Day 6 – A Song That Reminds You Of Somewhere
“Wannabe” – The Spice Girls
In 1996 my (future) wife and I traveled to Italy over Christmas break. This was before Kyle came to live with us, before we had kids, and … well, the reasons and setting are unimportant, really. What is important, however, is that we were just over halfway into a two week trip through Italy that involved a few days in a small fishing village inaccessible except by train or foot path and several days in Rome, including Christmas at The Vatican.
The weather turned cold our last night in Rome. Apparently, it was a massive cold spell for the entire Northern hemisphere. We had arrived in Florence, and still very cold – the fountains had frozen even.
On this particular morning in Florence, we were standing in line waiting for The Uffizi to open. This is a major museum in Florence with a massive collection of works of art. The long line wound its way through the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, and we though we were doing great getting there early, but we were much further back than expected. There we all were, a couple hundred of us, in line waiting for the museum to open.
In front of us was a gaggle of teenage girls. I don’t know what country they were from, I was only peripherally aware of them. Suddenly one of them turns around She was wearing sneakers with what appeared to be ballet ribbon for shoelaces, thin jeans, a light jacket and was about 80 pounds if you put a couple of large rocks in her pockets.
And she started singing.
I had no idea what song she was singing. I was completely taken aback by her, she was, what, 16(?), and I could tell she was singing a song in English, though it was not her native tongue. The lyrics were unfamiliar as well. It appeared to be a verse and chorus, something about being her lover, and something she really wants. Then, just as quickly, she turned back around and again chatted with her friends.
A few days later we were in Venice, and our hotel room had a television. We were in the room late at night, just flipping through channels before going to sleep, sampling what the local television was like – game shows with topless women. We wound up coming across MTV Europe, and decided to watch a couple of music videos, to see what the musical taste of Europe was at that moment. Lo and behold, one of those videos was a group of girls singing about what they want (what they really, really want). Yes, it was The Spice Girls debut video “Wannabe” and I was introduced to the song, not in January of 1997 through MTV or radio with the rest of North America, but in December of 1996 standing in line to enter a museum in Florence, Italy.
http://youtu.be/gJLIiF15wjQ (Wannabe music video – YouTube)