The real meaning behind Outkast’s “Hey Ya” will shock you – Twitter in disbelief from meme

Hey Ya, the 2003 hit by Outkast, has been a party tune for nearly 20 years now, but fans of the song are now realising the lyrics may be deeper than they first appear.

In a TikTok video, user @elizadeva told her followers of the true meaning behind the Hey Ya lyrics as part of her series: “Songs that hit different when you know what they’re written about.”

She said: “André 3000 actually wrote this about modern-day relationships and how messed up they are. In the beginning of the song, he even references his own relationship; how his baby doesn’t wanna leave him, how doesn’t really know what the reason is behind it.”

Outkast tweet meme about Hey Ya lyrics

On May 3rd, Outkast shared a meme on their Twitter page about their hit song “Hey Ya.”

They captioned it: “Alright alright alright alright alright we made one.”

In the meme, Outkast describes the song as one fifth “a bop” and four fifths “the saddest song ever written.”

Fans of the song have now taken a deep dive into the lyrics, and it turns out, they are right… Hey Ya is way sadder than we ever thought.

Because of the up beat tune and catchy melody, some of the deeper, more sad lyrics go unnoticed in the song. For example, the following verse:

You think you’ve got it
Oh, you think you’ve got it
But got it just don’t get it when there’s nothin’ at all
We get together
Oh, we get together
But separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved
Know what they say -its
Nothing lasts forever!@elizadeva

Go listen & it will hit DIFFERENT! Follow for Part 5! (Hey Ya! By OutKast) #songwriting #music #deepermeaning #hitdifferent #LearnOnTiktok #trend #fyp♬ original sound – Elizabeth

Real meaning of Outkast’s Hey Ya revealed

TikTok user @elizadeva who goes by the name Elizabeth uploaded a video explaining the meaning behind the song, and gathered over 1 million likes.

In the video, Elizabeth said: “What he’s talking about is in modern-day relationships, people stay in them because they just don’t want to be alone, not because of their love for the other person.”

“If you just read the lyrics it actually sounds like a really sad song. Even at the breakdown at the end, he makes a reference to how people are just gonna see it as a happy song and not even think about the deeper meaning behind it, nor do they even wanna hear about it.”

The lyric she is referring to is: “Y’all don’t want to hear me, you just want to dance.”