It’s 2005 – Paris Hilton’s residing in her justified spot at the epicentre of pop culture, My Super Sweet 16’s debuting on MTV, Youtube’s just launched, Juicy Couture tracksuits are in plentiful supply and Sugababes are atop the UK singles chart with “Push The Button”. Life is, in short, delectable, and all we have to worry about is keeping that Tamagotchi in our pocket ticking over. 

Well, forgive our nostalgic gaze, there were, as ever, societal and political sorrows to be found at the mid-point of the 00s, but at least, we knew the charts were in safe hands. Expert hands, in fact, of the aforementioned Sugababes – the coolest Y2K girl group there ever was whose three minutes of R&B-infused electro-pop dynamite about a man not picking up on romantic cues spent three weeks on the top spot in October.  Relinquishing the magic of collectively bathing in such a musical exploit might have seemed out of reach in the 2020s, but that’s until Wonderland found ourselves in Berlin last week, in a Späti to be exact (an iconic Berlin brand of late-night convenience store), alongside a compact crowd of now-grown-up gen-z “Push The Button” fans, at a pop-up gig headlined by the Babes themselves, plus Berlin dance duo ascendants DJ Heartstring, all courtesy of Deutsch Telekom and Electronic Beats. 

The event kicked off Deutsche Telekom’s Summer To Remember, a summer of free music experiences (in the region of 10,000 across Europe), inviting young people to get up close and personal with their favourite artists, creating musical memories that will last a lifetime, via small-crowd gigs, pop-up events and ticket access to some of Europe’s premier festivals. The party, in the city’s energetic Kreuzberg district, marked the first public play of DJ Heartstring’s incandescent re-work of “Push The Button”, and began with a tour-de-force set of the duo’s recently devoured pop-drenched trance. “We are super excited to host this event with Telekom Electronic Beats, within the infamous late-night shop or ‘Späti’,” the pair said, “this is often a place where the night begins and memories are made.” 

So coveted were the night’s musical offerings, and the chance to dance in a Späti, there were fears the party would be truncated, when police attended, as the crowd on the street outsized the one inside. But, as indoor revellers stocked up on free beers and snacks – literally, just from the shop’s shelves – and our friends externally embraced dancing under the evening sky instead, we braced ourselves for the entrance of girl group royalty. 

And it was regal, as the crowd split in two, to allow Mutya, Keisha and Siobhan to make their way to the makeshift stage opposite the till, for a glory run of their legacy classics (including “Freak Like Me”, “Overload”, plus a UK garage interlude). And then they hopped on the till, or in this case, stepped behind the decks, sat on top of the counter, where the two acts merged for a rapturous, live rendition of the revved-up reiteration of “Push The Button”. “We made so many memories together now and in the past, too many to mention,” said Sugababes. “We’re excited to be launching The Summer To Remember with Deutsche Telekom ahead of an incredible summer of musical experiences.”

A poster on the wall read “This Summer We Pushed The Button… Again”, and, in reality, every Y2K, clubbing, music-loving button we possess was pressed by our time gathered in the sanctity of youthful anthems of summers of yesteryear. Until next time, Berlin!