The Spice Girls Are Updating Their Songs to Be More Woke Before Their Reunion

A lot has changed over the past year, in the wake of the #MeToo movement — which means all the more has changed in the past 22 years since the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice. To help lessen that gap, though, the group — now a foursome sans Beckham — will be revising some of their older material to bring it up to date ahead of their upcoming reunion.

Before next May and June, when they’re set to be taking the stage again, the Spice Girls will be reportedly making some of their songs more woke. Namely, “Spice Up Your Life” will receive a modern makeover, doing away with the racist line “Yellow man in Timbuktu/Colour for both me and you,” according to a new report. “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.” They will reportedly be changing some of the words in “Last Time Lover,” as well, though that change hasn’t been detailed.

This isn’t the first time that the Spice Girls have made more inclusive changes to their lyrics. Back in 1996 they did so with the song “2 Become 1.” In the album version, the lyrics state “Any deal that we endeavour/Boys and girls feel good together,” but by the time they recorded the single that line had been revised to “Once again if we endevour/Love will bring us back together.” Geri Halliwell, who sings that line, was reportedly the one behind the change, as she wanted non heteronormative people to be able to relate to the lyrics.

Mel B announced their reunion over the summer on the Today show, saying, “I’m the only one that keeps on saying we’re going to be performing, which, we are gonna be performing,… Finally, they’ve got it together.” While Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice won’t be joining them, Mel B aded “We are touring. Should I have really said that out loud? Yes, we are going to be doing performances together for sure.” The world is ready for it.