artist/band : Spice Girls
Album : Spice
Years : 1996
label : Virgin Records
Responding to the wave of interest, Virgin released the song as the Spice Girls' debut single in Japan in June 1996 and in the UK the following month, well ahead of the planned release of the Spice album. "Wannabe" topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks and has received a quadruple platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). It was released in the United States in January 1997, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. It was the group's only number-one single in that country. By the end of 1996, "Wannabe" had topped the charts in 22 nations, and by March 1997 this number had climbed to 37.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, "Wannabe" won for Best British-Written Single at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards and for British Single of the Year at the 1997 Brit Awards. "Wannabe" became the best-selling single by a girl group, with 1,385,211 copies sold in United Kingdom by 2017, 2,910,000 in the United States by 2014, and more than 7 million copies worldwide by the end of 1997. In a 2014 study it was found to be the most recognisable pop song of the last 60 years. An EP, Wannabe 25, was released in 2021 for the single's 25th anniversary