Ariana Grande sent her fans into hysteria this week when she tweeted some lyrics and uploaded herself singing them in a bathroom to Instagram. But alas, it wasn’t a leak from her upcoming album, but the words to an ancient, folkloric chant sung by cave men. Okay not really, it was the Spice Girls’ 1996 hit Say You’ll Be There, but it might as well have been because that’s how old we feel right now. As the song nears its 21st birthday, it’s clear that most of Ariana Grande’s fans were nothing more than a twinkle in someone's eye when it was released.
To be honest, being not born yet is actually no excuse for never having heard of the Spice Girls. I know who The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac are, and you can be certain my kids will know who Rihanna is. And what were they doing during the Olympic Opening Ceremony?? Ariana was quick to set the record straight, tweeting: “omg they're spice girls lyrics not A4 tea am i old?”but the damage had already been done.
To add salt to the wound, I then had to double check what ‘A4 tea’ is – apparently it means a teaser (tea) from her fourth album (A4). Thanks Google.
This reminds me of that (excruciating) time when Kanye West’s fans gave him credit for ‘discovering’ Paul McCartney, after the pair collaborated on ‘Only One’ back in 2015, or (the year most Ariana Grande fans took their GCSEs).
There is definitely an abundance of Spice Girls’ nostalgia flying around at the moment – two weeks ago Charlie XCX and Halsey performed an amazing cover of Wannabe at Lollapalooza festival, sending the audience into meltdown. Emma Bunton also revealed to US Magazine that she still loves dancing to their music at weddings, and she’s kept all her old outfits from back in the day.
Now excuse me, I’m going to put some headphones on and pretend its 1996.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.