Chrissy Teigen asked the Backstreet Boys what the 'it' is in 'I want it that way' and they actually responded

So Chrissy Teigen just welcomed her second blessed bébé into the world a few weeks ago, and while things must be pretty busy right now what with tending to little Miles in his first few moments of life, I'm happy to inform you that the model is still providing us with quality Twitter content.

The 32-year-old must have been listening to some old school classics on Spotify lately, after publicly musing about the lyrics from the 1999 Backstreet Boys hit 'I Want It That Way'. It's an absolute banger, but if you really listen to what they're singing about, it suddenly seems very convoluted. Chrissy clocked onto this and turned to Twitter to see if anyone could clarify.

Okay, it's even a bit difficult to get your head around what the actual question is, but here's what Chrissy asked:

"'I never wanna hear you say, "I want it that way" cause i want it that way'. He doesn’t wanna hear it because he is the one that wants it that way? He wants to be the one to say it? Also what is 'it'?"

There are two people in song, right? The "I" and the "you", and Chrissy is basically just trying to clarify what each of them means. Does he not want her to say she "wants it that way" because he "wants it that way", and believes that only one person can want it that way? Or is it just that he wants to be the one to say it, so he's asking her kindly not to utter the phrase?

Finally, she just wants to know once and for all what "it" is. Yes, it's a complicated lyric, and it seems Chrissy had opened a whole new can of worms almost two decades on from the song's initial release. But before a Twitter war broke out between users arguing about what it meant, the Backstreet Boys themselves chimed in with the answer.

Yep, despite the fact that Chrissy didn't even tag the band in the tweet, they caught wind of the model/mother questioning their cryptic lyrics and decided to give her an explanation. Evidence again that Chrissy is the queen of Twitter.

They replied with a GIF of themselves dancing in all-white outfits (because why not) and left her with this answer, which I'll be honest still left me kind of confused:

"Don’t wanna hear you say that you want heartaches and mistakes... or to be 2 worlds apart. We don’t want you to want 'it' that way - that’s the way we want it... for you to not want it that way."

Err... righto, this might need a bit more of a thorough analysis.

So the Backstreet Boys said that they don't want to hear her say that she wants "heartaches and mistakes" (who does) or for the two of them to be "2 worlds apart". These are all (obviously) references to the other lyrics in the song, where the love interest accuses the singer of being "nothing but a heartache/mistake" and that it sucks when they are "2 worlds apart".

So the singer is saying that they don't want the love interest to "want it" in those unhappy scenarios. In fact, they want her not to want it like that, and so that's how they want it to be.

Have I completely lost you? I don't blame you. Here's the song in its entirety for you instead then.

Thanks anyway, Chrissy.