Spice Girl reveals the X-rated meaning behind 'zig-a-zih-ah' lyric in 'Wannabe'
After more than two decades of speculation, the mystery behind the Spice Girls' enigmatic phrase "I really really really wanna Zig-A-Zig-Ah" has finally been unveiled, courtesy of Emma Bunton.
During a lively 2017 interview on the UK's Heart FM, Katy Perry joined breakfast hosts Baby Spice and Jamie Theakston for a game of 'Guess The Next Lyric', where the discussion naturally gravitated towards the iconic hit "Wannabe".
Perry, clearly intrigued, eagerly questioned the meaning of "zig-a-zig-ah" after guessing it correctly. Bunton teasingly hinted at its risqué connotations, only to be playfully interrupted by Perry's witty banter about media-trained responses.Â
"It means... it's rude!... well it kind of means..." Bunton admitted.
Before Bunton could finish her sentence Perry jumped in asking: "Is it rude for us to talk over you or are you just saying?"
Baby Spice then said: "No, it can mean anything you want it to mean but we all kind of, when we..."
"You've had media training on this for a few years, 'It can mean whatever you want, it's your interpretation'", replied Perry.
To which Emma coyly stated: "It's rude."
Despite efforts to keep its meaning vague, some fans speculate that the lyric refers to experiencing an orgasm.
However, a previously unnamed individual who worked on the Spice Girls' debut smash hit single claimed the line was invented by Scary Spice Mel B about a guy with a disgusting toilet habit whom the five girls shared studios with when they recorded 'Wannabe' in Shoreditch, London.
The source told Daily Star Online: "Most of our studio neighbours were way cooler than us, we had Orbital and Chemical Brothers next door. But there was this one 80s pop dude who hated us for encroaching what he considered 'his turf' which was boy bands and girl bands.
This guy had this nasty habit of taking a dump in the shared toilet while smoking a cigar, so we took to referring to him as 'S**t and Cigars'.
During the recording this phrase was thrown around a lot and must have worked its way into Mel B's subconscious who pretty much wrote all the lyrics. She may have considered 'S*** and Cigar' for a minute - but eventually settled on 'zig-a-zig-ah' instead."
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