This was the Spice Girls first single. It was a huge and immediate hit, as their message of “Girl Power” and quirky personalities went along with the catchy beat and intrigued audiences around the world.
The Spice Girls were formed as a female alternative to boy bands, which were big at the time in the UK. They spent years developing their act and cultivating their image; by the time this song was released, they had already made many media appearances and were ready for the big time.
When “Wannabe” was released in the UK on July 8, 1996, it blew past even the loftiest of expectations, reaching #1 on July 27, where it stayed for seven weeks. Global domination followed – in January 1997 the song was released in the US and in February it went to #1. It topped the charts in at least 10 other countries, including Australia, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Worldwide, this is the best-selling single by an all-female group.
The music video for “Wannabe” was the first for Swedish director Johan Camitz. Camitz was hired on Fuller’s recommendation because of his commercials for Volkswagen, Diesel, and Nike. His original concept for the video was a one-take shoot of the group arriving at an exotic building in Barcelona, taking over the place, and running riot—the same way they did when they were looking for a manager and a record company. A few days before the shoot on 19 April 1996,[15] Camitz was unable to get permission to use the building, and the shoot was relocated to the Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London.
In 2015, Billboard included the video for “Wannabe” in their list of the Top Ten Most Iconic Girl Group Music Videos of All Time, noting: “They were basically unknown to U.S. audiences when the video for debut single ‘Wannabe’ — a riotous, one-shot stroll through the Girls gleefully messing up some posh U.K. soiree — premiered, but by the end of the four-minute clip, we knew absolutely everything we needed to know about the Spice Girls. You get the individual personalities of all five members, the infectious togetherness of the group at large, and most importantly, the sense that they were coming to absolutely blast through American pop music and mess up everything we previously thought we knew.”
This song has been used in some memorable scenes from TV shows. On the 2007 One Tree Hill episode “All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone,” the girls on the show do a dance routine to the song; in the 2009 Simpsons episode “How The Test Was Won,” Ralph Wiggum sings it; in the 2013 episode of Glee, “Guilty Pleasures,” the student perform the song.
“Wannabe” – Single by Spice Girls from the album Spice
Released 26 June 1996
Songwriters Spice Girls, Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard
Producers Matt Rowe, Richard Stannard
Charing No.1 US; No.1 UK; No.1 Sweden; No.1 Scotland; No.1 Spain; No.1 Ireland; No.1 Belgium; No.1 Australia
Spice Girls
Melanie “Mel B” Brown / “Scary Spice”
Emma Bunton / “Baby Spice”
Melanie “Melanie C” Chisholm / “Sporty Spice”
Victoria Beckham / “Posh Spice”
Geri Halliwell / “Ginger Spice”
