Ionic backdrop retain() won't fire

1

The following code is giving me issues

var notifyDummy = function(){
    $ionicBackdrop.retain();
    var dummyNotification = $ionicPopup.alert({
      title: 'blablabla',
      template: 'blablabla'
    });

    dummyNotification.then(function(res){
      console.log('done');
      $ionicBackdrop.release();
    });
  }

I don’t understand why the $ionic Backdrop.retain() won’t fire, I even have an listener on the scope listening for the backdrop shown function.