I should say that this is one collaboration that I wasn’t expecting. JPOP singer and actor Shirota Yu will be featured in Backstreet Boys‘ Howie D’s new song, If I Say, for his upcoming solo album BACK TO ME.

The song will be in the Japanese version of the album, which is set to be released on November 9th. Furthermore, the song will be used as the ending song for Jackie Chan’s new movie, “1911″.

Shirota was thrilled to be working with the Backstreet Boys member and stated, “If I Say feat. U’ is a pure love song, and it is a warm song. We will have to let you judge the finished work, but we are both coming to feel that it’s been wonderfully done.”

Though the song is sung in English, we can hear Shirota singing some Spanish lines. It’s no surprise, given that he is half-Japanese, half-Spanish!