The Spice Girls burst onto the music scene with the release of their infectious debut ‘Wannabe’ 30 years ago on Friday, carving a place in pop history championing Girl Power, and leaving their mark on fashion and global culture.
The British group of five young women formed in 1994, and the irrepressibly catchy ‘Wannabe’ was released on June 26, 1996, initially in Asia. It shot swiftly up the charts to number one in Britain, the United States and dozens of other countries.
“They weren’t just a throwaway pop band,” Dominic Mohan, a former editor of The Sun tabloid who covered the British music scene at the time, told 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 said of ‘Wannabe’: “It’s one of those records, as soon as you hear it you realise that it’s going to go down in history.”
