If you’re a girl group from the ’90s and you’ve just reunited there is no better way to tell the world you’re back than covering the most iconic girl group song of the ’90s. At least Girls5eva hope so. The fake Clinton-era band consisting of Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell dropped in to The Tonight Show on Wednesday night (May 5) to join Jimmy Fallon and The Roots for a run through the Spice Girls’ 1996 breakthrough smash “Wannabe.”
The ladies — stars of the Tina Fey executive produced Peacock streaming series about the one-hit-wonder group’s comeback that debuts on Thursday (May 6) — slipped into vibrant stage outfits for a run through the song with the house band, arrayed around them in colorful Brady Bunch-style squares. In true Spicy fashion, they took turns on lead vocals, bouncing back and forth in perfect harmony as all four showed off their pop star bona fides.
At one point, Goldsberry took center square as she did a roll call of her fellow members, rapping, “So, here’s the story from A to Z/ You wanna get with me, you better listen carefully/ We got Pell in the place who likes it in your face/ We got the great Sara B. then pass it on to Busy P./ She don’t come for free, she’s a real lady/ Like me, I’m R.E.G.”
The soundtrack for the eight-episode show is also due out on Thursday features nine songs from composer and executive producer Jeff Richmond (Broadway’s Means Girls, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and the writers of Girls5eva, including creator Meredith Scardino, will be released by Bareilles’ label, Epic Records. The album features a new song written by Bareilles titled “4 Stars” and her solo song “I’m Afraid (Dawn’s Songs of Fears).”
Watch the “Wannabe” performance below.