By Hannah Powling
Today marks a special anniversary, when Girl Power was born and the Spice Girls’ released their first major hit, starting their journey as one of the biggest girl bands to date.
Twenty years ago, ‘Wannabe’ was released into the world, and the world instantly fell in love with these five girls. I know I did, I can remember dancing and singing to this in my living room like it was yesterday.
As a fitting tribute to the band who spent so much time championing women, the 1996 hit has been spiced up to promote gender equality. Celebrities around the world including the original Spice Girls themselves are loving it, of course!
The clip features a wonderful recreation of the Spice Girl’s iconic dance routine and music video set on the Grand Staircase at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London. But this time, performers bring the famous song all around the world from India, to South Africa and the UK – encouraging people to share their own wishes for girls and women, using the hashtag #WhatIReallyReallyWant.
The video is produced by Project Everyone, an organisation working to spread awareness about the U.N.’s Global Sustainability Goals.
“This is about modern day girl power.” the video’s British director MJ Delaney said. “The Spice Girls were about a group of different women joining together and being stronger through that bond. These differences are what we want to celebrate in this film while showing there are some universal things that all girls, everywhere, really really want.”
Take a look at the video below:
Around the globe, people have started sharing pictures of themselves holding up signs asking for what they want for girls and women, so go ahead and take part and check out #WhatIReallyReallyWant.
Oooh go on, revisit the original while you’re here. Enjoy!
–