More than 20 years have passed since we last saw Kelly Rowland type a message into an Excel spreadsheet, and while the scene is still puzzling today as it was then, we may, at last, have an explanation.

Text Messaging on Excel?

It makes sense that as technology develops, the items used in music videos, movies, and TV shows will come to reflect their age, from Monica’s bulky TV in Friends to the clunky computer in American Pie.

The behaviour of Rowland in the music video for “Dilemma,” in which she can be seen holding a device and typing a message to Nelly not into a messaging system but rather into Microsoft Excel, cannot be justified by new technology.

Although having Excel on a tiny device was amazing in the early 2000s, few people still transmit messages using this method now. I’m sure you’re aware that a number of memes have been created about Rowland’s behaviour as a result.

Over the years, many people have questioned why Rowland was upset that Nelly didn’t reply since it appeared that she never successfully texted him in the first place, but Excel specialist Dan Strong has found a solution.

Strong provided an explanation of how Rowland might have utilized Excel to communicate with Nelly in a TikTok video. Though it’s a somewhat circuitous route, bear with us.

In order to build a link to send an email, Strong laid down a series of codes that may be entered into the system. He speculates that Kelly might have entered the line “WHERE YOU AT? HOLLA WHEN YOU GET THIS,” which is shown in the video, as a rough draft for a complex formula entry, which reads as follows: “=HYPERLINK(“mailto:babyboo@aol.com? Send email (subject=”Hey” body=”&A1″).

After you get beyond all of that, a link appears that, in principle, should have allowed Rowland to email Nelly.

Strong asserted that the vocalist in the video was likely ready to do this when it was cut short for time.

Let’s be sincere now. It’s too far. First off, it takes a lot of work to go through the math required only to generate an email link because it is lengthier than the actual message Rowland wanted to send. She probably had SMS as well since she had Excel and email on her device. Additionally, if she had wanted to write an email, she undoubtedly would have done so.

However, a number of TikTok users, including the official Microsoft 365 account, who commented: “This wasn’t obvious?” have backed the theory.

Rowland should accept our heartfelt apologies for all the memes if she had been using Excel with the goal of filling out a complex formula in order to email Nelly to inquire about his whereabouts.