Wannabe

Did You Know?

• The group originally formed under the name "Touch" after answering an advertisement in The Stage placed by Heart Management.
• The first song the Spice Girls wrote with Stannard and Rowe was called "Feed Your Love", which was not used because it was considered too sexually explicit for the target audience.
• Victoria Adams missed most of the writing session for "Wannabe" and communicated with the rest of the group on a mobile phone.

Release and promotion

Virgin Records launched a major campaign for the debut song to promote the Spice Girls as a new high-profile act. The label was initially indecisive about which song to release as the first single, as the all-girl group format was untested. The group, led by Brown and Halliwell, insisted that "Wannabe" should be the debut single, believing it introduced their personalities and the Girl Power statement. Virgin executives preferred "Say You'll Be There" or "Love Thing", considering them cooler or more mainstream. In March, Fuller announced he agreed with Virgin that "Wannabe" should not be the first single, but Halliwell told him it was not negotiable, and the label relented. The music video's release in May 1996 on the British cable network The Box sparked press interest, despite initial resistance to the all-girl group idea. That month, the group's first music press interviews appeared in Music Week, Top of the Pops, and Smash Hits, and their first live TV slot aired on LWT's Surprise Surprise. A month later, the song received intensive radio airplay across the UK, and the group appeared on children's programmes such as Live & Kicking, gave interviews and photo shoots for teen magazines. A full-page advertisement in Smash Hits declared "Girl Power is comin' at you". The group performed on This Morning with Richard and Judy and at their first Radio One road show in Birmingham.

Critical reception

UK critics were split on "Wannabe." Paul Gorman of Music Week praised the group as "smart, witty, abrasive and downright fun," calling the track an "R&B-lite debut single" with a Neneh Cherry influence. In Smash Hits, the band Deuce gave a harsh review, labeling the song "limp," "awful," and "not strong enough for a debut single." Kate Thornton, editor of Top of the Pops, dismissed the all-girl group concept as "not going to happen," finding it too threatening. The Guardian's Caroline Sullivan heard "cute hip pop and a vaguely feminist lyric" and expressed surprise that, given the song's "slightness," so many record labels had made offers. NME described the track as "a combined force of Bananarama, Betty Boo and Shampoo rolled into one," while reviewer Dele Fadele found the bridge rap "annoying" but concluded, "It's not good. It's not clever. But it's fun." That magazine later named "Wannabe" the worst single of 1997 at its awards. Yet the song also won Best Single at the 1997 BRIT Awards, plus International Hit of the Year and Best Selling British-Written Single at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards. Melody Maker placed it fifth on its "Singles of the Year" list for December 1996. VH1 ranked it 33rd on its "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s," and NME later put it at 111 on its 2011 list of "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years."

Music video

The music video for "Wannabe" was the first for Swedish director Johan Camitz, hired on Fuller's recommendation due to his commercials for Volkswagen, Diesel, and Nike. Camitz's original concept was a one-take shoot of the group arriving at an exotic building in Barcelona and running riot, but permission to use the building was denied days before the shoot on 19 April 1996, so the shoot relocated to the Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London. The video shows the Spice Girls running, singing, dancing, and creating mischief at an eccentric bohemian party. Because it was intended to be filmed in one shot, the group rehearsed the routine several times through the night with a Steadicam operator; the final video was cut together from two takes. Halliwell described the video as chaotic and cold, capturing the madness of the Spice Girls. Virgin executives were horrified; the girls were freezing cold, which showed in various ways. The video was banned in parts of Asia due to Brown's erect nipples. Virgin considered a re-shoot or an alternate version for the US, but the Spice Girls refused. The video premiered in the US in January 1997 on MTV, getting immediate airplay. According to Melanie C's memoir, the video cost £130k to make.

Cover versions

The Spice Girls' "Wannabe" has been reimagined in many styles. In 1998, the Lounge-O-Leers put a kitschy lounge spin on it for their debut album. That same year, electronic producer μ-Ziq included a cover on his album Lunatic Harness. An instrumental version came from the London Double Bass Sound in 1999. A dance remix by Jan Stevens, Denise Nejame, and Sybersound appeared on the 1997 compilation Sybersound Dance Mixes, Vol. 2, while the Street Girls offered an electronic take on The World of Hits of the 80's in 2005. "Weird Al" Yankovic wove it into his polka medley "Polka Power!" on his 1999 album Running with Scissors. Punk versions include a thrash parody by Snuff on their 1998 EP, a punk rock cover by Heideroosjes on their 1999 album Schizo, and a pop punk rendition by Zebrahead on their 2004 EP. Brazilian funk carioca singers MC Mayara, MC Mercenária, MC Baby Liss, and DZ MC released "Mereço Muito Mais" in 2013, with a music video inspired by the original. The 2019 single "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez, and Charli XCX reworks the track. Live performances have come from the Veronicas, Foo Fighters, Regine Velasquez, and DNCE. Girls' Generation covered it on South Korean radio in 2009 and on television in 2010. Fifth Harmony dressed as the Spice Girls for Halloween in 2013 and performed it at a New York show. The Tuts recorded a cover and music video in April 2017. Characters in the films Chicken Little, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and Sleepover have also performed the song.