The real meaning behind 'Macarena' isn't as innocent as we thought.

They played this at every Year Three disco… 

Whether you love it or curse the day it was recorded, Los del Río’s Macarena has well and truly carved out a place in pop culture history. It’s been 21 years since the indecently catchy song was first released, but we bet you:

(a) still know all the moves, thanks to all those school discos and episodes of Rage; and
(b) still have no idea what the lyrics actually are.

For non-Spanish speakers, Macarena goes something like: “Akjsfbskfdbsifuhsdfbsdbfksjbkweb EEEEEEY MACARENA“. And while the version most of us are familiar with includes verses in English, we were probably too busy shaking it in our platform mules to listen closely.

Well, here’s something that might surprise you: the sentiment behind Macarena is a little less ‘woo, dance floor!’ and a lot more soap opera. It’s about a woman called Macarena and, well, let’s just say she’s experiencing some relationship dramas. The translated lyrics speak for themselves:

“Macarena has a boyfriend who is named
Who is named with the last name Vitorino
And while he was being sworn in as a conscript
She’s giving it to two friends.”

Yep, she hooked up with not one but two of Vitorino’s mates while he went off to war. DRAMAAAA.

You can revisit the gloriousness that is the video below. Post continues after video. 

Before you plead childhood innocence/”but I don’t even speak Spanish!”, we have to break it to you: the English-language remix from 1996 also included this narrative. You guys, it was actually under our noses this whole time, look:

“Now don’t you worry about my boyfriend
The boy whose name is Vitorino
I don’t want him, can’t stand him
He was no good so I… ha ha ha ha
Now come on, what was I supposed to do?
He was out of town and his two friends were so fine.”

Oh, Macarena. You can’t blame her for wanting some fun, but she probably should have broken things off first. That’s just, you know, good manners. Let’s just hope that if this is based on a real couple, Los del Río had the courtesy to change their names.

Distractify recently dropped the Macarena truth bomb on a bunch of people who grew up listening to the song, and they were pretty incredulous. Watch their reactions here:

What’ll they tell us next? That 2 Become 1 by The Spice Girls was actually about sex…? Oh, wait. It is.

Did you ever listen to the Macarena lyrics and figure this out? Or are you surprised?