Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for 20th Century StudiosFans have been waiting years for new Rihanna music and still we don’t know when we’ll be getting any. So to tide you over, how about listening to a Backstreet Boy sing a Rihanna song?

Backstreet’s AJ McLean has released his cover of “Love on the Brain,” Rihanna’s top-five hit from her 2016 album, Anti.  He tells US Weekly that he recorded the song four years ago, after his manager suggested that he cut his own version of a song by a female artist.

“I was like, ‘I love that idea! Anything to keep empowering the female community, I’m all for it,’” AJ tells US Weekly. “Then it became a bit of a struggle to figure out which artist and which song because I can’t sing like a girl. I can’t hit the notes that any female artist hits.”

AJ’s wife, Rochelle, came to the rescue.  She was listening to Anti at the time and suggested he try “Love on the Brain.”

“I listened to it and I couldn’t stop listening to it,” AJ recalls.

After he decided to go in a country direction for his solo project, AJ shelved the cover, though he did play it for fans on the most recent Backstreet cruise and, he says, “They went nuts.”

He’s releasing it now, he says, because people need something that makes them feel good.

“Why not do something that could bring some people some joy? There’s never a wrong time to put out music,” he reasons.  However, he admits, “I’m just scared…if she hears it…is she gonna put me on blast or is she gonna be like, ‘Nice job, AJ!’”

Rihanna, whose charity has been donating millions to fight the pandemic, is probably too busy at the moment to render her verdict.

(Video contains uncensored profanity.)

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