ongoing show, Piece of Me, plays at the same venue, as does Jennifer Lopez’s All I Have tour. The Backstreet Boys’ show is called Larger Than Life, after their 1999 hit song of the same name.

“If you’ve ever been to a Backstreet Boys show … it’s going to be that on steroids,” promised Littrell in a video announcement of the news.

Backstreet Boys have sold over 130m records worldwide since forming in 1993. Managed by Lou Pearlman, who died in prison last month after being convicted for running a $300m Ponzi scheme, they were the first of many massively successful bands to perform songs written and produced by the Swedish songwriter Max Martin. Their 1999 album Millennium sold 30m copies, but the band’s popularity took a dive after Richardson left in 2006. He returned six years later.

In recent years, Backstreet Boys released the 2013 album In a World Like This, as well as the 2015 documentary Backstreet Boys: Show ‘Em What You’re Made Of. Las Vegas residencies are famously lucrative. Britney Spears, who used the same stable of songwriters and producers as the Backstreet Boys, reportedly earns $475,000 per show.