The Spice Girls burst onto the music scene with the discharge of their infectious debut “Wannabe” 30 years in the past on Friday, carving a spot in pop historical past championing Girl Power, and leaving their mark on vogue and world tradition.
The British group of 5 younger ladies fashioned in 1994, and the irrepressibly catchy “Wannabe” was launched on June 26, 1996, initially in Asia. It shot swiftly up the charts to primary in Britain, the United States and dozens of different nations.
“They weren’t just a throwaway pop band,” Dominic Mohan, a former editor of The Sun tabloid who coated the British music scene on the time, informed AFP. “They were very spirited and they had quite strong messages as well, about feminism and about girl power and about being who you are”.
And he mentioned of “Wannabe”: “It’s one of those records, as soon as you hear it you realize that it’s going to go down in history.”
He has curated an exhibition on the Barbican Centre in London entitled “1996: 30 Years on” operating till mid-September, which options the Spice Girls and a few of their iconic seems to be.
Band member Mel B loaned the leopard-skin catsuit she wore to belt out “Wannabe” on the 1997 Brit Awards, the place the tune received two prizes.
Unlike earlier woman teams in matching outfits, every of the 5 Spice Girls had their very own particular person model.
Mel B, brief for Melanie Brown, also called Scary Spice, wore animal prints, Posh Spice Victoria Adams, now Beckham, had a bob and darkish clothes and Baby Spice Emma Bunton most well-liked pastels and bunches.
Mel C, Melanie Chisholm or Sporty Spice, favored sports activities gear and Geri Halliwell, or Ginger Spice resulting from her pink hair, wore a brief, brief Union Jack costume and boots for the Brits efficiency.
“Wannabe” with its catchy chorus — “I’ll tell you want I want, what I really, really want” and its insistence that “friendship never ends” — turned an anthem for a technology of younger ladies. It has been performed nearly 1.5 billion instances on Spotify.
The anniversary has revived discuss of a doable reunion, though the bandmates haven’t all carried out collectively because the 2012 London Olympics.
“It’s our 30th anniversary, I do think we should be doing something,” Brown informed the Press Association this month. “We’re all talking about it”, however “nothing has been confirmed”.
The ladies are mentioned to have remained shut, with 4 of them becoming a member of celebrations for Emma Bunton’s fiftieth birthday earlier this 12 months.
In an indication of their lasting legacy, present stars together with Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Adele and Charli XCX have cited their music as an affect.
“There’s a tendency, I think, for people to look back and think Spice Girls were really bubblegum pop,” Joel Gray, a lecturer in media, artwork and communications at Sheffield Hallam University, informed AFP.
But he argued “they actually had much more of a punk feel”.
The ladies’s raucous model additionally made them homosexual icons, Gray mentioned, since “their loud and proud persona gave a platform to the LGBT audience”.
Both Mel C and Halliwell have been named “honorary gays” by Britain’s Attitude, a prime LGBTQ journal.
The group was, nonetheless, put collectively and managed by males: highly effective trade determine Simon Fuller oversaw the discharge of “Wannabe”, though the ladies subsequently sacked him.
Unlike some boy bands of the period comparable to Take That, the group have not often carried out collectively since splitting in 1998 and happening to construct profitable careers, comparable to Victoria Beckham’s vogue label.
All 5 members sang on the 2012 Olympics, and their most up-to-date efficiency was in 2019, with out Beckham.
Given the “Wannabe” anniversary, “I would have thought that they might re-form … for just maybe a one-off kind of gig or a few dates,” mentioned Mohan.
So far, the group have solely introduced a T-shirt and a vinyl subject of “Wannabe”.
“I don’t think we’re going to see a permanent full-time reunion, but I could absolutely see them doing something again as a group,” mentioned Gray. “What I’ve learned with the Spice Girls is never say never.”
© 2026 AFP