Sporty Spice took us back to the '90s in the best way last night. Lucky theatergoers at London's Thursday night performance of School of Rock the Musical were treated to a surprise performance of the Spice Girls' first hit in the United States, "Wannabe" — with an appearance from Spice Girls member Mel C. herself.
Mel C. (full name, Melanie Chisholm) joined the cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock at the New London Theatre in West End for a special encore performance of the hit song. The 43-year-old sounded absolutely incredible onstage. And the timing of the performance of her catchy track — introduced as "one of the rock great classics" — couldn't have been more perfect.
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Last month marked the 20-year anniversary of "Wannabe" hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100. While the girl power group was already popular in the U.K., nabbing the top spot with their debut on the stateside charts was an important milestone for the women. “Being No. 1 in America [was] something we were always really determined to do,” Mel C. told Billboard in 1998. “We were ecstatic about it.”
As for the song's signature "zig-a-zig-ah"? It's as made-up as it sounds. "You know when you’re in a gang and you’re having a laugh and you make up silly words?” she said. "We were having a giggle and we made up this silly word, zigazig-ha. We were in the studio and it all came together in this song. It only took about 30 minutes to write and then we demoed it up quickly fast. As soon as we recorded it, we knew we wanted it to be our debut single."
And here we are, 20 years later, still singing it. Relive last night's revival, and the O.G. music video below.
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