STACK #205 Nov 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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THE WANNABE JUBILEE Celebrating the silver anniversary (25 years) of Spice Girls’ SPICE

ZIGAZIG- WHA? There are many, many, many theories about what exactly a “zigazig-ah” really is. Some critics theorised it was about female sexual desire. Musicologist Sheila Whiteley said it was a made-up phrase of the kind Lewis Carrol invented (see: Jabberwocky), which gained purchase in ‘97 when Mel C told a journalist: “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-ah.” But in 2017 a far stranger explanation was reported; it alleged that while recording, the Spicies were sharing a studio with a certain male English ‘80s popstar who took umbrage to their fresh and free-spirited behaviours. He apparently used to spend long hours on the toilet while smoking, so the Girls nicknamed him “sh-t and cigar.” This three-word

Words Zoë Radas

When the Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabe bounces onto the radio in 1996, the internet is still in its cradle, cooing adorably with basic messageboards and 4-frame cartoon GIFs. In this era of the world some newspapers and magazines are putting their articles online, sure – but pages often take close to a godforsaken minute to load, and there certainly aren’t any videos embedded. Not to mention, they’re not the kinds of articles your Spice-addled mind is interested in, plus your little sister’s screaming at you to get off the dial-up phone line because she wants to speak to her boyfriend (he’s not a real boyfriend, Sophie, you’re only 9). Social media certainly hasn’t been conceived of yet (Both MySpace and Zuckerberg’s Facebook antecedent FaceMash are still seven years away), so in order to stay current with Baby, Scary, Ginger, Sporty and Posh, you must buy every magazine that features the band, and remain glued to the radio in case a behind-the-scenes snippet of those beloved London accents happens to air. Fast forward to 2021: now the internet’s all grown up, and that means the annals of history are far more easily accessed. And that’s where we’ve gone to collect a few tidbits about the Spice Girls’ debut single Wannabe ,

Wannabe was written in

a “sudden creative frenzy”, according to Mel B, during the Spice Girls’ first ever songwriting session with Matt Rowe and Richard ‘Biff’ Stannard (Kylie Minogue, One Direction, Atomic Kitten).

phrase morphed into a new, throwaway, gobbledegook slogan: “zigazig-ah.”

Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham) is the

The original Wannabe single artwork

only bandmember who doesn’t get a solo line during the track.

It’s because she missed most of the writing session, instead communicating with the girls over her mobile phone. And she had major FOMO. “I just couldn’t bear not being there,” she later wrote in her autobiography, “because whatever they said about how it didn’t matter, it did

Plenty of critics abhorred the track (hiss!), but it won some impressive gongs including

The track’s bassline is

in celebration of the incredible Universal/EMI re-releases of the band’s debut album SPICE .

inspired by Summer Nights , the song from musical Grease – and now you will never un-hear it!

British Single of the Year at the 1997 BRIT Awards and even Best British-Written Single at the prestigious ‘97 Ivor Novello Awards. It topped the UK charts for seven weeks.

matter. Saying ‘Yes, I like that’, or ‘Not sure about that’, down the phone is not the same.”

Spice Girls’ debut album SPICE is out now via Universal/EMI. It’s

available on an array of seriously spesh vinyl; there’s a coloured vinyl for each Spice Girl plus a zoetrope version, on which animations will appear as the vinyl spins on your record player.

The Spice Girls meet Prince Charles at a charity gala (1997)

12 NOVEMBER 2021

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