Wannabe (song)

Wannabe is one of the most recognisable and successful songs of the 90s. The Spice Girls debut climbed to the top of the charts in 37 nations, before becoming the best-selling single by a female group in the history of recorded sound, shifting over 4.5 million copies worldwide. In fact, with 7 weeks at #1, 26 weeks on the chart and sales of 1.27m in Britain alone, "Wannabe" became the 12th biggest seller of the decade and at the time of its release, the 31st best-selling single ever in the UK. Also, "Wannabe" is the only Spice Girls single to top all five major US charts and the UK Top 40, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the Airplay, Sales, Club play and Maxi-singles charts. The success of the song certainly helped the Spice Girls' career.

Released in the UK on the 8 July 1996, "Wannabe" debuted on the UK Top 40 at #3, before climbing two places to #1. With its catchy choruses and the song is also famous for placing "zig-a-zig-ah" into the lexicon. When the impact of Wannabe began to wear away in the UK and the track slowly slipped out of the Top 40, the song was still popular around around the globe. Wannabe was #1 in Australia for a 11 weeks, during which time "Say You'll Be There" and "2 Become 1" were #1 back in the UK. In the US, it was simultaneously #1 with the girls' 4th single at #1 in the UK.

When the video for "Wannabe" first appeared on UK cable sattelite network "The Box", it was selected so frequently that the promo was being aired up to six times per hour at its peak and still remains as the most requested track in the channel's nine-year history. The clip appears to be one continuous shot (although there were 2 barely noticeable edits) of the girls' creating mischief at Kings Cross.

Written by Spice Girls/Stannard/Rowe

Trivia

The song was parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic in "Polka Power!" – one of his accordian-accompanied polkas – on the album Running With Sccisors.