Happy birthday, “Wannabe!” You are now officially making me feel really, really old.
Here's the history of the song as per Wikipedia: “Wannabe” was written in 30 minutes–mainly because the group had
already written parts of the song beforehand–in what member Melanie Brown describes as a
“sudden creative frenzy.” During the session, Brown and Emma Bunton came up with the idea of making a
rap near the end of the song.”
And what about zigazigaaaaaah? Where did that come from?
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Once again, Wikipedia to the rescue: “At this point the group got very motivated
and incorporated the word “zigazig-ha” into the lyrics. Melanie Chisholm told Billboard
magazine: “You know when you're in a gang and you're having a laugh and
you make up silly words? Well we were having a giggle and we made up
this silly word, zigazig-ha. And we were in the studio and it all came
together in this song.”
More “Wannabe” factoids:
- Released as Spice Girls' debut single in July 1996
- “Wannabe” topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks
- In January 1997 it was released in the United States topping the Billboard Hot 100
for four weeks, becoming the group's only No. 1 single in the US. - By the end of 1997, “Wannabe” had topped the charts in 31 nations
- It has become the best-selling single by a female group, selling over six million copies worldwide.
