Spice Girls combing through lyrics to avoid offending in #MeToo era

The Spice Girls, who are responsible for awakening an army of pre-teen ‘Girl Power’ feminists in the 1990s, are reportedly making changes to some of their lyrics that are now considered racist or offensive in the #MeToo era.

Before they set off on their much-anticipated reunion tour in May and June next year, the Spice Girls are giving at least one of their song lyrics an update, more than two decades after they were first penned.

‘Spice Up Your Life’ from their 1997 album Spiceworld contains a lyric that today seems racist. “Yellow man in Timbuktu/Colour for both me and you” will be changed to something less offensive to Asians.   

“The reality is it’s not acceptable to say that now,” a source told The Sun.

Some of the girls feel uncomfortable getting up on stage and performing that lyric, especially when they have such a diverse and multicultural fanbase. They pride themselves on standing for inclusivity, so they don’t want to run the risk of offending anybody. They don’t want anything to overshadow their reunion for the wrong reasons.

According to the Sun’s source, there was some disagreement over what to change the lyrics to. The anonymous insider also said that the Spice Girls are looking back over their catalog of hits to ensure there are no PR disasters lurking.

“In light of the #MeToo era, they are being extra-cautious,” they said. “They don’t want anything to overshadow their reunion for the wrong reasons.”

The Spice Girls were making changes to their lyrics long before the #MeToo, ‘PC gone mad’ culture. Back in 1996, band member Geri Halliwell pushed to change the lyrics of ‘2 Become 1’ from, “Any deal that we endeavor/Boys and girls feel good together,” to “Once again if we endeavor/Love will bring us back together,” in order to be more inclusive of LGBT people.

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