Wannabe Remake Reveals What Girls Really Really Want
6 July 2016 at 4:13 pm
A remake of the 1996 Spice Girls’ hit Wannabe has taken girl power a step further in a bid to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world.
Two decades after it was first released, the famous video has been remade as part of a campaign encouraging girls to share what they really, really want, to push a series of the UN Global Goals.
The aim of the goals is to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change, for everyone, in the next 15 years.
Project Everyone, founded by filmmaker Richard Curtis, aims to both make the goals famous and to push for their full implementation.
This latest video, launched as part of the Project Everyone campaign, features artists from India, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, USA and Canada, including several celebrities such as Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez and British R&B trio M.O.
It calls on girls to share a photo of themselves holding up a sign with what they want for the future, using the hashtag #WhatIReallyReallyWant, with the messages to be passed on to world leaders at the UN Summit in September.
The message at the end of the video, which includes murals spelling out some of the goals including quality education for all girls, equal pay for equal work and an end to violence against girls, is: “Girl power has come a long way, let’s take it further.”
Former Spice Girls Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice), Mel C (Sporty Spice) and Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) took to social media to show their support for the project.
Beckham said: “Twenty years on – Girl Power being used to empower a new generation. So proud of The Global Goals.”
Mel C said she was “flattered and honoured that our crazy song is being used so beautifully”.
#WhatIReallyReallyWant is no more girls dying of HIV @TheGlobalGoals X vb pic.twitter.com/mFza6cHyBx
— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) July 5, 2016
According to the Global Goals website, girls and women are disproportionately affected by these challenges and are key to building resilient communities to withstand them.
“That’s why we need to ensure World Leaders and the Secretary General of the United Nations listen to the voices of girls and women and put them first in policies and plans,” the website said.
“2016 is our chance to use our collective power and tell world leaders what we really really want for girls and women.”
As well as launching on YouTube, the video will be shown in cinemas internationally following a deal with SAWA, the global cinema advertising association.
It comes after the first ever global cinema ad, produced by Aardman and voiced by Liam Neeson and Michelle Rodriguez, was screened in 34 countries last year to coincide with the launch of the Global Goals at the United Nations on 25 September 2015 which saw 193 world leaders adopt these aims and commit to addressing 17 goals.
Speaking at the time SAWA general manager Cheryl Wannell said the Global Goals aim was to make these goals famous and what better place to do that than on the big screen.
“Cinema educates, inspires and influences people by changing hearts and minds. The cinema medium is proud to be a founding partner of this important initiative for the planet,” Wannell said.
