Singing over an accented rhythm?

Hello,

This isn't strictly a guitar question, but I am not totally sure where else to ask. I know how to play and sing at the same time, but I am struggling with a song that's seemingly very straightforward because of an accented 2nd and 4th beat.

The strumming pattern is incredibly simple, it's just straight up 8th notes up and done on power chords, but it really does not sound like the song unless you accent the 2nd and 4th beat by strumming them notably harder than the rest of the strums.

Problem is, once I start singing, I can't seem to reliably hit the accents, it just washes out to equal strums all the way through which doesn't sound right.

Just wanted to ask if anyone had any tips or has gone through this before?