Milkshake

Milkshake

Kelis

Kelis’s 2003 smash “Milkshake” is about a special female quality that men find irresistible. Kelis told Blues & Soul: “To me, a milkshake itself represents the essence of a woman. It’s that thing that men are drawn to about women and what separates one sex from the other.” She also suggested not overthinking the song: “It’s sorta cheeky—not to be taken too seriously—a fun, chanty kind of thing.”

“Milkshake” was written and produced by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, a.k.a. the Neptunes. Williams was inspired to write the song after taking in the sights and sounds of Brazil’s club scene. Williams told NYU: “We had never seen anything like that or heard anything like that. And so when I came back, I was like, ‘Man, I want to do something that evokes that kind of feeling.’ So instead of doing booty-shaking music, I tried to use some more Middle Eastern sounds and completely just twist it as much as I could. It would be something that even in Brazil they would go, ‘OK, we like the rhythm of this. We like the feeling of this, but this is from somewhere else.’”

“Milkshake” reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100—it came as something of a surprise to Kelis. She told Westword: “I knew right away that it was a really good song, and it was the one that I wanted to be the first single. But I don’t know that I knew exactly what was going to happen with it. I just knew that it was where I wanted to be.”

In 2014, Kelis looked back fondly at “Milkshake.” She told Spin: “I love the song. It’s bright. I know what it meant, I know what it did for music and for female artists in that era. I’m not saying I single-handedly did it, but you know it played a huge part in where music went.”

Kelis is also a chef, and has written a cookbook—but there’s one item she’s never whipped up. Kelis told the Guardian: “I don’t think I’ve ever made a milkshake.”