Kelly Rowland kept it real and really hilarious about the infamous moment she tried to text Nelly through Microsoft Excel in the “Dilemma” music video: “They made me look nuts!”
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The only thing catchier than Kelly’s vocals on the 2002 Grammy-winning hit is the infamous Excel text. After more than 20 years, clips still go viral of Kelly getting mad Nelly didn’t “HOLLA” back at his spreadsheet-sending shorty.
Now Rowland’s mad that everyone on set let the low-tech text slide without saying anything. On the March 2 episode of Mystical Kitchen’s Last Meal series, she addressed her most-memed moment.
Host Josh Scherer introduced the Mea Culpa cutie as “the only person in history to successfully send a text message via Microsoft Excel.” Rowland couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh, my God, do you know how much flack I get from that?” she asked, flashing a flawless smile.
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When Scherer apologized for adding to the neverending joke, Rowland reassured him, “Oh, it’s alright. I’m so used to it now.”
The episode cuts to a screengrab of the Nokia phone after Kelly typed into cell A1, “WHERE YOU AT? HOLLA WHEN YOU GET THIS.” The disappointed Destiny’s Child diva then angrily dropped the phone when she didn’t get a response.
“Do you remember during the ‘Dilemma’ music video shoot? Did anybody address that at the time?” Scherer asked, like we’ve all wondered for the last 20 years.
“I’m actually mad at them that they didn’t, and they made me look nuts,” she joked.
In hindsight, it makes the dramatic phone scene pure comedy.
“You seemed so mad that he wasn’t returning the text,” he added.
“What did you expect? Because it’s just a draft, my dear,” Kelly said, poking fun at herself.
Scherer helped the “Motivation” singer save face with an elaborate explanation of how she could have technically could have sent a message from Excel. She was just too advanced for the rest of us to catch up. Black women in tech!
She stared directly into the camera and shrugged, “What he said!”
Check out the clip from Kelly Rowland’s Last Meal interview below.
According to Us Weekly, Rowland also discussed the iconic pop culture moment on The Real with host Jeannie Mai. The humble hottie admitted why she didn’t get the jokes when social media started circulating the clip.
“Guys, so here’s the sitch, OK? I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what Microsoft Excel is. I don’t have a clue, so when I saw all these memes, I was like, ‘I don’t care,’” she explained in 2019.
Not only did no one question the scene on set, Rowland revealed at the time, producers “thought that [Excel texting] was a brilliant idea.