Context

This line was sung by Lorde in the song "Royals," written by Lorde and Joel Little, from the album Pure Heroine (2013).

In a world where pop stars love to flaunt the name brands they are paid to wear, a teenage singer from New Zealand had a different take on things. Her birth name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor, but she goes by the very Middle English moniker of Lorde. (The "e" is silent.)

In "Royals," Lorde delivers a slap in the face to the materialism that pervades pop music. The only diamonds she's ever seen are in old Pink Panther movies or Kanye music videos, and she takes public transportation, not limos. She knows that she'll never be pop music royalty and is content to hang out with her friends and laugh about references to expensive cars and liquor brands in songs.

Except…she kind of did get famous and is now part of Taylor Swift's main "squad." The Cadillacs she used to dream about are now her reality.

Where you've heard it

If you had a pulse in 2013, you heard this song. It popped up everywhere from TV guilty pleasures like Vampire Diaries to ads for Samsung smartphones to video games like Great Theft Auto 5.

Additional Notable References:

• In one of the weirdest covers ever, Bruce Springsteen did a cover of the song while on tour in Auckland, New Zealand and dubbed himself "King Bee."
• A New Zealand comedy troupe of law students released a parody of "Royals" called "Lawyers" as they lamented their overworked, underpaid existences.
• Lorde got the title for "Royals" not from Louis XIV or a random British monarch, but from the baseball player George Brett, who was a star for the Kansas City Royals in the 1970s and 1980s.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

The majority of people don't have royal blood, but most can enjoy "Royals" together.