It’s no surprise that most pop songs are riddled with double entendres and not-so-subtle sexual innuendos. But while dancing along to upbeat Ariana Grande or Rihanna songs, it’s hard to believe they’re about anything other than dancing and having fun … right? Wrong! These pop tracks, while innocently sweet, all have a dirty side — and their double meanings will shock you.
You would think after seeing Ariana and Nicki Minaj‘s highly sexual performance of “Side to Side” at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards that fans would pick up the true meaning of the song, but it wasn’t until Ariana herself confirmed the song’s intention that fans got a rude awakening.
“That whole song is about riding leading to soreness,” she said on the red carpet. “‘Ride d–k bicycle’ is the lyric, indeed.”
Fans were shocked, including Girls star Lena Dunham.
“Jack [Antonoff] just explained that the song ‘Side to Side’ is about getting railed so hard you can’t walk. SO MANY EMOTIONZ,” she tweeted at the time. In response, Ari replied with a slew of emojis including a magnifying glass, brown eye, coffee and bicycle.
To be honest, with phrases like “dick bicycle,” it makes us wonder how we ever thought it was innocent to begin with!
As for the Spice Girls‘ “Wannabe?” Yeah, the lyrics are actually pretty explicit. The song’s cowriter explained that the line, “We got G like MC who likes it on an … Easy V,” were a play on words that means “enjoying sex whilst on ecstasy.”
Even RiRi’s “We Found Love” is about getting high while doing the deed, too. The lyrics “yellow diamonds in the light” is a reference to ecstasy. “[The song’s] totally rave-y … and that’s the feeling, just music rushing over you, and then I started thinking about drugs and addiction and love and how that’s an addiction,” Melina Matsoukas, the video’s director, once said.
Excuse us, WHAT?! Scroll through the gallery below to see songs you had no idea were dirty.